Pete Hegseth still has a lot to learn, I think, and it’s unfortunate. When I flew combat missions, there wasn’t a different standard for men and women when flying an aircraft onto an aircraft carrier. You either could do it or you couldn’t,” McGrath told CNN.
“And so I feel like it’s the idea of standing up there and telling the generals and admirals—who, by the way, know that there were never separate combat standards for men and women—that combat jobs have always had one standard,” she continued.
“And part of when we opened combat jobs to women, those of us who were in those jobs wanted one standard to be set.
And it was.”
During Hegseth’s widely criticized speech, he talked about ending “woke” efforts in the military, firing “fat” soldiers and leaders, and putting “male standards” on all troops.
The whole event was a total waste of time, another case of a MAGA official focusing on pointless PR over real policy.
These generals were forced to fly in to hear a former Fox News host act like a “war fighter” when they should have been overseas, keeping Americans safe.
“So I think it’s kind of ridiculous, but honestly, that in comparison to the rest of what we heard in the last hour is really minor,” McGrath added.
“That speech was bonkers by the president, and everybody sitting in that room knows we don’t have a coherent foreign policy or defense policy.
And that, I think, is a bigger issue indeed.”
During her CNN appearance, she talked about Trump’s remarks—
“There was a lot of rambling.
There was a lot of lies. There was a lot of politicizing, as was just mentioned, and some of the craziness you heard from this speech,” McGrath said. “But the scariest part was when the president talked about using the military and using our cities as a training ground for the United States military.”
In a separate post on X, McGrath criticized Hegseth more.
“This morning’s grandstanding at Quantico only solidified what we already know: @PeteHegseth continues to criticize and lie about women in the military,” she wrote.
“He claimed the military needs to ‘return to the male standard’ in combat jobs (from 1990!)
, but here’s the truth: there has never been a separate male and female standard. When women entered combat roles, one standard was set, and we’ve been meeting it ever since. You can either do the job or you can’t. Period.”
Well said!
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