Tonight Defense Secretary Mark Esper announcing the confederate flag is no longer allowed to be publicly displayed on any military installations, a move many have been advocating for years. The question you have to ask is why didn't you do this 20 years ago, 50 years ago. Congresswoman Jackie Spear says there's a problem with white supremacists in the military. Although it involves just a tiny percentage of the country's 2.1 million service members. Does the military need to do more to root white supremacists out of the ranks. Absolutely, there is evidence of white supremacism within the military that needs to be rooted out.
NBC news has reviewed court documents for five criminal cases involving far-right extremism among active duty ranks in the last four years, including two linked to the violent neo-nazi group Adam Waffen and a Military Times poll shows more than half of minority troops say they have personally witnessed examples of white nationalism or racism within the ranks. Historian and military veteran Sam Jones told us about the fear he felt seeing a fellow marine displaying the confederate flag. That put me on notice that this was someone that i needed to watch that i could not trust. Esper's policy didn't actually include the words confederate flag. Instead, he sent a list of approved flags and the confederate flag was not on it.