During last night’s CNN/YouTube Republican debate, retired Army Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr asked the candidates a question about the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the U.S. armed forces. Seems Kerr neglected to tell CNN that he is one of nearly 50 co-chairs of a group called Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary. Doh!
‘Today, don’t ask, don’t tell is destructive to our military policy.’
— retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr
According to The Politico, Kerr asked: “Why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians?”
Here’s how the candidates (predictably) responded:
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, got first crack at Kerr’s question. He said he thought having openly gay men and lesbian women in the military “would be bad for unit cohesion.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, answering next, basically agreed.
Cooper then singled out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who in 1994 said he looked forward to the day gays and lesbians could serve openly in the military.
Romney said times have changed. Though he said he laughed when he first heard talk of the don’t ask, don’t tell policy, and didn’t think it would work, he said: “You know what? It’s been there now for 15 years, and it seems to have worked.”
[moderator Anderson] Cooper then turned to Kerr and asked whether he felt he got an answer to his question.
Kerr responded: “With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates. American men and women in the military are professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians. … Today, don’t ask, don’t tell is destructive to our military policy.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a decorated Vietnam veteran, got the last word on the subject.
He said, “almost unanimously, they [high-ranking military officials] tell me that this present policy is working, that we have the best military in history, we have the bravest, most professional, best-prepared, and that this policy ought to be continued because it’s working.”
CNN and the Clinton campaigns scrambled to apologize and/or disavow, as the case may be, but apparently Kerr passed the network’s vetting process, despite being a member of the Clinton support group and having been a supporter of Sen. John Kerry in his run for the presidency.
