A suggestion by Sen. Saxby Chambliss during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that “hormones” may be behind the growing problem of sexual assault in the military immediately triggered criticism from both sides of the aisle Tuesday.

“The young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22, or 23,” the Georgia Republican said. “Gee whiz, the level -- the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.; So we've got to be very careful of how we address it on our side.”

Fellow Republican Rep. Mike Turner quickly attacked Chambliss for his comments in a press release, saying, “It’s simple; criminals are responsible for sexual assaults, not hormones. Perpetuating this line of thinking does nothing to help change the culture of our military. We must be focused on combating this issue directly. The numbers speak for themselves.”

DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz also slammed the Senator in comments made on MSNBC on Tuesday.

“For a United States senator or anyone to write off sexual assault and the personal violation of a woman or man to raging hormones of youth shows just how dramatically out of touch the Republican Party is,” she said.