CNN’s Brianna Keilar called out the Trump administration move reallocating military funds to help build the border wall this afternoon.
Keilar — who has spoken very personally about being a military spouse — said today that whether or not you support building the wall, there is a real impact on military families.
“Personally, as a military spouse,” she said, “with a husband who deploys, one of the greatest sources of stability for me is knowing that my kids are well-cared-for in a safe and healthy environment while I am at work. For many military families, that means on-base daycares or schools.”
She brought up the case of Fort Campbell, where — per the New York Times — “families discovered that they would not get the new middle school they were expecting so that President Trump could build his border wall”:
The Pentagon’s decision to divert $62.6 million from the construction of Fort Campbell’s middle school means that 552 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades will continue to cram themselves in, 30 to a classroom
in some cases, at the base’s aging Mahaffey Middle School. Teachers at Mahaffey will continue to use mobile carts to store their books, lesson plans and homework assignments because there is not enough classroom space. Students stuffed into makeshift classrooms-within-classrooms will continue to strain to figure out which lesson to listen to and which one to filter out.
The report calls out Mitch McConnell as someone who could be a political ally to these families. This afternoon, CNN’s Jim Acosta reported that McConnell’s office ie saying the senator “is committed to protecting funding for the Ft. Campbell Middle School project”:
“This is Fort Campbell, home to — among others — the 101st Airborne, which has sent troops to the border on the president’s orders, and also the 5th Special Forces Group,” Keilar continued.
She concluded by saying the nation is failing its promise to military families:
“Their kids, like yours, deserve a middle school that is not packed to the gills and in disrepair. Military service is a family business, and that includes the kids. They move, they adjust, they sacrifice too. And our country has a covenant with military families that their needs will be met so they can serve, and our country is breaking that promise.”
You can watch above, via CNN.