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Marines Backpedal After Taking Aim at Fox News Host Tucker Carlson

Beth Baumann
Beth Baumann  |  March 14, 2021 7:15 PM

Top United States Military leaders have come under fire for using official Armed Forces' communication channels to address Fox News host Tucker Carlson's criticisms. Carlson dedicated a segment on his show last week to criticizing President Joe Biden's "identity politics" moves that focus on gender and not protecting Americans.

"China has quickly developed the world's largest naval force. In 2015, China had 254 battleships. Now they have more than 360 and many of them are more capable of anything in the American fleet," Carlson said in his segment last week. 

The Fox News host played a clip of President Joe Biden talking about "advances" made to the military, including updating regulations on how a woman's hair is styled and providing uniforms in maternity sizes.

"Pregnant women are going to fight our wars," Carlson said sarcastically. "It's a mockery of the U.S. Military." 

Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott Stalker took to his official Twitter account to fire back at Carlson, calling the Fox News host's segment "drama TV." According to Stalker, Carlson has a right to an opinion but it's based on "zero days of Military experience."

"He was talking specifically about pregnant women in the Armed Forces and how it makes us less lethal and less fit and less ready. Let me tell you where he's wrong," Stalker explained. "Those decisions were made by medical professionals, by commanders and by our civilian leadership that allows for women to have more time with their children to recuperate, to get fit and ready and to take that time that's necessary, that our medical professionals know that is needed, which actually makes us a more lethal and ready and fit force."

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Carlson fired back, saying the Military didn't actually address his concerns, but instead ran a public relations campaign against his show. 

"Unless you have served in the Military yourself, you haven't earned that right [to criticize the Armed Forces]. Really?" Carlson asked rhetorically. "Can only cops talk about police brutality? If you haven't been elected to office are you allowed to criticize Congress?"

Stalker responded, yet, again, defending his initial response to Carlson's segment. According to Stalker, he was making a "nonpolitical statement" about his "servicemembers and teammates in the United States Armed Forces."

"I don't make political comments and I certainly don't attack our media," the Military leader said. He expanded saying he respects the media and their ability to offer their opinions, something he sees as a necessity. 

"We go to war with the values of our nation. We value women. We value families and we value teammates in one another and so that's why I had to say what I had to say," Stalker said.

The II Marine Expeditionary Force's official Twitter account replied to the segment, slamming Carlson as a "boomer."

When someone asked the servicemembers to focus on China and not Carlson, II Marine Expeditionary Force replied by saying they would "take a knee" in support of "female warfighters."

A couple of veterans, including The Daily Caller's Virginia Kruta and former Vets for Trump Co-chair Jessie Jane Duff chimed in, saying they took issue with the Biden administration's Military priorities. They also noted the appalling nature of an official Military account being used to attack a civilian. 

As quite a few of us pointed out, the entire ordeal was inappropriate. 

Carlson seemingly ended the back and forth with a final segment saying, "If the woke generals treat us like they've treated the Taliban, we'll be fine."

The II Marine Expeditionary Force's official account has since deleted a few of these tweets. They issued a number of replies to tweets, backpedaling what was said.

"We are human and we messed up. We intended to speak up for female Marines and it was an effort to support them. They are a crucial part to our corps and we need them to know that. We will adjust fire and ensure the utmost professionalism in our tweets," one response said. 

"We are here to train, fight and win. That tweet was intended to defend our women in uniform. We understand it was aggressive and we will reflect and do better," another response said.