In our continuing series of articles on the roiling confirmation battle set to unfold in the soon to be Republican-led Senate, we are addressing the phenomenon of GOP Senators of both the pro-and anti-Trump persuasion bafflingly voting to confirm some of the worst and most damaging of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
In last week’s article we addressed the demonstrably terrible confirmations carried by GOP Senators acting against the interests of their party and nation in Biden’s Department of Justice, many of whom took a leading role in the active lawfare against President-elect Trump and his supporters. In this entry, we turn to the group responsible for the pollution of our military with the values of identity politics focused on race, sexual orientation and gender ideology, in short: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or DEI, and the architects of the Biden Administration’s shameful, costly and haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan.
There is however, one notable change among one of these confirmations that must be addressed: the failure of GOP Senators to vote on crucial nominees, which in a Democrat presidency is a de facto vote in favor.
At the top of the confirmed Pentagon nominations that have objectively decreased the global perception of America’s military effectiveness are Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown, Jr., and former Undersecretary Of Defense For Policy Colin Kahl.
The documentation of severe defects in judgement that have punctuated the tenure of Secretary of Defense Austin is extensive and wide ranging. But arguably the most concise comes from the desk of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in January 2024 related to Austin’s unannounced cancer diagnosis and his subsequent incapacity.
Stefanik outlined the “shocking actions and lack of transparency” from Austin:
“It is absolutely unacceptable that the Pentagon waited multiple days to notify the President of the United States, the National Security Council, and the American people that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties.”
“There are currently thousands of 10th Mountain Division Soldiers deployed in the Middle East. And while those brave Servicemembers were under attack by Iranian-backed terrorists, the Secretary of Defense was in the ICU. The Deputy Secretary of Defense was on vacation, and Joe Biden and the White House were completely unaware. In the chain of command, the Secretary of Defense serves as the connection through which the President commands and controls our armed forces.”
While Austin’s health struggles are regrettable, the issue certainly never came down to punishing a man for his illness, but for the haphazard manner in which the official incapacity was handled which endangered American lives and national security which led to the White House setting “new guidelines for Cabinet notifications,” per the Associated Press.
Besides his health-related issues, Austin has come under extreme scrutiny for his DOD policies that place the military at odds with state laws pertaining to abortion following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson with Austin signing a memo in October 2022 that established “travel and transportation allowances for Service members and their dependents, as appropriate and consistent with applicable federal law and operational requirements, and as necessary amend any applicable travel regulations, to facilitate official travel to access noncovered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member's permanent duty station.” Effectively, he created taxpayer funded abortion-leave, with expenses paid, and even ordered that abortion-providing medical personnel be relocated, again at taxpayer expense, to states where their services are permitted.
Finally, alongside every other Biden-Cabinet member, Austin has been a vocal supporter of DEI race and gender identity politics and also took the leading role in the pervasive persecution of conservatives and Trump supporters in the military under the thinly-veiled guise of fighting “Far-Right Extremism Inside the Military,” a non-issue soundly debunked by a report commissioned by the Pentagon in 2021 and later revealed by The Wall Street Journal.
To the lasting shame of Senate Republicans, we must remind our readers that Austin was confirmed with near unanimity, 98-2, opposed by but two Republicans: Senators Mike Lee of Utah, and Josh Hawley of Missouri. And in a recurrent theme, five GOP Senators failed to vote on the matter Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelly Capito (R-WV), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), (R-NC) and Tim Moran (R-KS).
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown, Jr., was similarly confirmed by a widely bipartisan vote of 83-11 despite opposition by a cadre of Republican Senators, namely Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Lee (R-UT), Lummis (R-WY), Marshall (R-KS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Schmitt (R-MO), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and future Vice President-elect JD Vance (R-OH). However, he found support from unlikely sources such as Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Tillis (R-NC), future Senate Majority Leader-designee John Thune (R-SD) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) alongside the usual Democrat sympathizers such as Sens. Mitt Romney R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Brown proved to be a highly troubling appointment when the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) revealed in July 2023 that as an Air Force General he made several public statements in which he offered full-throated support for the military's disastrous DEI programs. AAF President Tom Jones told Fox News "The American people deserve to be defended by the most highly qualified soldiers, sailors and airmen in the world, selected by merit, not race. More importantly, our troops deserve to be led by officers who are the best at their jobs. They deserve to put their lives in the hands of officers chosen for their skill and courage, not the color of their skin." He added, "Gen. Brown's obsession with race-based hiring and promotions is extremely disturbing."
In a similar vein, illustrating the stranglehold of racial and gender identity politics over the Biden Administration Pentagon we find the former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl. In a 49-45 confirmation vote Kahl was brutally criticized and castigated for his participation in the Obama Administration’s catastrophic 2015 Nuclear deal with Iran and his posts to Twitter (now X) claiming that Republicans “debase themselves at the alter of Trump” and is “the party of ethnic cleansing,” per Politico. Not a single Republican voted for Kahl, which under ordinary circumstances could be considered praiseworthy.
However, the trouble in this case is that five Republicans who could have, at the very least, forced Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a tiebreaker managed to miss this vote, but given that a single Democrat also missed the vote, could have been decisive. Namely, Sens. Blunt (R-MO), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) failed to vote in this case, and as a result Colin Kahl, a hyper-partisan, anti-Trump radical was permitted to guide military policy for two years before he resigned to accept a position at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.
During the 2024 confirmation process to establish President Trump’s cabinet there will be precisely ZERO VOTES that any Republican Senator can or should miss. The process of confirmation is easily one of the most crucial and constitutionally significant roles the Senate can play, and with such responsibility, there can be no excuse for being listed as “Not Voting.”
The Capitol Switchboard is (202-224-3121), we urge CHQ readers and friends to call their Senators TODAY to demand they vote to promptly confirm each and every one of President Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Matthew Holloway is a contributor for Conservative HQ. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@theconservativefreelancer.com.
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