President Obama visited Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California, where he lectured soldiers about the problems of sexual assault within the military. “Hear it directly from me – the Commander-in-Chief,” Obama said, “It undermines what this military stands for and what the Marine Corps stands for when sexual assault takes place within our units.” He added that the Obama administration would do everything in its power to “stop these crimes of sexual assault” and uphold “the honor and integrity that defines our military services…that message is coming all the way from the top.”
Obama, meanwhile, has been utterly silent on the Mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, who is currently enmeshed in accusations of sexual assault. Yesterday, CNN reported that Filner specifically singled out rape victims from the military for his sexual harassment and assault. According to CNN, Filner attended events with the National Women’s Veterans Association of America in San Diego, where he inappropriately spoke to and touched former military members who had been raped while serving. Tara Jones, president of the group, said, “He preyed upon people who were vulnerable, who he knew nine times out of 10 would not speak up, that didn’t have enough strength in them to speak up,” she said. “It’s not OK. You need to not be in office. You need to be out of office. You need to not have the ability to prey on others.”
One of his alleged victims, retired Air Force sergeant Eldonna Fernandez, agreed: “We’re all victims of military sexual assault. It appears to me that he was targeting the organization and hitting on the women of this organization because they were easy prey. He’s part of an organization that’s against sexual assault and sexual violence against women and sexual harassment. And he’s doing the very thing that we are fighting to make stop in our service and in our country.”
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.