EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Demands Air Force Investigate Text Threatening Troops’ Careers For Attending Conservative Rally
Maj. Gen. Armagost visits Team Minot
(U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Caleb S. Kimmell)
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MICAELA BURROW
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, DEFENSE
November 27, 2023
5:09 PM ET
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Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana is pressuring the Air Force to conduct an investigation of text messages warning against attending a conservative rally, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A master sergeant at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota urged leaders to caution their troops about the potential for violence aimed at military members at a conservative rally or participating in the featured political advocacy group in leaked text messages on Nov. 17, Fox News first reported. Banks, who chairs the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee and heads the chamber’s Anti-Woke Caucus, said the texts from an unidentified leader defamed a conservative organization and interfered in an Airman’s right to free assembly and the political process, the letter stated.
“If Eighth Air Force and 5th Bomber Wing leadership do not carry out a full investigation of and take the appropriate disciplinary action against the servicemember who wrote the text message, it will, in essence, have permitted an airman to threaten servicemembers who hold conservative beliefs, to falsely smear a conservative organization as ‘alt-right’ and to interfere in the political process,” Banks wrote. (RELATED: Is The Army Caught Up In A Push To Rewrite History?)
The text message referred to a guest speaker who represents Turning Point Action, which the leader characterized as “alt-right.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/11/27/jim-banks-air-force-text-turning-point/
