A telling response from outgoing “diversity is our strength” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin drew a distinction without a difference when compared to Pete Hegseth’s take on women in combat.
As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathered in Vientiane, Laos, Austin had time to break from security talks to sit down with NBC News. Ahead of the premiere of the interview on “NBC Nightly News” Wednesday, the Pentagon leader maintained the schtick that women “make us stronger” as he threaded the needle with his response.
NBC News correspondent Courtney Kube asked about concerns of women in combat roles before restating the question, “Do you have any concern that women impact readiness of these units?”
“They do impact readiness. They make us better. They make us stronger. And again, what I’ve seen from our women is quite incredible, and I’m not…this is not hyperbole. This is fact,” asserted Austin who went on to contend over the years that “our women get better and stronger.”
Throughout his tenure, Austin has overseen a number of initiatives pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the military that have left many service members concerned about how “The military is extremely woke.”
As one service member told Fox News Digital anonymously in 2022, “I 100% believe the military is woke. I see daily minorities, overweight people, and women not adhering to military standards. Nobody corrects them due to the fear of being fired and labeled a racist or a sexist.”
Meanwhile, to the more specific question that the secretary had danced around, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to replace him was far more direct when he spoke on the subject during an appearance on “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
Taking the unequivocal position that the military “should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth, a major with the Minnesota Army National Guard, got into some of the specifics and the dangers of shifting standards for a force that continued to miss recruitment quotas.
“If they were lowering the standard to become a Navy SEAL just to let women inside the Navy SEALs, that’s gonna change the capabilities and ethos of the Navy SEALs,” he told the former Navy SEAL host. “[Women] will do the combat jobs of men knowing that we’ve changed the standards in putting them there. Which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit. If you say you haven’t, you’re a liar because everybody knows between bone density, and lung capacity, and muscle strength, men and women are just different.”
Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth rips the U.S. military for changing standards for women so they can serve in combat positions.
This is the common sense take which is exactly why the left is losing their minds over it right now.
“If they were lowering the standard to… pic.twitter.com/lQ5Vm84eXW
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 13, 2024
“I’m okay with the idea that you maintain the standards where they are for everybody. If there’s some hard-charging female that meets that standard, great; cool. Join the infantry battalion. But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards have lowered,” said Hegseth.
“I love women servicemembers, who contribute amazingly,” he added, before stressing that combat is a different matter.
However, Austin danced around those points as he told NBC News, “I have spent 41 years in uniform, three long tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and everywhere I went on a battlefield, there were women in our formation.”
“I would tell you that, you know, our women are the finest troops in the world. Quite frankly, some of the finest in the world,” he went on and asserted, “We’re a diverse nation, and we’re going to remain a diverse nation. Our military is going to remain a diverse military.”
Elsewhere on his overseas trip, the secretary shared anecdotes about women serving in the military broadly with those who could see combat after declining to comment on Hegseth’s perspective.
“We need you. We have faith in you. We are appreciative of your service and you add value to the finest and most lethal fighting force on Earth,” Austin said of women in the military having told NBC News of the nominee, “The president-elect has the opportunity to nominate anyone that he chooses for any position, and certainly, you know, we respect that.”
.@SecDef Austin on women in combat: I think our women add significant value to the United States military. We should never change that…We need you. We have faith in you. We are appreciative of your service and you add value to the finest and most lethal fighting force on Earth. pic.twitter.com/FWkNte0uF3
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 20, 2024
According to a Pentagon report released in Nov. 2023, 17.5% of active duty U.S. military and 21.6% of the selected reserve in 2022 were women.
