A top Republican senator who is also a retired U.S. Army active duty infantry officer warned the Biden Pentagon's use of a drag performer as the U.S. Navy's digital ambassador will only turn off potential enlistees.
Sen. Tom Cotton told "The Story" on Thursday that the U.S. military is already feeling the effects of underwhelming recruitment numbers across the board – and that the proverbial deployment of "Harpy Daniels", whose real name is Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, is not helping.
He said all branches have faced a "recruiting crisis" under President Biden's tenure.
"Using a drag queen ambassador is not a solution to that crisis – it is an example of a major cause of the crisis," he said.
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"Young Americans join the military because they want to serve our nation, and they're patriotic,, and they want to feel camaraderie, and they want excitement and adventure. They join to become warriors. They don't join to become social justice warriors."
Anchor Martha MacCallum added Russia and China are likely looking incredulously at the recruitment videos featuring Kelley.
MacCallum played a clip of one video that featured cut-shots of the ambassador in uniform and in drag wear, with snippets of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" playing intermittently in the background. (Cash notably was an Air Force Morse code operator during the 1950s, stationed in Bavaria intercepting Soviet correspondence.)
Previously, Fox News host Jesse Watters pointed out Pentagon brass have been previously questioned under oath regarding drag queens and drag shows, with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asking Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III in March about a flyer for once such event reportedly held or that was to be held at a Las Vegas airbase.
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Austin shot Gaetz a stern glare for several moments before responding, "I will say again. This is not something that we support or fund."
After Gaetz' time had expired, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley asked Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., for copies of the flyers and documents presented by the Pensacola lawmaker.
"The Navy… looked at what happened with Bud Light and said ‘hold my beer’. Harpy is the Navy's Dylan," Watters said, referring to the consumer backlash against Missouri-based Anheuser-Busch after its Bud Light brand partnered with transgender socialite Dylan Mulvaney.
The Digital Ambassador initiative that Kelley participated in ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and was "designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates," a Navy spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The reason, the spokesperson added, was that the Navy is navigating "the most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force."
The spokesperson continued: "The Navy did not compensate YN2 Kelley or any others for being Navy Digital Ambassadors. The pilot has concluded and we are now evaluating the program and how it will exist in the future."
Fox News' Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.
