Fox News Host Laura Ingraham Calls For Defunding U.S. Military

Fox News host Laura Ingraham is calling for defunding the U.S. military after General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, recently defended the study of critical race theory, an academic theory that examines race and racism in politics, culture and the law.

Ingraham described Milley’s comments as “ridiculous” during a Wednesday night segment on her show The Ingraham Angle.

“We are sending out tax dollars to this military in an attempt to weed out so-called ‘extremists,’ which just means conservative evangelicals as far as I can tell,” she said. “We’re paying for that? Why is Congress not saying: ‘We’re not going to give you a penny until all of this is eradicated from the military budget. Nothing. This is my offer to you. Nothing.’ That’s what I would say. I am totally outraged by him and his ridiculous response today.”

“Somehow I don’t think General Milley would ever speak in this dismissive tone that he took today to his Chinese counterparts,” she said. “I have a question for the general: why would anyone risk his or her life for a country that’s systemically racist? One that brutalizes minorities.”

“Why would any country respect us or follow our lead if that’s who we are? Those are some of the questions he should probably think about before he touts the value of teaching far-left, Marxist, racist ideology to our troops.”

Ingraham’s remarks came after Miley said he believes military personnel should “be widely read” including on topics like critical race theory.

“I want to understand white rage and I’m white, and I want to understand it,” he said. “So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out.”

“I’ve read Mao Tse-tung. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding – having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories out there.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a different take on the debate. “We do not teach critical race theory,” Austin said. “We don’t embrace critical race theory, and I think that’s a spurious conversation. We are focused on extremist behaviors and not ideology – not people’s thoughts, not people’s political orientation. Behaviors is what we’re focused on.”