Political Quotes

“I will start out by saying that I really admire and love my colleague from Hawaii. We have had many conversations together on the strengthening of our military, especially when it comes to Schofield Barracks and the rest, and the same is true with the ranking member, my colleague, Adam Smith. I will say, however, for the record, I served in the United States military. As an Army combat veteran, I proudly served with people from Hawaii, people from Puerto Rico, and people from the Virgin Islands. I have seen the diversity which exists, and I think that the utilization of DEI and CRT is what has led to the creation of the recruitment deficit of 41,000 that we see today. Our military is not supposed to be prioritizing the ideas of critical race theory or diversity, equity, inclusion. It should be about increased lethality, readiness, and being properly equipped. This is how we defeat our enemies. It is not through the ideas of trying to create division, and it is not through the ideas of pronoun training, where I can guarantee you that we cannot pronoun all of our enemies, but the he/him, they/them, and she/her is not going to make us a stronger military. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support Mrs. Anna Paulina Luna's amendment, and I ask that we understand that we are here to strengthen our military, not to divide it.”