Fox News
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham lashed out at top US Gen. Mark Milley over his viral testimony.
- Milley defended the military against critiques that it has gone "woke" with diversity training.
- Ingraham said Pentagon efforts to weed out extremists "just means conservative Evangelicals."
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After Fox News opinion host Laura Ingraham made sure to note she respects Gen. Mark Milley's service – an infantry officer who served in the Green Berets during his four-decade career – she tore into the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The segment on her 10 p.m. show is the latest episode of prominent Fox personalities putting the military on blast, with the network's top-rated host, Tucker Carlson, mocking "woke generals" in March after defense officials called him out for spreading misinformation about transgender service members and suggesting pregnant women would fight wars.
Milley's Congressional testimony went viral on Wednesday when the general swatted away accusations from Republicans that the military has gone "woke" by embracing critical race theory, an academic practice focusing on how racism plays a role in laws and public policy.
The general explained how diversity training is important and that cadets at West Point are also university students who should be "open minded and be widely read," but that does not mean they've been radicalized.
Ingraham took umbrage at Milley's testimony.
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Ingraham accused Milley of being "a total partisan," and misleadingly described Pentagon efforts to weed out white supremacists and other extremists.
"We are sending our tax dollars to this military in an attempt to weed out so-called extremists, which just means conservative Evangelicals, as far as I can tell," Ingraham said.
"The fact is, Milley has made his choice," she said at another point. "And he's chosen to indulge the radical whims of Democrats. He'll do everything they tell him as long as they keep the military-industrial complex flush with cash."
Some of Milley's testimony was directed at critiques from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who went from being a fixture on Fox News to not appearing at all ever since he became enveloped in a child sex trafficking investigation that he maintains is a a smear campaign against him.
The attacks show the extent that even Milley, a Trump nominee, has been unable to steer the US military clear of the cultural wars. Milley oversees a work force of nearly 1.4 million active-duty troops and their instruction from boot camps to graduate schools that ensure they are a capable and cohesive fighting force that doesn't tolerate abuse or discrimination in the ranks.
She then suggested defunding the military over critical race theory, which Milley said isn't something he's very familiar with, and focused most of his testimony on broader instruction about the United States' history of racism within the armed forces.
"Why is Congress not saying we're not going to give you a penny until all of this is eradicated from the military budget," Ingraham said. "Nothing. This is my offer to you: nothing. That's what I would say. I am totally outraged by him and his ridiculous response today."
Ingraham also accused Milley of being a Marxist, a critique he specifically addressed on Wednesday.
"I've read Mao Zedong, I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin. That doesn't make me a communist," Milley said. "So what is wrong with some situational understanding of the country for which we are personally here to defend?"