Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) went on Fox News on Friday night to slam Joe Biden and his administration for the trend toward “wokeness” in the U.S. military, which he described as one of the last places in the federal government where the left had not taken control.

“Congressman Austin Scott and Scott DesJarlais, both also stood up for members of our military,” Gaetz said. “But the problem with Republicans is that we surrender the frame. We allow ourselves to be lulled into this concept that what we really need to be talking about is whether or not there are people who liked the wrong meme, or might be members of the wrong listserv, or get their news in the wrong places. Look in China right now, Tucker, they’re not doing gender sensitivity training. They’re not wondering whether or not their military is woke enough. They’re wondering whether or not they’re advancing in critical areas like quantum computing and artificial intelligence.”

“Now, we see the woke-kification of the Department of Defense and the reason why is because the leftists have long since taken control of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense was this last bastion where conservatives maintained a substantial amount of influence and they’re trying to strangle out right-leaning folks who are in the military by monitoring their social media,” he added. “And what troubles me is that this discussion in Congress is gaslighting exactly what the Biden administration is doing. They’re worried about wokeness not winning and our country deserves better and our military deserves better.”

This comes after we reported that Gaetz blasted a House Armed Services Committee hearing on “extremism in the military” as “total nonsense.”

“Today the House Armed Services Committee is engaged in a review of constitutionally-protected expression by our troops — how utterly weak of us. No wonder the Chinese Communist Party continues to gain ground,” Gaetz said.

“The entire purpose of this hearing is not what the chairman said,” he continued. “It is to gaslight the targeting of U.S. military patriots who do not share pre-approved politics. This is not about extremism, it is not about white supremacy, it is about woke supremacy.”

“It is about converting the military from an apolitical institution to an institution controlled by the political left,” the Florida senator added. “Today instead of working together, we are gathered at a hearing designed to tear us apart. To try to get us to view our fellow countrymen and women who protect us as somehow evil or dangerous or a cancer to be exorcised.”