Joy Reid Accuses Pete Hegseth of Trying to ‘Re-Segregate the Military’

MSNBC host Joy Reid said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is attempting to “re-segregate the military” after it was reported the Pentagon would skip an annual recruiting visit to an event for Black engineers.

On Tuesday, Reid noted that the U.S. Army and other branches would not attend the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards in Baltimore. Military.com reported:

The event, which takes place in Baltimore, has historically been a key venue for the Pentagon to recruit talent, including awarding Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarships and pitching military service to rising engineers. Past BEYA events have included the Army chief of staff and the defense secretary.

The outlet quoted a number of individuals who said the military would miss out on recruits with potential who also happen to be non-White.

Steve Beynon with Military.com reported, “The services cited concerns that participation in the predominantly Black event could run afoul of Trump’s orders and the Pentagon’s intensifying push to erase diversity efforts in the military, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision.”

Reid blasted the Pentagon and Hegseth over the decision to skip the Baltimore event.

She first attacked Hegseth for renaming Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg – this time after a World War II veteran and not Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Reid said:

Look, if he wanted to change the name to honor Private Bragg, he could have just done that and said so. Instead of pretending to restore the name. When it comes to these orders around race, what Donald Trump and his foot soldiers are doing fall broadly into two categories. This Fort Bragg renaming falls under the performative. But the other half, which is far more serious, sure looks like an attempt to re-segregate the military.

Watch above via MSNBC.