Fox News host Tucker Carlson has attacked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, calling him "a pig" and "stupid" for defending teaching cadets and service personnel differing viewpoints, including aspects of critical race theory.
The theory—which "maps the nature and workings of 'institutional racism,'" according to Kendall Thomas, a law professor at Columbia University—was little known outside academic circles a few years ago, but is now at the centre of a culture war. Republicans in more than 20 states have proposed or passed legislation to ban the theory being taught in schools.
On Wednesday, Gen. Milley told the House Armed Services Committee that it was important for members of the U.S. military to be "open-minded" and "widely read."
"I want to understand white rage. And I'm white, and I want to understand it," the general said.
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"What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out," Gen. Milley said, referring to the Capitol riots of January 6.
"I've read Mao Tse Tung. I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin. That doesn't make me a communist," he added.
A video of his comments has more been viewed more than 10 million times on Twitter.
Carlson was not impressed, however. On his Thursday night show on Fox, he said: "The race hate—and that's what it is—has oozed from universities and it has infected the entire country, including at the highest levels.
"Mark Milley is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Carlson added. "He didn't get that job because he's brilliant or because he's brave. Or because people who know him respect him. He is not, and they definitely don't. Milley got the job because he is obsequious. He knows who to suck up to, and he's more than happy to do it. Feed him a script and he will read it."
Carlson went on: "Hard to believe that man wears a uniform. He's that unimpressive. Notice he never defined white rage? And we should know what it is. What is white rage?"
The Fox News host then claimed that white rage only affected people "with specific melanin levels" and was "a race-specific illness."
After playing more footage of Milley's testimony to the House committee, Carlson laughed and said: "He's not just a pig. He's stupid."
He then complained that Milley had read Marx and Mao, but would be "fired instantly" if he read books by white supremacists to educate himself.
Milley, America's highest-ranking military officer, has been in the U.S. Army since 1980 and fought in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He has also been deployed to Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti. He has degrees from Princeton, Columbia and the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. The 63-year-old became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October 2019.
At the end of his segment, Carlson took a parting shot at Milley: "By the way, have you read anything recently about winning wars? Apparently not."
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Defense and Fox News for comment.
Abraham_Ittermann on June 25th, 2021 at 12:24 UTC »
Kneeling during the national anthem is "disrespectful" to our troops. But literally calling them "pigs" is totally not. And this is because conservatives are good people with valid points and most definitely not a fascistic nationalist white supremacist party built around a cult of personality centered on a self-proclaimed strongman with open disdain for democracy and equality. And there's nowhere in history where we've seen this before, so there's no reason to be alarmed by what we're seeing when what we're seeing almost perfectly parallels those circumstances that didn't happen. So this is fine and it makes sense and there's no reason to be upset.
futboltwin on June 25th, 2021 at 11:51 UTC »
Love how so many Republicans claim to be champions for our military and veterans until they dare have a different opinion. I mean, why would anyone consider the opinion of a Green Beret with 39 years of experience and degrees from Princeton, Columbia and the Naval War College? The true hack is a man who has been fired several times, is a known leak and gossip to other news outlets and his own network basically stated you can’t believe a word he says because it is literally not facts and exaggeration. ETA: forgot a word.
TailorWinter on June 25th, 2021 at 11:44 UTC »
Now the republicans are anti education and anti military and only support police officers who are not protecting Washington DC… The police officers protecting Washington DC are obviously socialists. I just don’t understand how my friends are still Republicans are even interested in being Americans anymore