Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defends military against Matt Gaetz's accusations of "woke-ism"

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin skirmished with Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz over military leadership at a congressional hearing on Tuesday, when Gaetz accused the U.S. of falling behind in military weaponry and making other major missteps because U.S. leaders are too concerned with being "woke."

"While everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic," Gaetz said, after citing advances by China and North Korea, "we've got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training."

Austin, who was testifying at a hearing on the defense budget, cut in: "This is the most capable, most combat credible force in the world — it has been and it will be so going forward."

Gaetz retorted, "Not if it's going down this path, not if we embrace socialism." 

When Austin said, "The fact that you're embarrassed by your country —," Gaetz cut him off to say, "Oh no, no — I'm embarrassed by your leadership," and he berated Austin, saying, "That is so disgraceful, that you would sit here and equate your failures with the failures of the uniformed service members."

"You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in 36 days," Gaetz continued. "You said that the Taliban will be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls, and maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University worked a little more on strategy and a little less on woke-ism."

Clearly angry, Austin said, "Did it not occur to you that Russia has not overrun Ukraine because of what we have done, and our allies have done? Have you ever even thought about that?"

Austin and Gaetz grew more animated toward one another during Gaetz's allotted five minutes of questioning. 

In the exchange, Gaetz  also criticized the U.S. military's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

Later in the hearing, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado gave Austin an opportunity to speak about his pride in the U.S. military and address accusations of "wokeism." 

"[U.S. service members] are smart. They are focused and they spend 99% of their time focused on defending this country and developing additional capabilities that they will need to be successful on the battlefield," Austin said. "So any notion that they're woke or that our military is woke, you know, I take issue with that because it's just not true. It's a false narrative and they deserve better than that."

Republican lawmakers have persistently criticized the Pentagon over the past year for initiatives that focused on diversity and inclusion as well as efforts to look into extremism in the ranks. 

In a press briefing last summer, Austin said, "The critical race theory is not something that this department teaches, professes, embraces," and that just because some academic institutions require readings and the study of it doesn't mean the department embraces the theory. 

In that same briefing in July, Austin promised the Defense Department "will be diverse, it will be inclusive and, you know, we're going to look like the country that we support and defend." 

At the end of the hearing on Tuesday, House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, referenced Gaetz's questioning, saying that "with one notable exception, this was a very very good discussion of the issues."

Austin is scheduled to testify again on the defense budget on Thursday before the Senate.