Nicole Malachowski
speaker
750 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2025
last heard 18 Sep
Nicole Malachowski’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
A company, maybe based on its company values or cultures, wants to set a standard or a quota to say, hey, we want 50% of our board to be women. They are absolutely entitled to do that. I can see how people would be like, well, I don't want quotas in the military for promotions or for certain duty assignments. I think both of you would agree with that.
But what they're doing is they're equating DEI with quotas. I always tell people DEI is not stopping meritocracy. DEI, when done well and when executed as intended, is what enables meritocracy.
And we need our military to reflect the face of the country that it represents. There's foundational good, right, in that. And Secretary Hexeth, I think, needs to be concerned with the ramifications of this kind of censorship, right, and the book bannings that we have at the war colleges and the academies. Look, it's a recruitment and retention issue.
Like you, Krusty, I'm sure that you are mentoring lots of people who want to learn to fly or young gals, young boys who want to join the military. You know, when this all started going down in March, which ironically, right, was Women's History Month,
You know, I got I had been mentoring a young a young black man from in high school from Chicago who was wanting to join the military and become a fighter pilot. You know, who does he look up to? The Tuskegee Airmen, Chappie James, all those things. Right. And all of a sudden he is sending me emails going, is this really happening?
I can't believe that the Air Force I want to join is censoring the Tuskegee Airmen. I'm not sure I want to join an Air Force that does that. That's a recruitment issue. Also, like you, I am consistently mentoring women who are still currently in the military.
I have had several, and I'm talking close to 10 at least, and I'm not exaggerating, over the last three months, write to me and say, I'm not sure I want to reenlist anymore.
Women officers who are like, you know what, I'm not sure I'm going to put my name in for the command board because, you know, it's clear that we're not wanted here or people are going to turn around and say it's DEI and woke and I don't want to live with that specter over my shoulder.
So for Secretary Hegseth, if he can't get behind the fundamental, I think, wrongness of the censorship, can we at least get behind the pragmatic impact it's having on recruitment and retention?
No, I don't. And here's why. Because I've been, without giving away names, because I fear of retribution for them, I've been talking to people on the inside at the highest levels of public affairs. If you look at the memo that was signed and written directing this, I think it was dated 26 February 2025, titled Digital Content Refresh. You're welcome to go look at that.
It's very clear on what it was directed. Following that memo, internal emails went out with a list, a complete list of the terms. And those terms included things like woman, right, or diversity. And so those things were pulled. Now, here's the question, right? So critics will say to me, well, this wasn't what President Trump and Secretary Hegseth intended, right?
It was what malicious intent or malicious compliance, I think, is what people have said. Let me say, let me let me give that to some people. Let's say there was malicious compliance. We also have something in the military called commander's intent. Right, Chris? You guys both from. Right. When.
Friction of war. It doesn't meet the rules of engagement or the special instructions. We fall back on what is the commander's intent before I take action. And if commander's intent is misinterpreted or misimplied, whose responsibility is it to fix it? And so the Trump administration absolutely has even an out here right now to go and say, I am the commander in chief.
This was not my commander's intent. Let's fix this.
They have not.
Right, the books. I mean, and to get back to Denver really quickly, like, you know, Chunk, when I found out they had removed articles on me, I kind of was just scoffing because These were articles. Look, I've been retired seven years. These articles were 10, 20 years old.
We're going back and deleting. It's nothing more than a modern day electronic book burning. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
Yes. So to your point, I served as a White House fellow under George Bush and then President Obama when he came in. So six months under each administration, which was fascinating in and of itself to watch a presidential transition from literally the inside. Came back in 2015 under the end of the Obama administration.
So I was working as the director of the White House's Joining Forces Initiative, directly advising then First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden on all issues. Everything related to service members, veterans and military families, you know, education, spouse, employment, veterans, homelessness, literally the entire gamut, you know, I don't see joining forces in the current administration.
It would have been nice to have them continue with that initiative. I mean, I don't know that many people can throw spears at what the joining forces mission and purpose was. But during that time when I was in the White House, I mean, service members, veterans, the military were on the docket to talk about every single day.
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