WATCH: Rep. Sherrill Stands In The Breach Against Trump and Secretary Hegseth's Effort To Erase History

WASHINGTON, DC — As Secretary Hegseth and the Trump Administration bend and erase history to push their divisive agenda, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) is standing in the breach. During the House Armed Services Committee markup, Rep. Sherrill rose in support of an amendment that would prevent Hegseth from recklessly destroying or censoring any historical artifacts, books, papers or records at the Department of Defense without proper oversight. 

Click here to listen to Sherrill’s full remarks. 

Full remarks, as delivered:

“I’m a Naval Academy graduate. I’m deeply proud of my alma mater, and I am even more proud that some of my children went to step up and serve as well. It’s where I learned leadership, and it’s where I swore my first oath to the Constitution of the United States. But, right now, I’m disgusted. 

I’m disgusted by how Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are using our service academies and the department of defense to push their white christian nationalist agenda. He’s taken Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou off of the library shelves, but left two copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in the library.

Just consider that for a minute: midshipmen can now read the antisemitic manifesto of one of history’s most evil men but god forbid they read the autobiography of a Black woman recounting her lived experience.

Hegseth’s orders forced the Academy to remove a display highlighting the service of Jewish women before he came to visit. But Hegseth and Trump’s censorship reaches far beyond the Naval Academy. Over the past few months, they’ve deleted thousands of pages off of the DoD’s website. These pages have taught the history of trailblazing service members like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, Jackie Robinson, Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, our first female fighter pilot, and thousands more.

Let me be clear: these are Americans who signed up to give their lives for this country, even when this country did not give them the rights and freedoms that they deserved. Diversity and inclusion have never been a detriment to our military, our government, or our society — but policies of uniformity and exclusion certainly have. 

Black history is American history. Women’s history is American history. Native American history is American history. And erasing stories like this is not only a disgrace to the service of many people, but it will make our fighting forces and our nation weaker as a whole.

That’s why I am supporting this Amendment to prevent Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump from bending and erasing history to push their white christian nationalist agenda.

I will tell you why the caged bird sings, it sings for freedom.”

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