Joint Chiefs Chairman Nominee Soft Pedals His Prior Racist Policies in Confirmation Hearing

We went on to explain that under Brown’s leadership, as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Air Force published of “one of the most shocking and destructive racist documents ever produced by the modern military.”

What could be so shocking and destructively racist, you ask?

Well, that document, available here, establishes “officer quotas set by race and gender”:

Similar quotas had been issued by political appointees in a politically correct military, but they had focused on slowly boosting minority officers rather than calling for a purge of white men.

The 2014 quotas had looked for an 80 percent white, 10 percent black and 8 percent Asian officer corps. While choosing officers by any racial category rather than merit is racist, wrong and illegal under civil rights legislation, this fell short of Brown’s proposed racist purge.

Brown’s quotas limit the number of white officers to 67% and cut white men down to 43%. [emphasis mine]

Brown’s racial “balancing” plan is blatantly unconstitutional.

We also explained that “Brown’s imposition of racial quotas in the Air Force has done nothing to improve recruiting, as we have seen, Military Recruitment Crisis Underway as Biden Admin Continues Emphasis on Wokeness, Vaccine Mandates, and the Air Force’s military readiness has plummeted under Brown as well.”

We approvingly quoted Front Page Magazine‘s summary:

Republicans failed to take a stand against Brown’s elevation to Air Force Chief of Staff. If they do not stand up against his elevation to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they will have no one to blame for the damage and lives lost that will follow from Chairman Brown’s tenure.

Well now General Brown has had a chance to testify at his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, which was held Tuesday July 11, and he, perhaps predictably, soft-pedaled his racist dogma as well as the military’s new-found embrace of all things transgender, which we reported on here: Pentagon Burdens Warfighting Commanders with New Transgender Policies for Military Personnel.

From the Daily Signal:

An 18-year-old woman in the South Dakota National Guard was required to shower with biological men during basic training, but was afraid to complain about the situation, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Tuesday at a Senate hearing…

Although much of the hearing focused on military readiness, as Brown would be taking the top military position in the United States, several senators asked about DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion policies—in the Defense Department.

“While the service has struggled to meet recruiting numbers, there has been an increased emphasis on immutable characteristics like race and sex, and the department has increasingly focused on new policy and plans in areas like equity, extremism, gender ideology, abortion, and sex-change operations,” Rounds said during Brown’s confirmation hearing. “There is even growing bureaucracy that focuses on these specific issues.”

Recounting her story, the South Dakota Republican said “she was sleeping in open bays and showering with biological males who had not had gender-reassignment surgery, but were documented as females because they had begun the drug therapy process.”

“This 18-year-old girl was uncomfortable with her situation, but had limited options on how to deal with it. If she raised her hand, she feared he would be targeted for retaliation,” Rounds said, noting that she also worried that making a complaint also might delay the start of her freshman year of college.

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Brown responded by saying he would “take a look” at policies.

“Senator, one of the things I’ve thought about throughout my career [is that] as you are being inclusive, you also don’t want to make other individuals uncomfortable,” Brown told Rounds. “So, as we look at our policy and approaches and get feedback like this, we have to take a look and see if we can improve on how we approach situations like this. As I’ve done as service chief, as I’ve done throughout my career, if confirmed, I will continue to do so.”

The Daily Signal piece also discusses a complaint, available here, filed one day before Brown’s hearing by the non-profit American Accountability Foundation with the Air Force Inspector General, “citing past comments suggesting that, as the top official in the Air Force, Brown hired and promoted based on racial considerations.”

Examples in the complaint include a 2021 People magazine interview that quotes Brown as saying that “we’ve got to closely manage our diverse populations.”

An article in The Washington Post, also from 2021, quotes Brown as saying, “The other thing that we have to do is ensure that we have diversity on the [military advisory] boards, but also diversity on the candidate list.”

The complaint to the Pentagon’s inspector general also quotes an interview with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2020, when Brown flatly said, “I hire for diversity.” He also said: “I purposely build my office, my front office, and my team with diverse” backgrounds.

Also discussed by the Daily Signal is an open letter sent by Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, and Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, USAF (Ret.), Chairman of STARRS (Stand Against Racism & Radicalism in the Services), and co-signed by over a dozen retired and former military leaders, available here:

“Controversies about divisive critical race theory (CRT) programs, which pit racial groups against each other, plus demographic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) quotas that prolong racial discrimination and weaken meritocracy in the military, are demoralizing the troops,” the letter says. “At the same time, the armed forces are wasting time and resources on expensive climate change projects and alienating traditional families by indulging extreme demands from LGBT activists trying to extend their leftist agendas to children.”

Although the letter from conservative leaders and retired brass doesn’t outright oppose Brown’s nomination to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it makes their support conditional.

“We hope that members of the Senate will do what they can to ensure that the best military leaders available will have all the support they need to defend America in an increasingly dangerous world,” the letter to senators says. “We also hope that Gen. Brown will commit to reducing or eliminating problematic personnel issues that affect readiness and morale, including those referenced above. If not, senators should vote against this nomination.”

Against that backdrop, and Brown’s own memo over racial quotas in the military, Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) weighed in:

“General, do we have too many white officers in the Air Force?” Schmitt asked.

Brown answered: “Senator, what I look at is the quality of all the officers we have. We look at the aspects of everyone who is qualified, meets the qualification.”

Schmitt then said: “In your Aug. 9 memo, you signed onto that there should be a reduction, essentially, of about 9% of white officers. That’s 5,400. This is the real impact of this desire of the [Biden] administration. I’m saddened to see this, in this memo, this obsession with race-based politics being interjected into our military.”

The Missouri Republican went on to ask how the memo determined that the pool of Air Force officers should be 67.5% white; 13% black; 10% Asian; 1.5% American Indian or Native Alaskan; 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and 15% Hispanic or Latino.

“Senator, that memo is based on application goals, not the actual officers,” Brown answered. “Those numbers are based on the demographics of the nation.”

After some back and forth, the nominee said: “Senator, what we looked at was the aspect of providing opportunity for anybody who wants to serve this country.”

Schmitt shot back: “If that is what was in this memo, I wouldn’t be asking these questions.”

He said the Biden [administration] had injected abortion, COVID-19, and DEI politics into the military.

“It is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world. Those men and women deserve better than this,” Schmitt said.

Brown also, in response to a comment by Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), stated that “We do not have quotas. That is against our policy for us to have quotas.”

Even still, Brown faces some opposition to his confirmation:

Joe Biden has a habit of nominating leftwing activists to key positions and his pick for the Chairman of the Jt. Chiefs is no different. Any American sick and tired of the woke agenda in our military must speak out against General Brown. https://t.co/0nY5uKp2IR

— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) July 11, 2023

Patriots – Call to Action! Call your Senators to oppose woke failure Air Force Gen'l C.Q. Brown as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Brown's woke Air Force readiness is near all-time lows. Call the Capitol at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators. https://t.co/VxgAacJmYA

— American Warrior (@BarryDotUS) July 13, 2023

General C.Q. Brown is too politically extreme to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. #CQBrown pic.twitter.com/tZglhnn6FK

— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) July 12, 2023

Reject Gen. C.Q. Brown’s nomination to be the next JCS Chairman. We need one who will, restore – not ravage – the U.S. military. https://t.co/41YrUqn8h1

He wants #woke not #warriors.

— Sheryl Kaufman (@SEconomistK) July 17, 2023

The AP, for its part, didn’t mention any of this, but glowingly reported on Brown’s performance and focused on Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and his hold on all current military senior officer appointments: Joint Chiefs nominee wins over lawmakers but faces uncertain fate because of senator’s hold:

A history-making fighter pilot, Brown has a deep knowledge of China and a broad understanding of space, cyber and other technologies. His confirmation would mean that, for the first time, both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian positions would be held by African Americans.

Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a potential conflict in Asia would be challenging, because of its large size. He said the military has been doing exercises and tabletop drills to practice getting needed equipment into the region quickly. “You cannot wait until the crisis occurs,” he said. “You have to pre-position capability and have that in place. You have to work with allies and partners to have access to locations.”

But discussions about national security were overshadowed by the tensions over Tuberville’s campaign.

Democrats blasted him and Republicans said they are hoping to persuade him to lift the holds — which could affect 650 service members by year’s end.

Tuberville never mentioned the topic when he questioned Brown during the hearing. Instead, he asked about cutting costs in the Joint Chiefs office, and told Brown he’d like an update, “because you’re gonna be the new leader.” He added: “Thank you for taking this on. It’s gonna be a hard job and any way we can help you, we’re here to help.”

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Tuberville met with Brown Monday and said in a statement that they discussed “their shared desire to keep politics out of the military, their effort to improve housing for sailors and airmen, and the need to improve military recruitment.”

I think we can reliably predict is that under Brown’s tenure as Chairman, which is apparently a done deal, the amount of politics in the military will only increase, as will the emphasis on DEI, CRT, and racial balancing. It’s too bad that few of the Republicans at the hearing had the stomach to oppose Brown’s confirmation, but good for those who brought up his racist past and refused to sweep it under the rug.