GOP congressman insults admiral who disagreed that drag queens are hurting military recruitment

Apparently annoyed that a U.S. Coast Guard vice admiral disagreed with his unlikely theory that drag shows are scaring people away from joining the military, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) questioned whether the vice admiral has even served in the military as long as he said he has.

The bizarre exchange occurred yesterday in a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing that was ostensibly about “How U.S. Arctic strategy impacts homeland security.” Crane brought up what he called “recruiting issues in the Coast Guard” when questioning U.S. Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations Vice Admiral Peter W. Gautier.

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Gaetz, who railed against trans people in the military and critical race theory, was left gaping and shaking his head.

“Why do you think you’re, across the military, having so many recruiting issues?” Crane asked.

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Gautier responded that COVID-19 hurt recruitment and that the Coast Guard has a specific problem with “exposure, people don’t necessarily know who we are, especially young people who want a challenging and rewarding career in the United States military.” He said that there are some signs that their new recruitment campaigns are working.

That didn’t satisfy Crane. He pressed Gautier, and the vice admiral then brought up the issue of young people not meeting the weight requirement to join the military. He said that he disagrees that that is a cause for the drop in recruitment and went back to how great the Coast Guard is but how young people don’t know enough about it.

Crane, however, didn’t want to talk about recruitment campaigns or obesity statistics. He wanted to talk about the sorts of issues that Fox News pundits talk about, like how the military is too “woke.”

“Do you think it might have anything to do with… what you regularly hear is… being described as some of the wokeness within the military like [critical race theory] training, [diversity, inclusion, and equality] training, drag shows on base, things like that, do you think that has anything to do with it?” Crane asked. “Kind of a loss of the focus of what the military’s supposed to be about.”

“You know, I just don’t see that in the United States Coast Guard,” Gautier responded. “People in the Coast Guard today are better than ever before.”

“You haven’t seen any of that?” Crane asked.

“No,” Gautier responded.

“You haven’t seen a change in the culture of the military?” Crane asked. “How long have you been in, Admiral?”

“37 years,” Gautier said.

“With all due respect, I find that hard to believe,” Crane said smugly.

Crane: “You haven't seen a change in the culture of the military? How long have you been in, admiral?”

Gautier: “37 years.”

Crane: “With all due respect, I find that hard to believe, sir.” https://t.co/tiePXqhxy2

— The Recount (@therecount) November 29, 2023

While conservatives have spent much of President Joe Biden’s term talking about the supposed wokeness in the military – which, to many Republicans, includes the fact that LGBTQ+ people can serve openly – it’s unlikely that that has affected recruitment.

The Department of Defense polled young people ages 16 to 21 last fall and found that the top reasons for not joining the military were the risk of injury and death, the risk of psychological trauma, and having to leave family and friends. “Wokeness” didn’t even make the top 10 reasons given. If anything, the tenth reason on the list – “Possibility of sexual harassment/assault” – points to a need for a greater focus on equality and fairness in the military.