Pentagon cuts college ties over woke ideologies, Spanberger responds

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger fired back at War Secretary Pete Hegseth after the Pentagon announced it would sever ties and funding relationships with many collegiate institutions over what he described as woke ideologies.

A Pentagon leadership memo initialed “PBH” — the secretary’s full name is Peter Brian Hegseth — sent just before the United States bombed Iran and titled “Aligning Senior Service College Opportunities with American Values,” featured a review of “professional military education institutions, [the] foundation on which we build deadly fighters, grounded in the founding principles that underpin America

Spanberger fought back after learning that the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, would be affected. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot covered his remarks at a high school in Hampton, about halfway between the two cities.

Spanberger said the move was “an outrageous attack on another point of pride in Virginia” because the memo said Senior Service College programs there would end and the military would lose support.

“The idea that the Pentagon is pulling out of this long-standing scholarship program at William & Mary is just outrageous,” she said, according to the newspaper.

The Pentagon memo says the department “will no longer invest in institutions that fail to hone the warfighting capabilities of our leaders or that undermine the very values ​​they are sworn to uphold,” and that more than a dozen schools are at risk of being eliminated.

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Spanberger, who previously worked for the CIA, said the move speaks to the Defense Department’s “lack of understanding of the true strength of universities, whether William & Mary or others, in training the next generation of military leaders,” according to the newspaper.

She also cited the fact that William & Mary’s current chancellor is himself one of Hegseth’s predecessors.

Robert Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence for former President George H. W. Bush and later served as Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, retaining that role during the tenure of former President Barack Obama.

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Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has ended agreements between state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

In a statement obtained by the Hampton Roads CBS affiliate, the college administration said it was “puzzled and saddened” by Hegseth’s decision, saying William & Mary is “one of the most military-friendly institutions in the country” and also adheres to its ROTC program.

Although the Williamsburg school may be on the verge of being taken out, the affiliate reported that Virginia Beach’s Regent University — founded by Christian evangelist Pat Robertson — could be considered as one of the replacement institutions.

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In the memo, Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis, MIT, Tufts, Georgetown, George Washington University, Princeton, Yale, Brown and Queen’s University in Canada were on the list of schools threatened with separation.

Colleges being considered for replacement include Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, The Citadel, Virginia Tech, the University of North Carolina, Clemson University and Hillsdale College in Michigan.

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