Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Wednesday described President Trump’s Quantico, Va., remarks to top generals as less than admirable.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. That presentation at Quantico from the president and secretary of Defense was one of the most bizarre, unsettling events I’ve ever encountered,” McCaffrey said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“The president sounded incoherent, exhausted, rabidly partisan, at times stupid, meandering, couldn’t hold a thought together,” he added.
During his remarks on Tuesday, the president announced plans to use “dangerous” cities as “training grounds” for military efforts, alleging the United States was undergoing a “war from within.”
“We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms,” Trump told servicemembers, according to The Associated Press.
He and Defense Secretary Pete Hegsteh both told the crowd they’d push to end “woke” policies and end the era of political correctness for the military.
Hegseth told the crowd, “the era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” the AP reported. Trump then echoed similar rhetoric, saying the purpose of the American military “is not to protect anyone’s feelings.”
“It’s to protect our republic,” Trump said. ″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom.”
However, Democratic lawmakers and others slammed Trump and Hegseth’s speeches.
Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the meeting was “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership.”
“Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside,” Reed said in a Tuesday statement. “That demand is profoundly dangerous. It signals that partisan loyalty matters more than capability, judgment, or service to the Constitution, undermining the principle of a professional, nonpartisan military.
“His words were divisive and corrosive to the force itself. America’s military strength depends on men and women of every race, gender, and creed. By dismissing and marginalizing servicemembers who do not fit his narrow vision, Hegseth insulted those who serve honorably and eroded the cohesion that makes our military strong,” he added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), on the other hand, lauded the president for his remarks.
“It‘s a win-win scenario because National Guardsmen are proud of that duty that they performed, and they brought crime down dramatically in D.C. And all of us are safe. Our staffs are safe. They’re not walking in fear right now. I think we should do that in every major city run by Democrats who aren’t serious,” Johnson said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
