Marine Corps Account Deletes Critical Tweets to Tucker Carlson, Another Civilian as Sen. Cruz Sends Letter

Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks in Washington on March 29, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A Marine Corps Twitter account at the center of controversy for lashing out at civilians deleted several tweets after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Pentagon secretary requesting a meeting with the commandant of the Marines following unusual and bellicose comments from the account against Fox host Tucker Carlson.

The Marines’ II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group account sent a series of apologies for its tweets criticizing Carlson over the weekend. What’s more, the account on Sunday night appeared to delete the tweets to Carlson and another civilian, “Scott Malkinson,” who called on the Marines to “please focus on China and not Tucker Carlson.” In response, the account had said that he should “come back when you’ve served and been pregnant (sic).”

Cruz, in a letter to President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, wrote that the account’s tweets created a “spectacle” that “risks politicizing the military after several centuries of efforts to keep military officials out of domestic affairs, undermining civil-military relations by having the military take a side in a contentious cultural dispute, and the perception that military leaders are happily weaponizing the institution against political critics of the sitting administration.”

“This kind of behavior, while perhaps typical in a military-controlled Third World country, is completely unacceptable in the United States of America,” Cruz wrote in his letter, requesting he meet with the head of the Marine Corps.

Carlson last week on his Fox News show delivered a monologue about how Biden was focusing on unnecessary reforms to make the military more accommodating to women in the face of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Some military leaders and commanders---while in uniform---commented about Carlson’s comments on social media, drawing condemnation from many, who argued they should stay out of domestic political and cultural affairs.

“What it looks like in today’s armed forces @TuckerCarlson. Get right before you get left, boomer,” the Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group tweeted to Carlson with a photo of a female Marine carrying another female Marine.

The account then issued a series of apologies on Twitter.

“Our intentions were misinterpreted and we are working to move forward from this mistake,” it posted on March 13. “We’ve strayed away from our brand and realize that. Our standard practices will be in effect and you can count on us to correct our mistake going forward,” it also wrote.