Leaked text messages show leadership at an Air Force base in North Dakota warned service members against attending a conservative rally. A letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation shows Republican Representative Jim Banks of Indiana is pressuring the Air Force to conduct an investigation over the messages.
The leaked text messages, from November 17, show a master sergeant at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota urged leaders to caution their troops about the potential for violence aimed at military members at a conservative rally or participating in the featured political advocacy group.
Banks, who chairs the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee and heads the chamber’s Anti-Woke Caucus, said the texts from an unidentified leader defamed a conservative organization and interfered in an Airman’s right to free assembly and the political process, the letter stated. The leader characterized a guest speaker who represents Turning Point Action as “alt-right.” The text message went on to say, “Additionally, please remind them that participation with groups such as Turning Point Action could jeopardize their continued service in the U.S. military.”
“If Eighth Air Force and 5th Bomber Wing leadership do not carry out a full investigation of and take the appropriate disciplinary action against the servicemember who wrote the text message, it will, in essence, have permitted an airman to threaten service members who hold conservative beliefs, to falsely smear a conservative organization as ‘alt-right’ and to interfere in the political process,” Banks wrote in the letter.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports:
It’s common for military leaders to communicate with subordinates and lower-level leaders via group text messages. However, Air Force regulations to maintain the professional, apolitical character of the military forbade U.S. troops from participating in political activities or attending openly partisan gatherings while wearing their military uniforms.
“Airmen may attend partisan political rallies or speeches when not in uniform, not on duty, and when solely acting as a spectator,” the regulation states.