Lloyd Austin hits back at Matt Gaetz: 'I'm sorry you're embarrassed by your country'

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% :"Why should American taxpayers fund lectures at the National Defense University that promote socialism as a strategy to combat China?" he asked.
53% : Specifically, Mr Gaetz enquired about a lecture delivered at the US National Defence University by French economist and author Thomas Picketty entitled "Responding to China: The Case For Global Justice and Democratic Socialism".
51% : He replied that he "certainly" did not agree with "embracing socialism," at which point Mr Gaetz asked why a Defence Department academic institution would "invite people we don't agree with to evangelise views and values that we don't share" rather than "learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate".
50% : When Mr Austin, who oversees the entire US Department of Defence, told the Florida Republican that the NDU is an "academic institution" and said he did not know of the lecture, Mr Gaetz called his lack of knowledge about specific coursework at the school "surprising" and asked if he agreed that "embracing socialism" would not be "an effective strategy to combat China".
50% :"While everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training," he said, leading the defence secretary to interject that the US military remains "the most capable" and "the most combat critical" military force in the world and "will be so going forward".

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