Crockett Condemns Trump Firing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
WASHINGTON — Today, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) released the following statement in response to the firing of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C.Q. Brown.
“Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump and his surrogates like Pete Hegseth routinely attacked patriotic servicemembers who risk their lives to fight for, and defend, the United States. For months, they have publicly displayed their intentions of politicizing our military, and today’s actions only serve to prove to the American people this Administration’s priorities.”
“Instead of focusing on America’s national security, Secretary Hegseth and Trump have fixated on a false belief that diversity in our military is a weakness, not a strength. To be clear, personally criticizing military generals and targeting them for their efforts to expand and diversify our military only undermines our armed forces’ strength and readiness and exacerbates the current unprecedented recruitment and retention challenges we face as a country,” said Representative Crockett.
“Yet despite these challenges, Trump and his loyalists have continued to attack these brave men and women simply because they do not look like them, Indeed, Hegseth has suggested that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti was only promoted because she is a woman—a suggestion that blatantly disregards her 20 years of operational experience and the fact she has commanded at every level and deployed in every Fleet. Bigoted statements such as this divisively— and, without evidence—suggest that a servicemembers’ race, religion, sex, or gender identity erode military readiness. These suggestions could not be further from the truth. As the country, and perhaps world knows, General Brown has not only satisfied the same rigorous standards as every other Soldier but has proven himself more than qualified to continue serving in the role as Chairman.
“Removing General Brown has now jeopardized America’s national security and military readiness, erodes trust in our military as an institution, opens the floodgates of removing countless other military leaders, service members, and civil personnel with years of specialized training and expertise simply because of a false narrative, and will distract our national defense from focusing on critical national security concerns like Russia’s war on Ukraine and North Korea and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
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