The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee defended Thursday the Pentagon’s response to the coronavirus pandemic against criticism from “vice presidential wannabes.”
“I think overall, so far, they’ve done a pretty good job,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said Thursday about the Pentagon’s response to the crisis. “There’s always criticism, and some has gotten some attention recently from some vice presidential wannabes. But I think if you look at it objectively, it’s been good.”
Thornberry appeared to be referencing a letter ten Senate Democrats sent to Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week expressing “grave concern” about how the Pentagon has handled the coronavirus crisis.
Among the signatories were former Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who are all considered to be in the running for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick.
“Civilian leadership of the department has failed to act sufficiently quickly, and has often prioritized readiness at the expense of the health of servicemembers and their families,” the senators wrote. “This failure has adversely affected morale, and, despite the department’s best intentions, undermined readiness.”
The eight-page letter cited a laundry list of examples, including the coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, Esper pushing decisions on implementing social distancing and other guidance to local commanders, varied decisions across services such as the Marine Corps’ decision not to relax grooming standards while other services do and the decision to stop publicly releasing installation-specific data on infections.
Esper himself responded to the letter earlier this week, saying he was “very disappointed” lawmakers “would write a letter that includes a number of misleading, false or inaccurate statements.”
As of Thursday, the Pentagon reported a total of 5,086 coronavirus cases among service members, including 113 who have been hospitalized, 1,913 who have recovered and two who have died.
Last month, Thornberry suggested he thinks the Pentagon could have been doing more earlier, but added the slow response was a nationwide issue and that he wanted “to be a little bit careful before I’m too critical.”
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Thornberry argued the Pentagon has responded “reasonably well” to the crisis. He cited the U.S. military’s assistance to local communities fighting the virus, as well as military labs’ research into treatments and vaccines.
“An enormous amount of resources has been devoted to helping the country deal with the situation,” he said. “Plus dealing with the service members, all of these people who are tightly engaged with each other and so forth. Trying to help the industrial base stay alive, DOD’s done a lot to try to assist them. And meanwhile they’ve got to keep doing their job of defending the country, as adversaries such as Iran, North Korea, China are testing us.”
Thornberry warned against “partisan” criticism of the response, saying that would prevent a “legitimate” lessons learned assessment.
“That’s what we have to avoid with coronavirus because there will be another incident — something like this, whether man-made, nature-inflicted or whatever — and we need to learn the lessons, and together be better prepared for the next thing,” Thornberry said. “And if what we do is we dissolve into our partisan corners, we will not have been taking advantage of it.”