Former top state department official says a large part of the Department of Defense is 'misfocused'

A former top official at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bobby Charles, says the Department of Defense isn't prioritizing the correct things to put national security first. 

"You see the Pentagon itself, the Defense Department at large, is so misfocused," he said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "They're focused on woke ideals and DEI and CRT and paying for boys to get turned into girls and all this nonsense. That really is the opposite of readiness."

When asked if there could be an erosion of America's national security, Charles said he believes that is possible. 

"As a result of that, within the Pentagon, and the department itself, you see – and you can go literally service by service – you see record reductions in incapacity to recruit," he said in reference to wokeness in federal agencies. 

Charles said that there are so many security issues that the Pentagon should be focusing on, such as the southern border, China, and the Israel-Hamas war. 

"I think that we have what I would call a synthesis of national security threats," he stated. "And sometimes, not always, but sometimes you get a shot group that knocks out, you know, the target, because it's a shot group, not because it's one or two of them, but because the synthesis of them is larger than the individual threat. And that's what I'm concerned about."