CNN New Day Calls Out Biden for Using Marines ‘as a Political Pawn’ in Speech Blasting MAGA Republicans

Jackson RichmanSep 2nd, 2022, 7:54 am
 

A former executive director of the campaign arm of House Democrats and a U.S. Army veteran appeared on CNN’s New Day and criticized President Joe Biden for using U.S. Marines “as a political pawn” during his speech where he blasted “MAGA Republicans.”

During Biden’s speech on Thursday night, when he went after the MAGA base of the GOP, two Marines were standing behind him with a big American flag hanging down in between two red walls that were lit up to be a darker red.

CNN co-anchor Brianna Keilar criticized the Marines being used in Biden’s speech.

“Whatever you think of this speech, the military is supposed to be apolitical. Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it,” she tweeted on Thursday.

During CNN’s New Day on Friday, Keilar brought on Allison Jaslow, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who said she agreed with the substance behind the speech.

I mean, the substance of the speech is — I mean, I couldn’t agree more with the president in the sense that, you know, we are at an inflection point in this country and it’s something that I care deeply about, you know, as somebody who has served this country not only in uniform but tried to do good ever since, you know, being out in the social sector ever since taking the uniform off. So I couldn’t agree more with sort of his sentiment and where he felt the country is and also the message he was trying to drive home to the American people.

However, Jaslow, an Iraq War veteran, said she did not agree with use of Marines behind Biden.

There are a lot of people who are taking issue with us just raising this point. Listen, you know, there are Marines that could have organically showed up in some frame, sure, those were obviously men that were put there and they’re different than volunteers that would fill up a stage at a campaign event or even an official event that is put together.

And I think — you know, I wasn’t looking for attention when I commented on your point that the military was being unnecessarily politicized in this instance, but it’s true. Somebody made a decision to put those Marines in the shot and the reality is those Marines didn’t have a choice whether to be there or not. So they could be like myself who if I was in the military still would have agreed with the president and would have welcomed being at the event yesterday, but we don’t know that that’s true.

And the reality is that like we need to make sure that our military is as removed from politics as possible and it’s not right if a Democrat uses the military as a political pawn and it’s not right if the Republican Party does it as well. None of our politicians or elected leaders should do that and I think it’s important to speak up and say so when it’s done.

Watch above via CNN.

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