On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) demanded a meeting with the Commandant for the United States Marine Corps (USMC) over political attacks on Fox News Host Tucker Carlson.
Cruz wrote a letter Sunday to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to address comments made by active-duty military leaders towards Carlson over the past week:
Under Biden, the military is launching political attacks to intimidate Tucker Carlson & other civilians who criticize their policy decisions.
Officials in uniform are being used for the campaign.
I’ve demanded a meeting with the Commandant of the USMC to put a stop to it. pic.twitter.com/Ihl8xRJr0S
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 14, 2021
“The U.S. military’s subordination to civilian governance, including to the American people for whom and by whom the government is selected, is the core of our Republican and its institutions,” Cruz wrote in the letter outlining his core issues.
That structure is woven into our military at every level, including Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 1344.10, which broadly forbids military service members in from engaging in their official capacities in any activities that associate the DOD with any partisan campaign or election, candidate cause, or issues.
The military’s commitment to avoid political endorsement and controversy was “systematically undermined for the sake of leftwing ideology and political expediency” with last week’s attacks on Carlson, argued Cruz.
Cruz mentioned the members of the military who carried out the attacks on Carlson:
Multiple Military leaders have tweeted video of themselves while in uniform, as they attack Carlson, including the Command Senior Enlisted Leader of the U.S. Space Command, the Sgt. Major of the Army, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, and the commanding officer of the II Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) Informational Group (IG). Throughout this campaign, military leaders have suggested and insinuated that is it out of bounds for civilians to criticize the military unless they’ve served.
Cruz further stated, “these actions run the risk of creating a culture of contempt for our country’s civilian leadership within the enlisted rank and among junior officers which will be corrosive to the good order and discipline of the military.”
Cruz also brought attention to why the Defense Department cataloged a statement by Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby under the headline “Press Secretary Smites Fox Host That Dissed Diversity in U.S. Military” and declared that Carlson has issued “insults to the entire U.S. military.”
II MEF IG also used their Twitter account to post statements insulting Carlson, including calling him a “boomer.”
Soon after Cruz published his letter, the II MEF IG Twitter account deleted its tweets:
.@iimigofficial just deleted these tweets, after @tedcruz’s letter to @SecDef: pic.twitter.com/8kFJd0rvwi
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) March 14, 2021
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