Pete Hegseth is no Jim Mattis, not even by Trump standards. If anything, the through line of Trump s picks to lead the Pentagon from General Jim Mattis to Mark Esper to Pete Heg seth represents and encapsulates the complete erosion of standards that, ironically, Pete has complained about.
00:02:34.480And I think a lot of Republican senators probably hoped that would happen.
00:02:37.820It didn't happen. This guy's going to get confirmed.
00:02:42.200You have not said much about what he hadn't said, but now that he's at this hearing,
00:02:45.900do you have any concerns about these allegations from his past, the sexual assault allegation?
00:02:51.640And if not, how quickly do you plan to move his nomination to the floor?
00:02:55.380I think he's addressed those allegations, and I didn't see all of it.
00:02:59.620I saw pieces of it, but every report I've had, the readout from the hearing this morning is that he quoted himself extremely well
00:03:06.940and made a strong argument for why he ought to be the next Secretary of Defense.
00:03:11.620If he's reported out of the committee, we will work quickly to get him across the floor, obviously,
00:03:17.620because that is a key, critical, important national security position that needs to be filled.
00:03:23.480I think the strategy on both sides, which I think was pretty consistent, played out.
00:03:28.820Yeah, it was interesting. I was searching for what exactly the Democratic strategy was.
00:03:33.280I think they know as well as anybody that Joni Ernst is the key here.
00:03:36.620If Joni Ernst goes south on this nomination, it could spell trouble.
00:03:39.860If she backs him, I think it's very clear that he'll be the next Secretary of Defense.
00:03:45.140And they were clearly leaning in on that issue of women in the military.
00:03:50.040And the problem for Democrats is he just readily conceded he changed his views on this.
00:03:54.820He changed his position. He no longer holds that view.
00:03:57.280And it made it hard for some of that to stick.
00:04:00.140Eventually, these hearings, they tend to devolve into a little bit of shirts and skins.
00:04:05.040And I think that actually works very well to Hegseth's favor.
00:04:07.760If Democrats are looking as though they are being performative and just trying to score points, frankly, against Donald Trump more than they are against Pete Hegseth,
00:04:17.600that makes it really easy for them to sort of rally together and come together.
00:04:22.040I would be very surprised at this point if he is not the next Secretary of Defense.
00:04:26.180Joni Ernst definitely was not too confrontational with him.
00:04:30.500And that may be the whole ballgame here.
00:04:32.180There are still a few people off this committee we need to think about.
00:04:34.680But he performed extraordinarily well, didn't back down, perhaps other than changing his position on women in the military,
00:04:42.900didn't back down from a lot of the more confrontational questioning.
00:04:47.660And I think that's exactly what a lot of Republicans wanted to see today.
00:04:51.140I mean, because I take your point about the performance of the Democrats today,
00:04:54.140but our system isn't set up for only the Democratic Party to care about who leads the United States military.
00:04:59.460I agree. But who are we holding out hope for here?
00:05:02.380I mean, Mark Wayne Mullen's not going to be the guy.
00:05:04.560Tom Cotton's not going to be the person.
00:05:06.360I do think that there's still a chance that Joni Ernst and Murkowski and Collins are keeping their powder dry.
00:05:12.100They're waiting to see if someone will come forward, if someone will come out publicly.
00:05:15.760I almost thought Cain was going to present something after that.
00:05:18.360It felt like he was leading up to something new, but they don't have anything new.
00:05:22.280But I do think that Hegseth was also in part chosen to set the tone.
00:05:25.620Trump wants to show that he's going to try to run the table.
00:07:09.360Don't know if the women over there think that's a path to power or whatever, but there's a lot of women on the Armed Services Committee, Democratic senators.
00:07:16.840Not that I have any problem with that, but they don't get why they lost.
00:07:26.440They're harping and harping on Pete Hegseth.
00:07:29.220Just one after the – made it so that even – that's General Barry McCaffrey.
00:08:49.800We certainly don't see that exuding from the White House right now.
00:08:53.640And we haven't seen it from the Pentagon.
00:08:55.340When you have a Pentagon that promotes, for example, West Point teaching, having a lecture on how to understand your whiteness and white rage.
00:09:05.600When you have an Air Force Academy that tells new cadets, don't say mom and dad, and that colorblind is offensive.
00:09:11.760Heck, when you even – Steve, when you have a chief of staff of the Air Force that puts a memo out and says we need so many Hispanic females as pilots,
00:09:19.160rather than just the best pilots, the best shooters, the best sailors that America can possibly have, we've got to get back to that.
00:09:29.620And that is, in my mind, what Pete Hegseth embodies.
00:09:33.420And that's why you're seeing so much overwhelming support from the troops from him, because they miss it.
00:09:40.340And they joined the military to kick in doors, jump out of planes, sail ships, and fly fighter jets or be a cyber warrior.
00:09:47.460And I think the point that Pete very articulately made today was that his comments have been about standards.
00:09:55.860You either hit the standards to do the job or you don't.
00:12:36.300You know how many politicians run around here and drink and cheat and don't behave and comport themselves that's worthy of the trust of the American people have given us?
00:12:48.020And yet you're going to try to kind of throw that dirt at a nominee.
00:12:51.980And look, why so many veterans who are sitting in that audience identify with him is many of us do come back scarred from war.
00:13:00.440Many of us have to go through stuff to get to a better place.
00:13:03.580Pete embodies that, and I think they respect him for it.
00:13:07.400And it's, you know, who the troops want to see leading them into the charge of the 21st century.
00:13:16.600Colonel, can we get your social media?
00:13:18.280People want to, now that you're the senior national security advisor in the White House,
00:13:21.640you head of the National Security Council for the President, people want to keep up with you.
00:13:27.520You can follow me at Michael G. Waltz across all the platforms.
00:13:32.400And you're flashing up there a book, Hard Truths, thinking lead like a Green Beret.
00:13:36.700I'm proud to say the proceeds go to a Gold Star family.
00:13:40.340And that's the painful lessons that I and people like Pete and others have learned in combat
00:13:46.160and how we're applying it now to fighting the swamp, Steve.
00:13:50.840And I've got to tell you, sometimes the tribes of Washington, D.C. are a lot tougher than the tribes overseas, that's for sure, as you well know.
00:16:58.480And it seems like nearly every major weapon system, again, often discussed in this very room, is costing too much, delivering too little, and taking way too long.
00:17:09.520The bottom line is the status quo is unacceptable.
00:18:32.840Just give us your impression of having sat in there, which is supposed to be a confirmation hearing.
00:18:37.840What I was shocked is that we didn't hear the Democrats the entire time, and we played the entire first round of questions on the morning show
00:18:46.720and didn't hear one significant real policy question from any of the Democrats, just tearing at him on all these personal issues.
00:19:01.140It was truly an honor to be in that room in support of Pete Hegseth.
00:19:05.680And you're correct with regards to the Democrats.
00:19:07.940Honestly, the female Democrats on the Armed Services Committee were trying to outdo themselves, one after the other,
00:19:15.000on who could be the most unhinged with their line of questioning or lack thereof,
00:19:19.500because all they wanted to do was attack Pete Hegseth and mistakes that have been made in the past, or even potential mistakes.
00:19:27.520You know, a lot of them are false allegations.
00:19:31.780However, they didn't have a lot of questions, like you said, about policy and what he's going to do as the head of the Department of Defense, as the SECDEF.
00:19:41.980That's where their line of questioning should have been.
00:19:44.260And we saw that from Republicans, and a lot of them, you know, they asked him different questions regarding policy and even different questions regarding what it means to be a warfighter.
00:19:55.980And we saw just how strong and qualified Pete Hegseth is to be the SECDEF by his answers to Republicans' questions.
00:20:09.020What is this whole thing about women in combat?
00:20:11.640I mean, you served, you went over to Iraq, you deployed, you know, I think it was 2010, 2011.
00:20:18.120What is this whole thing about this controversy, women in combat, combat arms?
00:20:25.980So the Democrats today, as we saw from the hearing, had a lot of questions regarding the comments that Pete Hegseth has made regarding women in combat.
00:21:46.200Those branches like armor, infantry, especially in the Army, where we are seeing that we are lowering standards in order for females to meet requirements to be in those specific branches.
00:21:58.240You know, when I deployed, like you said, I was a logistics officer, so I was combat support.
00:22:04.600I did a significant role in Iraq to make sure that those combat arms, infantry, you know, armor, had their bullets, their food and water so they could survive.
00:22:18.200The things that they need to be successful in their missions, combat support roles, such as logistics officers or logistics branches, do those positions to make sure that those service members on the front lines can survive.
00:22:33.040Support as in medics, that is a support position, doctors, things like that, things that aren't infantry, armor, engineers, things of those natures, those are not combat arms.
00:22:48.200So, walk us through, were you surprised by the intensity?
00:22:52.120I mean, we watched it here, obviously, on television, and we really focused more on the Democrats.
00:22:58.060It was surprising how the women came after him, the female senators, and also Senator Cain, I mean, all of them did, but the females particularly, and I guess Senator Cain also.
00:23:08.900In the room, did it feel that that intensity, was that intensity coming through nonstop?
00:23:13.740It was, and it also, you know, a lot of the veterans in that room noticed how unhinged the Democrats became in their line of questioning.
00:23:26.660And it was six out of the seven females, you know, the last female senator wasn't as unhinged as the rest of them.
00:23:34.920But Senator Tim Cain took the cake on that one.
00:23:39.600The fact that he brought an innocent seven-year-old child, dragged her into the hearing in his line of questioning is despicable.
00:23:48.700And just, I believe he topped the females in his line of questioning.
00:30:43.900You heard that over the weekend we had John Gardner here.
00:30:47.140This is this concept that, you know, up to the early 20th century and really the earthquake in San Francisco
00:30:54.960and then the Great Fire that burned San Francisco essentially to the ground,
00:30:58.220you had the financial panic that came after that.
00:31:00.960And J.P. Morgan and others had to step in, but principally J.P. Morgan kind of set right the bond market
00:31:06.300and the stock market essentially saved the country from what looked like a kind of a default.
00:31:11.040After that, they went to an internal account of, you know, tariffs up at that time had paid for people trying to get into the products into the country.
00:31:17.460After that, they set up an internal revenue service.
00:31:20.700And so the question, President Trump's asking, hey, why is everything on the shoulders of the American people?
00:31:26.080Corporations, LLCs, the American people individually.
00:31:31.880Why is the whole burden for paying everything on them?
00:31:35.080Maybe think of tariffs more broadly as a maximization of external revenues.
00:31:40.080This is the most lucrative market in the world.
00:31:43.380And the Chinese Communist Party and so many other people get in here and get for free.
00:31:48.440Look, I'm quite opposed or not enthusiastic, let's say, maybe put a nicer face on it,
00:31:53.860on really foreign capital coming into the country to invest in the country.
00:31:58.360Right now, I actually think we ought to take a hiatus on that, take a hiatus on at least a moratorium,
00:32:04.100you know, shortly on all types of immigration until we work out what these visa programs are
00:32:07.980and what they really are benefiting and how they're helping the American citizen.
00:32:12.860Everything's got to be in back of help taking the country forward, taking the American citizens forward.
00:32:18.540And so I think you need to take kind of a rethink of all that.
00:32:21.220President Trump, I think, afterwards, can you put that up, put out a true social,
00:32:26.160announcing he's going to set up an external revenue service that focuses on maximizing revenues coming into this country,
00:32:33.540people trying to get access to this country?
00:32:35.920I think you can think of this broadly.
00:32:37.280I even think in buying stocks and bonds, I believe you can charge a premium because,
00:32:41.920listen, the reason the liquidity that our markets are so liquid, people want to put money into the United States.
00:32:47.140Why? The investments are safer than anywhere else in the world.
00:32:49.940And if you're starting the kinetic part of the Third World War and the Eurasian landmass,
00:32:54.340and the rest of the markets are in turmoil all over the place,
00:32:57.280if you want to invest here, if you want to get access to this market with products or services,
00:33:02.380it seems to me you should pay a toll for that.
00:39:18.840Like I said, this economy needs an injection.
00:39:22.120And I think President Trump is the man to do it.
00:39:24.540And I think we don't have to look that far.
00:39:27.740Look at what Millet has achieved in Argentina in such a short space of time.
00:39:32.660He cut government spending significantly, gutted useless government departments.
00:39:37.520And for the first time in over a century, Argentina now have a surplus.
00:39:42.240So, you know, the people are suffering shorter term, but longer term, the economy is looking much healthier.
00:39:48.700We need that same aggressive move today for the U.S. economy because we're at the point of no return.
00:39:54.400Walk me through how do people now more than ever, how do they get access to you, how do they get access?
00:40:02.100We try to do the macro every day or every couple of days.
00:40:06.480But you guys can actually talk to the micro people and get them to look at they can get comfortable with precious metals as an alternative investment and as a hedge against inflation and turbulent times.
00:40:59.180This audience is ready and they're ready to talk to you guys.
00:41:01.420So I really want to thank you guys for having our back here and helping us with all the free installments so people can understand macroeconomics, sir.
00:45:16.300I think it's bigger than shock and awe.
00:45:18.720It's going to really, I think, surprise people.
00:45:20.560I said today in the Politico that it's going to be to the power of 10 as intense as it was in 2017 because now they've had a lot longer to work on it.
00:45:31.020You've got these teams that have been working together for a long time.
00:45:33.180They're really going to hit the, there we are right there.
00:45:35.540That's the, that's the Politico headline for the interview this morning.
00:45:39.720Very thankful of the Politico people to have me over there.
00:46:08.140You know, we had Rob Bleuie on the founder of Daily Signal yesterday with this poll they did.
00:46:13.000It said 50% of the administrative state and 50% of the deep state employees at a senior executive level and executive level are going to resist President Trump and his administration as they come in and try to make some changes, turn this country around.
00:46:29.040American people are saying it two-thirds, one-third, two-thirds still think the country's on the wrong track.
00:46:34.340President Trump's going to try to turn that around.
00:46:36.100He's got a team there of agents of change.
00:46:44.240I have never seen that type of intensity focused on anybody in a hearing.
00:46:51.760They just came off the chain, particularly these female Democratic senators.
00:46:56.640They were just attack, attack, attack.
00:46:59.900There was no enlightenment at all for what Pete's going to do as Secretary of Defense, no enlightenment at all for really what his policies are going to be.
00:47:08.780It was just personal attack after personal attack after personal attack.
00:47:17.160Cash Patel's going to be the same way.
00:47:20.040Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going to be the same way.
00:47:22.880You're going to see the plus Christy Noem.
00:47:24.940You're going to see attack after attack after attack.
00:47:27.220No, we're going to figure out how to juggle because tomorrow, starting Wednesday and Thursday, there are going to be multiple going on at the same time.
00:47:33.420Obviously, some will be less intense, but still, their whole mode is not to really be advice and consent, which the Constitution says.
00:47:40.800Their whole mode is attack, attack, attack.
00:47:44.400And what I'm really proud of is with Real America's Voice, we played this kind of uninterrupted today.
00:47:49.880We didn't take any commercial breaks in the first two hours.
00:47:52.000I'm sure I really want to thank Rob Sig for doing that because I thought it was very important not to have any break to see it in continuity.
00:47:57.860And we really focused just on the Democrats so that you could see the intensity of, let's be blunt, their hatred.
00:48:04.660Their hatred of Pete Hegseth, the hatred of the warrior ethos, the hatred of what Pete Hegseth stands for, right?
00:48:13.220The MAGA movement, President Trump, it all kind of came out.
00:48:15.720I thought it was very important today because today is really the first day of kicking off getting things done.
00:48:22.680Remember, we talked about the three things that, you know, the beginning of the Third World War, the kinetic part, President Trump's got to take off.
00:48:29.440And then it's got to be the deportation, securing the border deportation of the 15 million illegal alien invaders.
00:48:35.200Other things to do with immigration, a lot of that will be executive orders.
00:48:38.540The one in the middle that's the most important, right, the one that's existential is how you handle the deficits, the financing of it, this massive debt that we have.
00:49:01.020But this is when the days of thunder really start, when President Trump takes his hand off the King James Bible and gives his address.
00:49:08.120And then immediately kind of goes to work.
00:49:09.900It's kind of a big signing ceremony in the afternoon at the White House.
00:49:12.620We're going to cover this wall to wall next week.
00:49:15.180In fact, from now all the way through Inauguration Day, Real America's Voice, we're going to be up talking about this and all the different shows.
00:49:24.200You're going to get a ringside seat to everything that's happening.
00:52:38.480We'll be back for the second hour of the afternoon show of The War Room in just a moment.
00:52:42.800I want to warn you of a huge change that could be coming to our money and our bank accounts.
00:52:56.840First, think back to 9-11, shortly after the government pushed through the Patriot Act.
00:53:00.860This gave the government power to spy on innocent Americans by monitoring our phone and email and tracking our movement across the Internet.
00:53:09.700Now, Jim Rickards, editor of the independent financial newsletter Strategic Intelligence and New York Times bestselling author,
00:53:16.860is warning about a coming event that could elevate this governmental surveillance to a terrifying new level.
00:53:22.920In fact, some of the guests I've had on The War Room believe that the government will soon expand their powers to track our every move.
00:53:30.300If we say the wrong things on social media, donate to the wrong causes, buy firearms, or even vote MAGA,
00:53:37.360the government may be able to shut us out of our bank accounts.
00:53:41.340I can't say for sure if this will happen, but it's an interesting and dire warning.
00:53:46.860Fortunately, Jim Rickards, an American patriot and friend of mine, has made it his mission to educate us on what he believes is coming
00:53:53.600and how to protect yourself from the possibility of programmable money.
00:53:59.180Watch Jim's warning video now before it's censored like I've been in the past.
00:54:06.980That's RickardsWarRoom.com now to see the video.
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