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A US Marine unit has apologised to Tucker Carlson after it called him a “boomer” in response to the Fox News host’s comments about women in the military.
Mr Carlson caused controversy last Friday when he mocked President Joe Biden and the US Defence Department over their efforts to accommodate women into military life, including announcing a broader range of hairstyles permitted and new maternity flight suits.
Speaking about the reasoning behind the new accommodations last week, Mr Biden said that they were being implemented to “change the culture and habits that cause women to leave the military”.
Responding to the announcements on his show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Friday, the host said: “So we’ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It’s a mockery of the US military.”
Mr Carlson added: “While China’s military becomes more masculine as it has assembled the world’s largest navy, our military needs to become as Joe Biden says more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore.”
Social media users immediately criticised Mr Carlson for his comments, as the official Twitter account of the II Marine Expeditionary Force posted a defence of female service members.
“Come back when you’ve served and been pregnant,” the account replied to a user defending Mr Carlson, before tweeting at the host: “Get right before you get left, boomer.”
The account also defended US Master Gunnery Sergeant Scott Stalker, who had also criticised the host for his remarks. The tweets have since been deleted.
The unit was not alone in criticising Mr Carlson for his remarks, as Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had expressed “revulsion” at the comments.
“What we absolutely won’t do is take personnel advice from a talk show host, or the Chinese military, and maybe those folks feel like they have something to prove, that’s on them,” Mr Kirby added over the weekend.
However, on Saturday the unit published an apology for its tweets, writing: “We are human and we messed up.
“We intended to speak up for female Marines and it was an effort to support them. They are a crucial part to our corps and we need them to know that. We will adjust fire and ensure the utmost professionalism in our tweets.”
In a follow-up tweet, the unit added: “We’ve strayed away from our brand and realise that. Our standard practices will be in effect and you can count on us to correct our mistake going forward.”
Despite the unit’s apology, Texas senator Ted Cruz requested a meeting on Sunday with the commandant of the Marine Corps to discuss what he described as a “campaign” against Mr Carlson.
“This spectacle risks politicising the military after several centuries of efforts to keep military officials out of domestic affairs, undermining civil-military relations by having the military take a side in a contentious cultural dispute,” Mr Cruz wrote.
He added: “This kind of behaviour, while perhaps typical in a military-controlled Third World country, is completely unacceptable in the United States of America.”
The Independent has contacted the Marine Corps for comment.
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