services committee voted to keep the prosecution of sexual assaults inside the military within the armed forces chain of command itself. senator claire mccaskill who has pushed for many reforms voted with the chair today. you know, this is a tough one. i m learning this. by the way, look at this breakdown, senator. these sexual assaults aren t yelling hey cutie or nice dress today or something. these are incredible. a third of the cases involving women. involve sexual touching. a third attempted sexual intercourse, attempted rape. a third completed sexual intercourse, rape. these charges are almost to the level of capital crime. they re incredibly serious. sexual assault certainly felonies. these are not misbehaviors. can you trust the military to enforce the law here? well, you have to understand, chris, that my decision today was guided by years of experience as i an courtroom prosecutor. handling hundreds of these cases. and i believe what we have done
senator gillibrand s proposal in this bill is the moderate step. to make sure that women move forward. the problem here is there s been 26,000 sexual assaults in the military estimated. only 15% of the women are disclosing what s going on. the number one reason as senator gillibrand mentioned in the hearing today was because they re afraid of the chain of command. by keeping it separate from the chain of command and within the judge advocate system let them decide what cases to bring on these felony cases. chris, if its a comment in formation, something that was not right or a sergeant says, hey, good looking. that s not a trial. that should be a reprimand what s called nonjudicial punishment in article 15. under gillibrand s bill, that stays within the chain of command. but these felony cases
mccaskill. former congressman from pennsylvania patrick murphy, you have a different view. you re with gillibrand. that s right. and i do want to start you re a j.a.g. i prosecuted sex crimes when i was in the military and used to work in the philadelphia d.a. s office. let me start, chris, senator mccaskill has been awesome. and a lot of women in the senate and the house have been awesome on this. the steps they made today are great. what s called ucmj article 60 taking that away to make sure these verdicts stand where they are. where i differ from the senator is that it needs to be independent. senator mccaskill did try sex crimes but she never had to go to a mayor or to the governor to get permission to prosecute these cases. it should be an independent military justice system. and let me say one other thing. senator leahy who i respect has a bill to say let s put it in the civilian side. that s a bridge too far.
it s unbelievable. thank you so much, senator mccaskill. former congressman from pennsylvania patrick murphy, you re with gillibrand. that s right. and i do want to start snoorgs you re a jaguar. i prosecuted sex crimes when i was in the military and used to work in the philadelphia d.a. s office. let me start, chris, senator mccaskill has been awesome. and a lot of women in the senate and the house have been awesome on this. the stuff they meant today are great. what s called ucmj article 60 taking that away to make sure these verdicts stand where they are. where i differ from the senator is that it needs to be independent. senator mccaskill did try sex crimes but she never had to go to a mayor or to the governor to get permission to prosecute these cases. it should be an independent military justice system. and let me say one other thing. senator leahy who i respect has a bill to say let s put it in
here s ted cruz on the mark levin show, very conservative radio guy, and a very, very conservative senator. let s hear what he says. i think this is the scare tactic i m concerned about on the hard right. a registry is, number one, inconsistent with the second amendment right to keep and bear arms, but number two, historically, has been the predicate for taxation, regulation, and ultimately for confiscation. that s what this fight is all about. they want a registry because they want to limit the liberties of law-abiding citizens. i don t know where to start in terms of taking that apart. deconstruct it. there s no talk of a registry. what in history in this country has ever been confiscated? i ve never had my car confiscated. it s been registered. people have their fishing licenses. their fishing poles aren t confiscated. chris, look, they can t really argue against background