MARTHA RADDATZ: (SECDEF Nominee Pete Hegseth) has also said that any general that was involved in any of the “DEI woke crap” has got to go. Do you expect Donald Trump to fire top generals who he considers woke, or those close to former Chairman Mark Milley?
ELISSA SLOTKIN: I mean, I don't think you have to interpret…
RADDATZ: Fire or arrest?
SLOTKIN: I don't think you have to interpret anything. I think they’ve been very clear that they're putting together some sort of panel that's going to look at generals, people who have served their nation their entire lives over multiple administrations, Democrat and Republican, in combat. They are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court. You can imagine the stress in the Pentagon about that, but also on the future of who we are as a military, right? Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason, and I think we're really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can't put the genie back in the bottle.
RADDATZ: But- but there have been issues with recruiting of late, and Hegseth talks about that.
SLOTKIN: Sure. I mean, there's issues with recruiting. I think you talk to any business leader, there's issues with recruiting as well. There's just a high demand signal, but I don't think that showing that you can be summarily fired in the system is a way to increase recruiting and I will just take note that--
RADDATZ: He said it would attract normal males if we-
SLOTKIN: Well- his idea of normal may be different. I just- we want a diverse force. Right now, the military is one of the most diverse institutions in the world. So the officer corps should reflect that diversity. That's not just me saying it. That's the Supreme Court of the United States. When they went after diversity issues in our campuses, they excluded our service academies. West Point. The Naval Academy. So that- they understood that a diverse workforce, a diverse officer corps is a national security issue in the United States.
