Defense Department officials have slammed a letter from Senate Democrats criticizing the agency's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, 10 Senate Democrats published a letter blaming the Defense Department for having a slow response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Department accused the lawmakers of using “cherry-picked false and repeatedly debunked assertions that do not reflect reality,” the Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
“While we are not above criticism, this letter does not even remotely accurately reflect our record of action against the Coronavirus and the great lengths we have gone to protect our people,” Hoffman wrote in a statement.
The Senate Democrats criticized Defense Secretary Mark Esper for giving each base and ship commander the power to make their own decisions on how to institute coronavirus mitigation strategies. The lawmakers said that policy put commanders in a position “to make decisions they should never have to make.”
“The Secretary of Defense is responsible for nearly three million people at thousands of locations and 400 bases, in 150 countries and every US state doing literally thousands of incredibly different jobs. Therefore, the military practice is to provide guidance and allow commanders to interpret that guidance in accordance with their missions."
Hoffman dismissed that critique of the decision, saying Esper “made a clear, unambiguous decision to provide constant guidance to senior civilian and military leaders on how to confront the crisis.”
The Pentagon has faced other criticism since the coronavirus pandemic began, including its handling of the outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the subsequent removal from the vessel's captain after he sent a letter alerting Navy leaders to the danger the virus posed to his crew.
“We look forward to continuing to discuss the lessons learned from this outbreak and our path forward with our highly informed and engaged oversight committees,” Hoffman said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.