Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army’s former top spokesman, was suspended from his contract and placed under investigation over a mocking tweet in response to first lady Jill Biden.
Biden had tweeted that women’s rights had been taken away by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us,” Biden tweeted on June 24.
For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies.
Today, that right was stolen from us.
And while we may be devastated by this injustice, we will not be silent. We will not sit back as the progress we have already won slips away.
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) June 24, 2022
Volesky responded with “Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,” Axios reported.
His tweet appears to have since been deleted.
The three-star general was referring to an exchange between Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson during Jackson’s confirmation hearings.
“Can you provide a definition for the word ’woman’?” Blackburn asked her.
Do you think this suspension is just?
Jackson said she could not.
“Not in this context. I’m not a biologist,” she said.
Volesky, who was previously in charge of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, was suspended by Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Combined Arms Center.
Though Volesky is retired, he had a contract to advise active-duty officers as a senior mentor.
His response to Biden is being interpreted as a breach of decorum, USA Today reported.
Volesky has not shied away from the political arena in the past.
When Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming announced that she would be on the Jan. 6 House committee and that her “oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics,” Volensky commented on the situation.
“This is all about partisan politics,” he tweeted.
