Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley blasted U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz for mocking and  opposing critical race theory during what was supposed to be a budget hearing. He left the Florida Republican Congressman speechless and only able to shake his head.

Milley, a General in the U.S. Army who has been in uniform since 1980 decimated Rep. Gaetz, his supporters, and conservatives in general for mocking the idea that systemic racism exists, while adding that he would like to better understand both critical race theory and “white rage.”

“First of all, on the issue of critical race theory, etc,.” Milley began. “A lot of us have to get much smarter on whatever the theory is, but I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform, to be open minded and be widely read, and the United States Military Academy is a university, and it is important that we train, and we understand, and I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it.”

“So, what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building, and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out,” Milley, who has degrees from Princeton, Columbia, and the Naval War College, declared. “I want to maintain an open mind here, and I do want to analyze it, it’s important that we understand that because our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Guardians, they come from the American people. So it is important that the leaders, now and in the future, do understand it.”

“I’ve read Mao Tse Tung, I’ve read, I’ve read Karl Marx, I’ve read Lenin: that doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?”

“I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers of being quote ‘woke,’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there. That was started at Harvard Law School, years ago, and it proposed that there were laws in the United States, antebellum laws prior to the Civil War that led to a power differential with African Americans that were three-quarters of a human being, when this country was formed, and then we had a civil war and Emancipation Proclamation to change it, and we brought it up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – took another 100 years to change that. So look it I do want to know, and I respect your service and you and I both Green Berets, but I want to know. And it matters to our military in the discipline and cohesion of this military, and I thank you for the opportunity to make a comment on that.”

Watch:

Strong reaction from Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley on the issue of critical race theory before House Armed Services.

“I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our noncommisioned officers of being quote ‘woke'” pic.twitter.com/otWBw3YdPK

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) June 23, 2021

Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson is speaking out against the “onslaught” of police officers killing unarmed Black men, including Sunday’s fatal shooting of 20-year old Daunte Wright by officer Kim Potter and last year’s killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin.

“She shot that poor guy to death,” said Robertson, who is considered a far right wing conservative Christian who toes the partisan line, in a surprising segment Thursday on his “700 Club” show. He was speaking of former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who allegedly thought she had pulled out her taser, but instead was holding her handgun when she pulled the trigger shooting a single bullet into Daunte Wright’s chest. He died minutes later.

“You can feel the difference. There’s just no comparison,” Robertson said as he weighed both a handgun and a taser in his hands. “If you can’t tell the difference in the field it’s crazy.”

“She deserves – ” Robertson said, apparently about to criticize Potter, before stopping himself.

“You know, I am pro-police folks, I think we need the police, we need their service, and they do a good job,” Robertson declared. “But if they don’t stop this onslaught, they cannot do this.”

“You know, the police in Virginia picked up a, a lieutenant in the Army, and began to give him trouble and our state police are highly trained, but why they didn’t stop this,” he said, referring to police who conducted a reportedly illegal traffic stop and then pepper-sprayed Second Lt. Caron Nazario, an Army medic.

“And this thing is going on in Minnesota,” Robertson continued, referring to former police officer Derek Chauvin, currently on trial fo killing George Floyd by putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

“They ought to put him under the jail,” Robertson said of Derek Chauvin, who he mentioned by name. “It’s caused so much trouble, by kneeling on – the death of George Floyd – on his neck. It’s just terrible, what’s happening, and the police, why don’t they open their eyes to what the public relations are, they’ve got to stop this.”

Watch:

When the police are starting to lose the approval of Pat Robertson, you know things are bad. pic.twitter.com/Pu7tw6aoDC

— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) April 15, 2021

Republican former President George W. Bush has been almost entirely silent during the tenures of both his successors, but on Tuesday the 43rd President of the United States issued a stunningly strong statement in support of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans protesting the police killing of George Floyd.

It is a remarkable moment, given that former presidents almost never criticize those who follow them, especially when they are members of the same party.

And while never mentioning the current President’s name, Bush’s intentions are quite clear – and his words are quite clearly a silent rebuke to President Trump.

President Bush said he and the First Lady “are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country.”

He called this a “time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths,” and wrote that it “remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country.”

“It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society?”

Read the Bush’s full statement, via CNN:

“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths.
It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.
America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals — to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America — from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. — are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation’s disturbing bigotry and exploitation — stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America’s need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.
That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.
This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.”