Texas News

USAA Members Threaten To Leave If It Doesn't Pull Advertising Dollars From Tucker Carlson’s Show

Texas Public Radio | By Josh Peck

Published June 28, 2021 at 7:00 PM CDT

People pass by a promo of Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the News Corporation building in New York, U.S., March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

USAA has come under heavy criticism for airing advertisements on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in recent days after the conservative commentator’s disparaging remarks toward chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, with some members threatening on social media to take their business elsewhere.

USAA, a banking institution for members of the U.S. military and their families, is being pushed to remove their ads from Carlson’s show, Tucker Carlson Nightly, after he said Milley was “not just a pig, he’s stupid” on Thursday. The comments were made after Milley told lawmakers he wanted to understand “white rage” and that he believed members of the military should be well read on a variety of issues, including critical race theory.

Critical race theory is a legal academic framework taught in higher education — typically in law school — to study systemic racism and its impact on society, according to an NPR segment of Fresh Air published on Thursday.

Following Carlson’s comments, many longtime USAA banking members have demanded that the bank pull its ads from Carlson’s show, including retired colonels and generals.

Moe Davis, a retired Air Force Colonel and USAA member for 38 years, said he would completely sever ties with the company if they continued “supporting sedition and the trashing of the military.”

Joseph Collins is a retired Army Colonel who says he has been a USAA member for more than 50 years and said USAA would lose customers if they continued to support people like Carlson.

Veterans for Responsible Leadership, a non-partisan veteran group with a self-described mission to “keep fascism and authoritarianism from rising again” that has been critical of former President Donald Trump, has also called on USAA to pull their ads and has highlighted USAA members who are demanding a change.

USAA did not immediately respond to TPR's request for comment.

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