This week, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is still reportedly under investigation in a sex-trafficking case, got into a bizarre altercation with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a House hearing.
During the heated exchange, the GOP congressman rather baselessly accused the U.S. military of being subpar because it spends too much time on “wokeism” and “critical race theory,” and of continuing “to embrace socialism,” while Austin fired back that Gaetz appeared to be “embarrassed for his country.”
“This is the most capable, most combat-critical force in the world,” Austin said.
ADVERTISEMENT
On Wednesday evening, Late Night host Seth Meyers came after Gaetz for the ridiculous back-and-forth.
“What is wrong with these people? In their fever-swamp brains, do they genuinely believe our soldiers no longer know how to fire a rifle because they’re buried in homework from pronoun class?” asked Meyers.
The comedian added, “I would just like to point out: I have no problem with tough questioning of our national security officials and I’m all for cutting the defense budget—it’s massively inflated and we could absolutely spend it better elsewhere—but that’s not even what the scam artists like Gaetz are asking for. They just want to whine about ‘wokeism’ and ‘critical race theory.’”
