Retired Merchant Marine Admiral Evades Inquiry Regarding Offensive Tweet From Sexual Assault Response Director

The retired admiral did not provide a sufficient answer about a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) official’s tweet about white males.

Fox News reports that the interaction occurred during a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The hearing was set to be about the shortage of U.S. Marines in the service. Rep. Babin asked Rear Adm. Ann Phillips (ret.) about a June 2020 tweet from Anton Tripolskii. Tripolskii was hired at $142,595 per year as the sexual assault response director for a Kings Point, New York, location.

Tripolskii wrote on Twitter: “We don’t have forces who do right by survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence because we don’t have forces who don’t abuse Brown and Black people,” and “Same forces, same reasons. Misogyny and racism grow from the same white, male root.”

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May 14, 2023

Tripolskii also retweeted a user in October 2020 who suggested that: “White men with a history of domestic and sexual violence” are more inclined to become “radicalized terrorists.”

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Four members of the U.S. House’s Anti-Woke Caucus to USMMA wrote to Superintendent Vice Adm. Joanna Nunan regarding Triplskii’s tweets.

Representative Babin said: “He has made it clear that he believes that white males — the same White males that make up the majority of the U.S. Merchant Marine — are to blame for sexual violence in the United States,” and “In fact, Mr. Tripolskii, who is white and male, has made these kinds of comments repeatedly.”

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These members say that the military should have been aware of the Twitter activities of Tripolskii before they hired him. Representative Babin asked Phillips if she agreed with Tripolskii’s tweet that misogyny and racism “grow from the same white, male root.”

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Phillips dodged the direct question from Babin but recognized the USMMA received the letter regarding comments made on Twitter by Tripolskii. However, she wouldn’t say one way or another about how she felt about his commentary on racism and more.

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Representative Babin interrupted her, stating he did not understand why she wouldn’t answer the question directly.

Phillips said: “Well, sir, his statements were made a number of years ago, and I have no indication that they apply to his current position,” and “And again, I have spoken with Vice Adm. Nunan, we are moving forward with a future and collective future for the academy that values everyone, including white men, for their professionalism and skill and ensures that we have a team to move forward.”