The Department of Defense reversed course as it restored the “mistakenly removed” webpage on famous baseball player Jackie Robinson’s military service. Founder & CEO of Independent Veterans of America Paul Reickhoff joins Katy Tur to discuss why diversity is important for military recruitment and a recent order by a judge which blocks a ban on transgender military members.
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#veteran #departmentofdefense #jackierobinson
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#veteran #departmentofdefense #jackierobinson
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Department of Defense has now restored webpages highlighting baseball legend Jackie
00:05Robinson's military service.
00:07In a statement, the Pentagon's press secretary said the page was mistakenly removed, but
00:12quote, they're pleased to pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the
00:17directive removing DEI content from all platforms.
00:20In the rare cases that content is removed either deliberately or by mistake, that is
00:24out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive.
00:28We instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly.
00:33That is a lot of words saying just a little.
00:36It wasn't just Jackie Robinson's page, though.
00:39Pages highlighting the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Japanese American
00:43for 442nd Combat Regiment have also been restored after a pretty explosive public outcry, along
00:51with a page about Army Major General Charles C. Rogers, the highest ranking black service
00:55member to receive the Medal of Honor.
00:58As well as images and references to Enola Gray, Enola Gay, excuse me, the aircraft that
01:05dropped the atomic bomb on Japan during World War Two, one of tens of thousands of items
01:11caught in a search for keywords the White House considers DEI, according to the AP.
01:18Joining us now, founder and CEO of Independent Veterans of America and host of the Independent
01:23Americans podcast, Paul Rykoff, I will note Colin Powell's page is still down.
01:29Yeah.
01:30Well, it's dangerous and it appears to be deliberate.
01:32And I think you have to put this in the context of the larger narrative where you've got Elon
01:37Musk doing Nazi salutes.
01:39You've got this this push where you fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who was
01:43an African-American leader, historic leader.
01:45The constant dialogue about how they don't care about diversity.
01:48It's like they're trying to recruit for the Army of the Confederacy rather than the military
01:52that we need for 2025.
01:54So I think the long term impacts of this are really bad for our military and for our democracy
01:59because people of color, young people are watching this and they don't want to join
02:02a military that erases Jackie Robinson.
02:04I think really important to Katie.
02:06This is a story that's crossing over.
02:08This is on sports media.
02:09This is in mainstream media.
02:10You've got Stephen A. Smith and other people now commenting about it.
02:13And it really ties up this administration, but also drives a wedge in our country in
02:18a way that has our enemies celebrating.
02:19And it's bad for everyone.
02:20I just don't understand the help.
02:23Help me understand why these pages would be taken down in the first place.
02:26Is it just some some A.I. program code that that went through and decided that if you
02:30are black, then you're automatically D.E.I. and you're bad and we have to erase you from
02:35from our websites and our history?
02:38Is that all it is?
02:39That's the question that Secretary of Defense Pete Hexhead has to answer.
02:42Now, he's only done one, I think, press availability since he's gotten in the job.
02:45So I don't think we're going to get a straight answer.
02:47But that's what they have to answer to.
02:49Was this an executive decision by a leader or is this a computer A.I. that just scrubbed
02:53everything?
02:54But either way, who's held accountable?
02:55At first, they actually defended it.
02:57They said they were removing it because it was a part of a D.I.A., a D.I. thing and because
03:01they didn't want any association with race.
03:02But Jackie Robinson's entire legend is built on breaking the color line.
03:06So it's not consistent.
03:08It's sloppy.
03:09It's damaging.
03:10And it's also what happens when you have the Doge flamethrower just rip across an entire
03:13race out of it.
03:14I mean, these are still incredible accomplishments by Americans who helped us win wars, put their
03:20lives on the line.
03:21Navajo code talkers.
03:22They helped us win World War Two.
03:25I mean, it's it's a huge was it World War One, World War Two, World War Two.
03:31Take the race out of it.
03:32I mean, like they cracked the code that helped us win World War Two.
03:35You would want to put that on a Web site regardless, because it is a moment in history that we
03:40should all be proud of.
03:41That is true.
03:42But you also can't take race out of it.
03:44Right.
03:45Because Jackie Robinson broke the car.
03:46He also was in a segregated unit when he was an army lieutenant and refused to sit in the
03:50back of the bus.
03:51So, you know, his courage was important in that he pushed for integration in what until
03:55recently was the most diverse military on the line.
03:58Why does a history of diversity and a history of people breaking racial barriers, overcoming
04:05challenges, overcoming obstacles?
04:09Why is that?
04:10Why is celebrating that a bad thing?
04:12Because of this leadership.
04:13It's not in normal world, but in this upside down world where they're pushing a cultural
04:17transformation across the entire federal government led by the Pentagon.
04:21I think that's a really important point here.
04:23Everything that they're doing at the Pentagon from book banning to the purge to removing
04:27lawyers is all a model for what they want to do in the rest of the government.
04:31They're just doing it.
04:32The Department of Defense first.
04:33Now they're moving to the Department of Veterans Affairs education.
04:35It's all going to look like the Pentagon if they continue on this path for the next couple
04:38of months.
04:39The Pentagon has been ordered to restore service members who are transgender to allow them
04:44back, even though Pete Hex said they are not fit for service within the military.
04:50Yeah, well, now it looks like it's going to go to the Supreme Court.
04:52I think it's really important that this is not a trans ban.
04:55It's a trans purge.
04:57It's unethical.
04:58I think it's immoral.
04:59I think it's un-American.
05:00But it's also really bad for our national security because if it's implemented, what
05:03it actually does is remove, for example, a trans fighter pilot out of combat operations
05:08in Syria right now, which disrupts that individual, disrupts the unit, undermines our national
05:13security.
05:14I get into it in my new podcast this week with Lindsey Church, who is a very powerful
05:18voice on this issue.
05:19But again, this is where they're starting.
05:20They're starting with trans people in the military, and it's a model for how they can
05:24come after other people across the federal government that aren't in line with their
05:27ideology.
05:28Well, explain that.
05:29Tease that out.
05:30I mean, trans people are easy to target.
05:33They're making them kind of a boogeyman, a boogeyperson for this entire cultural agenda
05:38that they want to push, where they're removing DEI.
05:41And trans people are kind of easy because of their popularity or lack of popularity
05:45with certain communities in this country.
05:47So if you come after trans people and you can remove them from equality, from being
05:51able to serve, then it becomes easier to come after women.
05:54It becomes easier to come after every other person in the federal government.
05:57So this is a warning for everyone about how it's not just about trans people.
06:01This is about all Americans, and everybody should be tracking on it.
06:03Paul Rykoff, good to have you.
06:04You too, Katie.