Republican lawmakers on Thursday scolded Army officials who suggested a garrison drill instructor who taught a class calling pro-life organizations a “terrorist group” had not been fired.

It was recently discovered that a training class at Fort Liberty hosted an anti-terrorism training course that included a slide show labeling some pro-life groups as “terrorists,” and was shown to more than 9,000 soldiers over a seven-year period. The Army confirmed that the slides were unauthorized and created by a corrupt drill instructor, but Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Lt. Gen. Patrick Matlock avoided questioning in Congress. Hearing He questioned why the training classes were not stopped sooner and suggested the trainers might not have been expelled. (Related story: Pentagon prepares to bring troubled aircraft back into full service amid ongoing safety concerns)

“Has anyone been held accountable? This is the United States Army. This has been going on since 2017… Are they being held accountable? At all?” Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana asked Matlock. “What about the soldier who came up with this training? Are they being held accountable?”

“The individual who created this training has undergone remedial training, has been retrained as a trainer and continues to work,” Whitlock told Banks.

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Banks sought further clarification as to what accountability measures had been taken against others who may have been involved, but Whitlock declined to answer.

“There's an acknowledgement that something went wrong, but no one here today, in this hearing, has been held accountable for it. That's shameful,” Banks told Whitlock and another witness, Under Secretary of the Army Gereven Schaefer. “It makes you wonder what else the Army has gotten wrong.”

Following Banks' comments, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida pressed further on whether anyone involved in the incident had been fired.

“The chain of command is responsible for adverse actions and personnel actions and I'm not going to comment on what they may or may not have done. That's the chain of command's responsibility,” Whitlock responded.

“Don't you think that failed? Wasn't it incumbent on the chain of command to stop this nonsense?” Gaetz asked Whitlock.

Whitlock responded that as soon as the chain of command learned of the slideshow's existence, “they took immediate action.”

“Eight years may be over quickly in the United States Army, but I don't see it being over that quickly,” Gates said. “So let's not be over so quickly. This is kind of a game… Has anyone been fired, suspended, demoted?”

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In response to the question, Whitlock said, “The training materials were woefully inadequately prepared.”

“If we are going to cover up what the outcome was, then I don't think the chain of command approach is enough to deal with this. And it's [Department of Defense]”This is a widespread issue,” Gaetz said.[Rep. Banks]It's baffling to me because they won't even tell me what they did… I think we owe it to them to answer these questions.”

That Fort Liberty was hosting an associated training course first came to light in July, when images of slides from the training circulated on social media. The slides described several pro-life groups as “terrorist groups” and alleged that these groups engaged in activities to spread their message, including protests, mass demonstrations, picketing, and attempts to “counsele” outside crisis pregnancy centers.

Bank Office Pressed When we asked the Army for further clarification on the incident in July, we were told that the slides had been created in 2017 and had been shown to more than 9,100 soldiers since then. The Army condemned the slides as soon as they were discovered.

The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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