Whiskey tango foxtrot? Biden turned the military on his political opponents.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin used the military to attack the free speech rights of Americans, chilling future dissent of his authoritarian administration.
- The Targeting of GOP Congressional Candidates
In the lead-up to the 2022 elections, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) leaked extremely personal information about several Republican candidates who were veterans. Among the information distributed without the veterans’ consent was that USAF special agent Jennifer Ruth-Green was the victim of sexual assault.
The USAF — under the command of Secretary Frank Kendall, whose term has been marked by extreme political activism — chose only to inform some of the affected veterans, including establishment figures like Congressmen Zach Nunn and Don Bacon. Meanwhile, it ignored the leaks related to more populist figures like Anna Paulina Luna. When the leaks included reportedly false information regarding J.R. Majewski, a vaccine mandate critic and GOP congressional nominee, Kendall’s USAF refused to confirm the information was false until after the election, which Majewski lost narrowly.
No Biden-critical candidates had their information leaked, and Kendall has offered no explanation for why he chose only to inform some of the victims while ignoring verifiable falsehoods in the leaks of others. The hyper-partisan nature of the leaks and the selective response to them suggests the likely goal was to intimidate and harass USAF veterans who engaged in activism counter to the Biden administration.
- The Suppression of Turning Point Action
In 2023, Major General Andrew Gebara abruptly fired the six top officers at Minot Air Force Base and installed new commanders. Just months later, the new, Gebara-installed leadership of Minot Air Force Base sent its servicemen a text instructing them to avoid a “Dakota Patriot Rally,” because it featured a guest speaker from the anti-Biden 501(c)4 organization Turning Point Action.
The text falsely claimed that Turning Point was “alt-right” and that its members may have been involved in a Minot shooting. The text then told officers to “remind [their subordinates] that participation with groups such as Turning Point Action could jeopardize their continued service in the US military.”
While the military can constitutionally prohibit its servicemen from certain expressive activities, the USAF’s own regulations protect servicemen’s right to attend political rallies and expressly prohibit officers from pressuring their subordinates to not engage in political activity.
Given that the text instructed officers to threaten the careers of servicemen attending the rally, the false claims made about Turning Point and the USAF’s history of leftist political activism, it appeared that Minot Air Force Base leadership did not act in an attempt to enforce troop discipline but rather to use defense department resources to suppress the turnout at Turning Point’s constitutionally-protected rally.
- Fort Liberty’s Targeting of Pro-Life Americans
Turning Point Action was not the only organization that the Biden military attempted to intimidate others from joining. Much like how Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compared conservatives and Christians to violent Nazi groups via its Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” Biden’s Defense Department likened members of mainstream political organizations to terrorists.
In formal presentations to servicemen, Army Fort Liberty leadership at what was then called Army Fort Liberty (previously, and presently, Fort Bragg) labeled several pro-life groups, including the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), as “terrorist organizations” and recommended the surveillance of Americans with pro-life license plates. Fort Liberty also classified the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as a “terrorist organization,” even though — like NRLC — the group eschews violence.
When questioned by Congress on the censorship of pro-life Americans, Lieutenant General Patrick Matlock confirmed he knew who prepared and approved the training material, but refused to disclose the commanders’ names. Matlock then proclaimed that those leaders who likened NRLC and PETA to terrorists were still training servicemen and were not going to be reassigned or removed.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand they investigate the Army and Air Force’s censorship. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold government and Big Tech accountable.
