Retired Lt. General Gary Volesky was suspended by the Pentagon over a comment he made to Jill Biden over the recent Supreme Court decision returning abortion lawmaking to the states.
Lt. Gen. Volesky served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Silver Star. He retired in 2020 after 36 years of service.
USA Today was first to report the suspension in an article published Saturday (excerpt):
A retired three-star general has been suspended from a $92-an-hour contract consulting the Army and is under investigation after posting a tweet that appeared to mock first lady Jill Biden on a hot-button social issue, according to the Army.
Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army’s former top spokesman and recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in Iraq, had been a “senior mentor,” advising senior military officers, staff and students participating in war games and other military activities. Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Combined Arms Center, suspended Volesky pending the outcome of the inquiry, Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, told USA TODAY.
Jill Biden tweeted on June 24, “For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us. And while we may be devastated by this injustice, we will not be silent. We will not sit back as the progress we have already won slips away…Tomorrow, we will continue to fight — for our daughters and granddaughters, and for ourselves — until all women can decide our own futures once again.”
Volesky replied in a now deleted tweet, “Glad to see you finally know what a woman is”
Volesky’s Twitter account has apparently been cleaned up. His last tweet is from the Fourth of July. With the Jill Biden comment deleted his previous tweets are from April 2020 a few months after he retired from the Army.
Axios reported Volesky had tweeted to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) when she announced she would be a member of the January 6th Committee. On July 1, 2021, Cheney posted, “I’m honored to serve on the January 6th select committee. Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics.”
According to Axios, Volesky replied, “This is all about partisan politics.”