A retired U.S. Army lieutenant general has been suspended from his job as a military contractor with the Pentagon after he tweet-mocked first lady Jill Biden.
Gary Volesky, a former spokesman for the Army, responded to a tweet from Biden about the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, in which Jill Biden remarked that women’s rights had been “stolen.”
Biden tweeted that “for nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us.”
Volesky responded, “Glad to see you finally know what a woman is.”
The career Army officer’s tweet has since been taken down.
Retired three-star general Gary Volesky suspended over tweet mocking Jill Biden https://t.co/RO6YPRbjFA pic.twitter.com/U7EAP4PMQ1
— New York Post (@nypost) July 9, 2022
The New York Post noted:
The Army suspended Volesky, who had signed a $92 an hour contract to advise active duty officers as a mentor, while it conducts an investigation, according to USA TODAY. Volesky was formerly in charge of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Volesky, who retired in 2020, earned a silver star for valor while serving in Iraq.
He was suspended by the commander of the military branch’s combined arms center, Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin.
In addition, Axios added:
Volesky’s response is a breach of decorum for a retired military officer, USA Today writes.
It’s an unusual step into partisan politics by an official the Pentagon is paying, especially since the department typically steers clear of such matters.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was a “mistake” to make a June 2020 appearance with then-President Trump in Lafayette Square.
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” he said in a video message several days later.
Volesky “earned the silver star – the US military’s third-highest honor for valor – for his actions in 2004 after his battalion came under attack in an area of greater Baghdad. The ensuing 80-day battle left eight soldiers killed and 50 others wounded,” The Guardian reported.
Volesky, who served in Afghanistan as well, was also the army’s public affairs chief at another point during his 36-year career with the military.
Earlier, after anti-Trump Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) agreed to serve on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan. 6 Committee, she took to Twitter to claim that the panel’s work would “be above partisan politics.”
An account on Volesky’s name responded: “This is all about partisan politics.”
Democrats will likely try to make abortion a hot-button issue for the 2022 midterms as the party — in control of Congress and the White House — is being blamed for rampant inflation that has included historically high gasoline, diesel fuel, food, and commodities prices.
President Joe Biden himself has made some divisive remarks regarding the issue after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide. Their ruling last month returns the issue to states to decide individually.
On Friday, Biden signed an executive order that directs federal health officials to expand access to abortion pills, increase enforcement of Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate, and assemble thousands of pro bono lawyers to assist Americans criminally charged for seeking an abortion or providing the procedure.
The measure also encourages other federal agencies to “consider” other measures including expanding privacy rights and updating federal laws to provide further protections for doctors performing emergency abortions.
“We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe as federal law,” he said, acknowledging the current situation as “frustrating.” “Your vote can make that a reality.”
Biden and Democrats also claimed that the overturning of Roe will lead to a massive turnout of women in the 2022 midterms.
“I don’t think the court or for that matter, the Republicans who for decades have pushed this extreme agenda have a clue about the power of American women,” he said. “But they’re about to find out.”
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