Women veterans bust 'dead wrong' Hegseth over combat comments: 'Tell that to my face'
Women veterans are fact-checking Donald Trump’s secretary of defense pick Pete Hegseth over comments the Fox News presenter made about women serving in combat roles in the U.S. military.
“I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the Shawn Ryan Show last week. “It hasn’t made us more effective. It hasn’t made us more lethal. It has made fighting more complicated.”
As the 19th’s Mariel Padilla reports, women who have served in combat roles aren’t taking Hegseth’s words lying down.
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Allison Jaslow told the outlet she was deployed to Iraq in 2004 as a platoon leader.
“Within two months, her entire platoon’s mission shifted to a more combat-focused directive and many of the ‘women could run circles around some of the men’ — both in physical fitness and courage, Jaslow said,” the 19th reports.
“During my time in the military, I’ve had some male colleagues really freaking disappoint me,” Jaslow said. “I’ve seen women who’ve displayed more courage, better physical fitness and better character over some of the men that I’ve served with.”
“I reject the notion [that men are categorically better] altogether,” Jaslow continued, later adding, “It’s just one of those things where I’m like, ‘Tell me to my face.’”
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Navy veteran Lory Manning likewise called Hegseth’s comments “ill-informed.”
“He keeps saying they’ve lowered standards for women, and that is just not true,” Manning said. “Number one: it’s against the law to lower standards for women.”
“I think he is dead wrong when he says that women are the problem,” Manning said. “Leadership is and has historically been about how to blend the diversity in the armed forces.”
Jaslow told the outlet “it’s tough to swallow” Hegseth’s comments, and warned against “standing in the way of any able-bodied American who wants to serve or telling them that there are restrictions on the way that they have to serve their country.”
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"Just set the standards, and if they can rise to the challenge, they should be able to serve,” Jaslow said.
Read the 19th’s full report here.
