Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is facing heat from both sides of the political aisle for comments he made about sexual crimes in the military that seemed to attribute the problem to natural hormone levels in males.
“The young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22-23. Gee whiz — the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur,” he said, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on sexual assaults in the military.
He went on, CNN reported: “So we’ve got to be very careful on how we address it on our side, but guys, we’re not doing our job. You’re not doing yours, and we’re not doing ours with the rates that we are seeing on sexual assaults.”
Mr. Chambliss finished, CNN said: “As I said to start with, you recognize it. We recognize it, and we got to figure this thing out because we simply can’t tolerate it.”
Republican Rep. Mike Turner issued a quick statement, clarifying that criminals are to blame for sexual assaults — not hormones.
“Perpetuating this line of thinking does nothing to help change the culture of our military,” Mr. Turner said, CNN reported.
And Democratic Rep.Debbie Wasserman Schultz pushed for Mr. Chambliss to apologize.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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