Congress
Mark Milley disagrees with Trump pick on women in combat
Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, is defending the role of women in combat — clashing with the views of Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon.
Milley, who served as the top U.S. military officer under Trump and President Joe Biden until his retirement in 2023, said at an event Wednesday that women have served in battle throughout history.
And he pointedly recalled the service of an Army nurse who braved minefields to save fellow service members and was killed in action.
“Don’t lecture me about women in combat,” Milley said at a national security innovation event hosted by the Pallas Foundation. “Women have been in combat, and it doesn’t matter if that 7.62 [caliber round] hits you in the chest. No one gives a shit if it’s a woman or a guy to pull that trigger, you’re still dead.”
His remarks come after Pete Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and Fox TV host nominated by Trump to be defense secretary, faced public criticism for saying women should not serve in combat.
Milley was elevated to the U.S. military’s top job by Trump in 2019 but has since been sharply critical of him. He described the now president-elect as “fascist to the core” in a book by journalist Bob Woodward.
Trump and Hegseth have been sharply critical of the military and what they call “woke generals.” Milley, who did not specifically mention the nominee during the event, made it clear to the audience that he views the military as a meritocracy.
“If you meet the standards, our military must be, and always should be, a standards-based, merit-based military period, full stop,” he said.
Women have been allowed to serve in frontline combat roles since 2015, when then-U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter ordered the U.S. military to open all jobs to women. Hegseth, who said the inclusion of women in combat units has “made fighting more complicated,” has argued that women can still serve, just not in jobs such as armor, artillery, infantry or in the special operations community.
Milley’s remarks come after the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him in Laos earlier Wednesday that the military should not take women out of frontline combat roles.
“I think our women add significant value to the United States military and we should never change that,” Austin said, adding that his message to women in uniform was that “ we need you, we have faith in you, we are appreciative of your service, and you add value to the finest and most lethal fighting force on Earth.”
Milley was also pressed on whether the U.S. would continue to be a reliable international partner under Trump. Trump has often questioned the value of longstanding alliances such as NATO. Milley predicted a “retraction” in U.S. military engagement abroad over the long term, but stopped short of saying the U.S. is drifting to isolationism.
“I wouldn’t say we’re going to be isolationists,” Milley said. “I wouldn’t go that far, but there’s a probability that there’ll be some sort of retraction over time — this isn’t going to be instant — over time, of US military forces overseas.”
Milley sidestepped questions about whether reports the incoming administration could create a “warrior board” of retired military officers to review sitting generals and admirals or attempt to court martial officers would have a chilling effect on the force or recruitment.
“I would imagine right now that there’s probably some eyebrows being raised in the Pentagon or out in units. I don’t think they’re obsessed with it, to tell you the truth, because they don’t know what it means,” Milley said. “They don’t know what it consists of. No one has actually laid any of this stuff out.”
James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.
The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.
“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”
The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.
Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.
“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.
A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.
Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.
Congress
‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call
A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.
In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.
“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.
Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.
“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”
Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.
Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.
She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.
But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.
Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.
“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”
Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.
But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”
House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.
“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.
The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.
Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.
“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”
Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.
Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.
“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”
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