Pentagon Spokesman: ‘As Of Today, Transgender People Are Allowed To Join The Military’

Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, the new Pentagon press spokesman, joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss the lifting of the transgender military ban, saying that Defense Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin is committed to supporting President Biden’s agenda and building an inclusive agency. “It's going to take us a couple of months to continue to work through all the details of how this gets done but as of today, transgender people are allowed to join the military, if they meet all of the other standards,” Kirby said. Aired on 01/25/2021.
» Subscribe to MSNBC:

About Andrea Mitchell: Andrea Mitchell is NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," an hour of political news and interviews with top newsmakers that airs each weekday at 12 p.m. ET on MSNBC.

In addition to politics, Mitchell covers foreign policy, intelligence and national security issues, including the diplomacy of Secretary of State John Kerry, for all NBC News and MSNBC properties.

MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, Meet the Press Daily, The Beat with Ari Melber, Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, Hardball, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and more.

Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com:
Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter:
Find MSNBC on Facebook:
Follow MSNBC on Twitter:
Follow MSNBC on Instagram:

#JohnKirby #LloydAustin #MSNBC

Pentagon Spokesman: 'As Of Today, Transgender People Are Allowed To Join The Military'

69 comments

  1. Waiting for all the pearl clutchers to tell me that a transgender servicemen somehow cannot put lethal rounds downrange in service of Uncle Sam.

    1. @DAVE MAURER well Cletus lets start from step 1. First, American soldiers & sailors are not joining the military to transition.They are joining the military to serve their country because they are patriotic Americans. So what they choose to do with their bodies while they are defending the country is none of your business and you dont get a say.

      Second, this one is going to confuse you but ITS NOT YOUR MONEY. Tax payer money is not your money. Once you pay it stops being your money and becomes government money. Once government money goes into military accounts its their money. And you have as much say on what the military does with it as you do when they are buying more drones, or weapons that dont work, or when they are paying for breast enlargement surgery … doesnt matter you have no say.

      Your fuhrer nazi trump pocketed over $150 million in tax payer dollars for personal golf vacations at his own properties every weekend over the past four years … go demand that money be returned to the tax payers and then we can talk about you getting a say on other expenditures.

      You have no say in this. Its not your money and its not your issue. These are American soldiers and sailors that chose to defend this country, have some respect and stop being bigoted garbage.

    2. @Zex Maxwell “if no one comes close to that. I call that a victory.”
      it is a victory.
      now let’s try and do even better.

    3. @R Torres “We aren’t even legally in Syria under international law but we’re stealing their oil.”
      i’d like a source for this.
      if we are, it’s a war crime.
      but I’ve only heard we are guarding the wells, not taking oil from them.

    4. @R Torres maybe you should learn what fascism means before using that word.
      just because you saw someone use it before doesn’t mean you should.

    1. It’s a start. Hopefully other countries work on getting rid of corrupt power hungry Presidents, there’s a few of them. Only the people can make a change.

    2. @Peege Clarke WTF??? You’re the one who cannot write a complete, and grammatically correct sentence……your spelling is not very good either!!!

    1. Women in the battle field is a distraction, can you imagine a woman being captured by the enemy???? Now transgender are their ranks going to be “Rear Admirals”, get real people….God man a Man and Woman, nothing more nothing less. Would love to watch this people go to war.

    2. @Francelia Roman de gallup Being Trans IS NOT an ideology!!! Please learn the meaning of words before using them so carelessly!!!

    3. @Tersi my God, white are the minority in the world,they’ve colonized themselves into mainstream. Off topic I I know, but it triggered me

    1. that decision should be up to active duty service personnel. not you. not politicians. not commissioned officers at the pentagon.

    2. how you gonna get hormones to the troops ?? what if russia has better hormones ? how about you have no insight as to what you just typed , and you are a butthurt woman ..? hm?

    3. @Peege Clarke you’re the one who sounds butthurt. America has the greatest military in the world, they’ll figure it out.

    4. @Peege Clarke There were many trans gender military personnel who served in combat and other areas overseas for many years before trump banned them. Many trans gender people had served multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan before getting kicked out by trump. So all of your “what ifs” or “how abouts” are just a bunch of BS!!!!!

  2. Include in Education across the country that there be a class in High School and in Boot Camp about the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and about all the benefits for the good active working for US all people in this nation.

  3. They really need to block corrupt republican politicians from screwing around with the military in the future.

    1. They really need to just block republican politicians. Get into the 21st century like the rest of the Western liberal democratic world and accept that Republicans are too right wing, the Democrats are centrist, and your country has no leftist party at all. Stop being weird xenophobes on average and, y’know, accept the realities of modern politics. Oh, sorry, could you not hear me over the sound of your fighter jets and national anthem? *concerned*

    2. @Peege Clarke Yes like Trump, I’m so happy that Republicans lost every branch because of Trump lol

  4. Who cares if they’re Trans, if they want to protect our country let them. I don’t get y some people mostly Conservatives have a problem with this

    1. Republicans have a very strange obsesson with what’s going on in everyones pants and bedrooms. Very strange indeed. I guess they wanna see what they are missing.

    2. It hard to defend your country when you are recovering from government paid gender reassignment surgery. We need at least 10 percent of the military to do this or they are just homophobes.

    1. Many including illegal immigrants. They don’t want to die…but they sign up just the same, just like my dad did

    2. uh.. lot’s of countries .. Russia first .. then China .. Japan .. Columbia.. the list is huge dumbmouth

    1. @Kath Casey NO THEY WERE NOT, BECAUSE TRUMP APPOINTED HIS OWN CRONIES AND DISMANTLED ALL THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT!!!!! TRUMP AND HIS CRONIES ARE ALL CROOKS/MONSTERS OF THE SWAMP!!!!!!!

    2. @Play List Jl – I don’t think any honorable member of the senior pentagon staff would have entertained a direct order from Trump without further consultation. Do you?

  5. Wonder if these people who had their hopes & careers dashed by an imbecile, shall now be adequately compensated for the State sanctioned discrimination plus liberties taken against them 🤔

  6. My Gosh! It’s so refreshing to hear an interview that is calm. Questions being asked & answered without it being tense. I like it.
    Bravo.

    1. well to be fair, the questions asked, daily, were not the kindest questions, nor was a calm rational response ever the want of the questionnaire

  7. Everyone has the right to join military, as long as they don’t have criminal record, as long as they are healthy & able, mentally capable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.