A conservative watchdog group is accusing Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. of embracing race-based hiring and promotions in the military for the sake of "diversity."

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), an opposition research group that has claimed credit for dismantling several Biden nominations, is now targeting Brown, who is the president's nominee to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At issue for the group are various public statements Brown has made in which he offered full-throated support for the military's diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs.

Brown, the first Black man to lead any branch of the U.S. military, has been outspoken in his belief that the military should be proactive in elevating diverse candidates to key positions. His previous public statements that articulated his views provide ample ammunition for critics like AAF and Republican opponents of DEI policies to attack his nomination.

"All of us have to seek out those diverse candidates to bring them in. And that's what we're trying to do in the Air Force," Brown said in a 2020 interview with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. "It's – you almost got to purposely manage some of this. You can't let it – if you do it by happenstance, we won't change."