Training slides labeling Pro-Life Americans as terrorists have been used for at least seven years for terrorism training at Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg), according to a letter that North Carolina Republican US Senator Ted Budd received from the US Army.
Budd and Congressman Richard Hudson, R, NC-09, led a group of 88 members of the Senate and House of Representatives, including Republican North Carolina US Sen. Thom Tillis and Republican Congressmen Greg Murphy, NC-03, Patrick McHenry, NC-10, David Rouzer, NC-07, and Chuck Edwards, NC-11, in signing and sending a letter last Friday to Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, demanding answers as to why anti-terrorism training conducted at Ft. Liberty, depicts Pro-Life Americans as terrorists.
“Specifically, the slides identify National Right to Life, “Choose Life” license plate holders, and anyone who opposes the Supreme Court’s rightfully overturned decision in Roe v. Wade, which was rightfully overturned by the Supreme Court, as members of terrorist groups,” the letter states. “Smearing Pro-Life Americans is despicable and emblematic of the ongoing politicization of the military under the Biden-Harris administration. The American public expects the Department of Defense and its personnel to defend the homeland from actual terrorists, not Americans who seek protections for children in the womb.”
Budd and the contingent added that it is no wonder that the Army is struggling to recruit young men and women to join its ranks when it appears “the service attacks their values and promotes a woke agenda rather than improving readiness and lethality.”
The group asked Wormuth to respond to questions including: How long have these slides been briefed to soldiers, and how many have been briefed with these slides? Have similar briefings been used at other installations?
In response to the letter, Wormuth said that the Directorate of Emergency Services at Fort Liberty has used the slides for the last seven years to train soldiers as they prepare to take on installation access control duties.
“Totally outrageous and unacceptable,” Budd replied in a post on X Thursday. “The Army must fully renounce this attack on pro-life Americans and conduct a full investigation to ensure similar materials aren’t being used at other installations. #ProLife.”
Wormuth said that the slides do not represent the official policy or views of the US Army and pre-date Army Directive 2024-07 (Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang Activities) and agreed with Budd that the National Right to Life is not a terrorist group and should not be described as such in Army documents or training materials.
She also added that senior Army leaders at Fort Liberty didn’t direct these slides to be used in training nor were they aware of their use until media reporting last week, and will no longer be used to train soldiers at Fort Liberty.
Wormuth said her team would reply to the rest of the questions in the letter that Budd and the others previously sent but did not give a timeline for when that will happen.
The slide in question that was seen across social media had a header that said “TERRORIST GROUPS” and went on to list various Pro-Life groups, including National Right to Life.
Independent journalist Sam Shoemate, who calls himself a watchdog and an “advocate of service members seeking justice,” shared the image in a post on X.
Shoemate said that in the presentation, “They also falsely attribute the bombing of abortion clinics to National Right to Life.”
Many prominent conservative voices condemned the presentation and asserted it was part of a pattern of painting conservatives as dangerous extremists.