Sen. John McCain blasted the Obama administration for treating Congress with “contempt” with regard to the administration’s decision to allow transgender troops to serve in the military.
Appearing on Fox News’s “The Real Story” with guest host Kimberly Guilfoyle on Thursday, McCain said, “Unlike any other administration that I have been associated with, we received no heads up” regarding the decision to end the ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military. (RELATED: House Armed Services Chairman: Repealing Military Transgender Ban Is Politics Over Policy)
As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain noted that it’s “customary” to at least give the chairman a briefing about policy changes or other events. (RELATED: Pentagon Repeals Ban On Transgenders Serving Openly In Military)
According to McCain, the Obama administration “doesn’t do that.” McCain said that he learned about the major policy change when every other American learned as well. (RELATED: Military Thinks Pentagon Bureaucracy Is Moving Way Too Fast On Transgenders)
“I will be calling up the chiefs of the services, those many in uniform who are the heads of the military, and asking their views, including the costs of implementing — I’m talking about the fiscal costs of implementing these changes and we’ll be having hearings.”
Later, McCain noted, “[T]his administration is the least communicative with Congress in any issue that I’ve ever seen in my years in the Senate.”
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McCain went on to say, “All I can say is it seems maybe their more interested in the publicity value than really getting something accomplished, because something like this will require some legislation, but, look, they haven’t told us about almost anything they’re doing, whether it be Iraq, Syria. We gate lot of our information about what is going on through the media. And, again, I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve dealt with Democratic presidents, Republican presidents, but never an administration that treats the Congress with not just disdain but contempt.”
Earlier on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that transgender troops will be allowed to serve openly in the military.