The Gateway Pundit reported on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s questioning of Gilbert Cisneros, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness of the United States, at a subcommittee hearing on the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Policies, Procedures, and Trainings within the Department of Defense (DoD.)
Gaetz grilled Cisneros who seemed unable, or unwilling, to give a straight answer about anything, including questions regarding Kelisa Wing, the now former Defense Department’s chief diversity equity and inclusion officer.
Wing has a history of anti-white tweets and has authored books on ‘white privilege,’ defunding the police and BLM.
“I’m exhausted with these white folx in these [professional development] sessions.” Wing wrote in a July 2020 tweet, according to Fox News. This lady actually had the CAUdacity to say that black people can be racist too… I had to stop the session and give Karen the BUSINESS… [W]e are not the majority, we don’t have power.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik announced live during the hearing that the DEI Pentagon webpage has been pulled down and Wing has been reassigned.
During her exchange with Cisneros, Stefanik pressed him on Wing’s current status after sharing one of Wing’s tweets.
Stefanik:
Do you agree with this Mr. Cisneros?
Cisneros:
I do agree that this is not acceptable. It is not condoned. It is not something that I condone. It is not condoned by DoDEA or the Department of Defense.”
Stefanik:
When I raised this issue, in fact, I wrote a letter to the Department on September of last year and did not receive a response. It was only when I wrote a follow up letter on November of last year that we did finally get a response in December, stating the Department was conducting an inquiry into this matter. Today, six months after that initial inquiry, you responded three hours prior to this hearing, which is a trend for Biden Administration officials at the last minute scrambling before these hearings, claiming that you determined Ms. Wing was speaking in a ‘personal capacity’ and that her colleagues never heard her make similar comments while at work.
However, interestingly, in the letter, which I also want to submit to submit for the record, it also states that she has been transferred as a part of headquarters restructuring and was reassigned to another position that does not include diversity, equity, and inclusion-specific responsibilities, and I have a feeling that has to do with the fact that we have shined light on this.
But my question for you is, will you commit to making the review and the findings publicly available to Congress and to service members?
Cisneros:
Uh, ma’am, you did get the letter today. I apologize that it did not come sooner. But I will also say my team has been down here, uh, the (unintelligible) team as well to talk with staff on this topic.
Stefanik:
No. There was no response to the letter. We were promised 30 days…30 days after September would be October.
Cisneros:
The Director of schools that Tom Brady was down on the Hill to talk with staff.
Stefanik:
Don’t cover up for the trend of the Biden Administration. This is the second hearing in two weeks where the response to the letter delayed is given the day of or the day before the hearing. Will you make the findings publicly available to Congress and to servicemen and women?
Cisneros:
Ms. Wing is a GS [General Schedule] employee. She is not a senior executive. There are personal restrictions that we have to follow, but we will look into the matter to see what can be shared and what can’t
Rep. Stefanik’s office shared the following statement:
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik announced that, following her advocacy, DoDEA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Chief Kelisa Wing has been removed from her position in military children’s schools, after using her position to promote her woke ideologies through her personal writings. Stefanik announced this during her questioning of Gilbert R. Cisneros, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, at today’s subcommittee hearing on the impact of DEI Policies, Procedures, and Trainings within the DoD.
Stefanik has been leading the charge to create transparency in our DoDEA schools. Following Stefanik’s advocacy, DoD opened an investigation into Wing in September. The Pentagon referred to Under Secretary of Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros for a final decision 30 days after the initial review, but Stefanik had not received an answer until three hours before today’s hearing.
