Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Donald Trump was risking “politicizing the military” with his cabinet picks.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARTHA RADDATZ: You have experience across the national security space, including defense and the CIA. So — so let’s start with the nomination of Pete Hegseth for the head of Department of Defense. This morning, his lawyer acknowledging he paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, but he says he is an innocent victim, although his lawyers say witnesses saw him visibly intoxicated at the time of this incident. What’s your reaction to that and to his nomination?
SLOTKIN: I mean, I think in general, I’m — I’m a senator-elect and Advice and Consent from the Senate is part of our constitutional process. So I’m going to try and meet with everybody, hear them out. But I also am a former CIA officer and Defense Department official. I know just how important these jobs are, not just for who gets what in Washington, but for the actual security of people in the United States. And you know, I was one of the first employees of the DNI’s office. I worked at the Pentagon. And so to me, you have to have the right character, you have to right — have the right qualifications, you have to go through an actual vetting process. And to me — that to me is the thing that is going to be critical in deciding who should be supported as these big, big cabinet level officials.
RADDATZ: He has also said, Hegseth, in his book and in public appearances that he does not think women should be in combat roles. They are currently in combat roles. How much power if he is confirmed would he have to change that? And what do you think those statements right now do to the morale of women in the Pentagon?
SLOTKIN: Well, I can tell you because I was at the Pentagon on Thursday and there is absolute, like hallway constant chatter and conversation and concern from senior women officers, but also I’ve heard from folks who I’ve recommended to service academies, young women who are just starting out their career saying am I going to actually be able to – to accomplish what I want to accomplish here. So I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that there’s real stress in the force right now, and – but there is a lot of power. The secretary of defense it’s designed to be a very important job. So, who we put in there is extremely, extremely critical again to our security and to who we are as a nation. So, I – there is – there’s deep concern but also a deep opportunity to sort of make sure we are putting only qualified people in these jobs.
RADDATZ: Hegseth has also said that any general that was involved in any of the DEI woke crap has got to go. Do you expect Donald Trump to fire top generals who he considers woke or those close to former Chairman Mark Milley?
SLOTKIN: Yeah, I don’t think you have to interpret anything. I think they’ve been very clear that they’re putting together some sort of panel that’s going to look at generals, people who have served their nation the — their entire lives over multiple administrations Democrat and Republican in combat, they are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court.
You can imagine the stress in the Pentagon about that, but also on the future of who we are as a military, right? Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason and I think we’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
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