Thursday morning on War Room: Pandemic, Stephen K. Bannon welcomed Washington correspondent and the national political editor for The Star News Network and The Tennessee Star, Neil W. McCabe to discuss the vaccine mandate that’s stripping the National Guard of guardsmen in record numbers.
Bannon: I’ve got from The Star News Network Neil W. McCabe. Neil, walkthrough what is going to start happening to the troops today about vaccines.
McCabe: So right now, Steve, is the deadline big army set for all troops to be 100 percent vaccinated. The National Guard, which is roughly, say 400,000, 440,000 nationwide. 10 percent of that forest has not been vaccinated yet, and that’s of numbers I saw June 27th.
So you’re looking at perhaps 40,000 National Guardsmen being separated from the National Guard. And this comes at a time when the army, the big army generally right now is at 40 percent of its recruiting goal for the fiscal year 2022. And so we’ve never seen a purge like this before, Steve.
Bannon: First off, the army is having an impossible time recruiting. As I said, they’re 40 percent of the goal. One is obesity, education, and drugs. Army recruiting is a disaster right now.
They’re the first to admit that they’re going to spend millions of dollars in marketing campaigns. 40,000, I think is the minimum number. My understanding is that there are 14,000 for hardcore religious beliefs saying, and we’re never going to do it.
So they’re essentially gone. The question is, what is the army demanding? The National Guard demanding? What happens if you’re not vaccinated by midnight tonight what technically happens to you?
McCabe: In the Army Reserve, active duty army, there’s no play. They’ll just chapter you out. And that’s ongoing. But for the National Guard, it’s difficult because it’s a blend of state and federal control. The National Guard Bureau and DOD have not given the individual states’ guidance on how to handle this as it stands right now.
The National Guard Bureau told me this morning that each state is responsible for its own separation boards. And so you have places like Florida where DeSantis has started up his own State Guard for people to finish their careers.
You have places like Oklahoma, where Governor Kevin Stitt has flat out said, I will not even convene a separation board. And so right now, it’s a horse blanket.
Bannon: But you got places like you got MAGA country. I would argue the strongest MAGA legislature in the nation is in Tennessee. You got the governor there. It’s weak. We’re going to have later in the show try to get one of the army officers. One of the National Guard officers. It’s Governor Lee who’s prepared to have these boards and roll people out, is that what I’m hearing?
McCabe: Yes. Governor Bill Lee is full-on and he is going to toe the line. There’s really no play in Tennessee. He’s moving forward even with the State Guard, which is completely state-funded, and completely state control. There are about 400, 500 of these guys. They volunteer, and they are now also falling under big army’s rubric.
Listen to the interview here, starting at about the 42:00min mark:
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