Laura Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, recently adopted a surprising posture by criticizing Ohio Republican Representative Mike Turner.
Turner was criticized by Ingraham for his hypocritical inconsistency, as she pointed out that he frequently votes with Democrats despite his severe rhetoric on Fox News.
Ingraham emphasized Turner’s votes on two amendments to the United States Department of Defense budget that sought to defund diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She criticized his decision to support Democrats’ demonization.
The House Armed Services Committee defeated both proposals by a vote of 30 to 29. Only Don Bacon of Nebraska and Turner sided with the Democrats in their opposition to the initiatives.
“The government has become fat and way too happy with woke – and that includes the Pentagon. During a markup of the National Defense Authorization Act, Republicans – including my next guest – proposed changes that targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs,” Ingraham said, before airing a clip of Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz slamming DEI initiatives at a committee hearing.
“Now, one of the amendments Gaetz proposed was to get rid of the Pentagon’s chief diversity officer,” Ingraham said. “Well, it passed, but he wanted to go a step further and eliminate federal funding for all DEI training. That amendment, he says, failed after Republicans joined Democrats to defeat it. Gonna name names.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) was then asked for his opinion.
“Congressman, we reached out to those two Republicans,” Ingraham said. “And we’re gonna name them. Congressmen Bacon and Turner. Congressman Bacon’s office responded in part, ‘[One] amendment would have totally cut all diversity training for the military, which is unreasonable. All service members should know that racism and sexual harassment are not tolerated in our military.’ That’s a weak response.”
Gaetz noted: “Well, as I explained to Congressman Bacon in the committee, we always have standards in the military that don’t allow people to be racist or harmful to their fellow service members, and none of those standards would have changed.
“The question is whether or not we ought to have these chief diversity officers, and Laura, they are making as much as $183,000 per year. Compare that to a private in the army or an airman or a sergeant working for our military,” Gaetz noted further.