Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - Human Events Special： Department of War

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00:00:25.780 The Poso Daily Brief.

00:00:30.000 This is what happens when the fourth turning meets fifth generation warfare.

00:00:40.660 A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.

00:00:46.960 This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobiec.

00:00:50.300 Christ is king.

00:00:52.040 The Army, Air Force, Marines.

00:00:53.640 108% in November, 119% in February.

00:00:57.460 108% after the election, 105% with the Navy.

00:01:01.540 With the Marines, up 112%, and 100%, they are through the roof.

00:01:07.100 The U.S. Air Force, 100% of its goal.

00:01:10.300 Same thing in February.

00:01:12.180 I think the warfighters are happy to have a warfighter up top.

00:01:15.660 Those numbers are a reflection of why we're here.

00:01:17.800 When warfighting and lethality is brought back, and it's serious, what we're doing here is serious about getting after soldiering and warfighting, American people want to come back in.

00:01:29.120 They want to sign up.

00:01:30.300 These recruiting numbers don't surprise me.

00:01:31.880 You're a part of a huge surge right now, a historic surge of Americans that are stepping up to serve this country.

00:01:37.460 As President Trump points out, record-breaking numbers of Americans are enlisting to serve.

00:01:43.900 A year ago, we couldn't get folks to serve.

00:01:46.320 Today, we barely have enough throughput and basic training to deal with the amount of Americans that want to stand up and serve.

00:01:51.740 It is historic, the level of recruitment that we're getting.

00:01:55.700 And those that are in the ranks already, retention is at record-breaking levels.

00:02:00.340 We don't care what you look like.

00:02:01.540 It doesn't matter if your dad left or if you knew who your father was. 0.92

00:02:09.280 They're getting annihilated.

00:02:11.280 We have been honed into a machine of lethal moving parts that you would be wise to avoid if you know it's good for you.

00:02:18.600 The three sites have been struck by U.S. bombers.

00:02:22.640 We will not back down.

00:02:24.360 We've seen war.

00:02:25.820 We don't want war.

00:02:26.780 But if you want war with the United States of America, there's one thing I can promise you, so help me God.

00:02:32.640 Someone else will raise your sons and daughters. 0.96

00:02:36.980 What you're watching in real time is peace through strength and America first.

00:02:44.780 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard today's edition of Human Events Daily.

00:02:49.440 Today is December 12th, 2025.

00:02:52.600 Anno Domini.

00:02:53.940 Folks, today we've got a special treat for all of you.

00:02:57.780 Today is the Human Events Department of War special.

00:03:02.680 Because what we're doing today is, if you remember, we went to the Department of War earlier in the week.

00:03:10.960 And we conducted a series of interviews with department officials who were there.

00:03:15.860 And in those interviews, we talked about the new mission of the military.

00:03:20.100 And I should actually say it's the old mission of the military.

00:03:22.460 Funny enough, it's the mission of the military that I joined when I joined the United States Navy.

00:03:28.920 The mission of defending the United States of America, its constitution, and its people.

00:03:35.060 That is the point of the U.S. military.

00:03:37.940 It's not social programs.

00:03:39.340 It's not DEI.

00:03:40.780 It is not transgenderism. 0.95

00:03:42.600 It is none of this stuff.

00:03:44.300 It is basic defense of the homeland.

00:03:48.740 Are you defending your home, patriot?

00:03:51.260 Are you actually able to be there and be someone who's part of an organization whose job it is, yes, to defend the homeland by hurting people and breaking stuff?

00:04:02.520 That is what the point of the military is.

00:04:05.320 The military is not a humanitarian organization.

00:04:08.500 The point of the military is to perform military operations.

00:04:12.820 And military operations are those sorts of operations where, yes, bad guys get hurt and their stuff gets broken.

00:04:21.120 That's the entire point.

00:04:22.520 And you continue to do that until you make sure that those people never come back to your homeland. 0.99

00:04:29.160 Do the same thing.

00:04:29.900 But at the same time, you don't want to go around kicking fights all over the world.

00:04:36.400 And unfortunately, prior to the Trump administration, that is what we saw time and time again, the way our military would be used.

00:04:46.240 It was wrong.

00:04:47.540 And that's why the American people voted against it.

00:04:50.680 So what did we also see?

00:04:52.620 Well, we also saw the U.S. military being used for social engineering, for pushing trans programs, for pushing all sorts of just, I'm going to say it, abject insanity. 1.00

00:05:02.880 Pushing experimental vaccines, pushing all of this nonsense.

00:05:07.940 And look, I got out right before, I want to say right before the, you know, this all really hit.

00:05:17.320 I did actually, I had to sit, when I was still in the military, I had to sit through one, just one, actual transgender training for a sensitivity class.

00:05:28.920 To have it explained to me, as a Navy officer, what it would be like, if I, and the way that I would be expected to treat a fellow member who was trans.

00:05:42.320 Now, what's interesting is, I never had to do that with, you know, serving with anyone in the military.

00:05:49.260 And I, believe me, I served with everyone.

00:05:51.060 I served with, I served with white people.

00:05:53.700 I served with black people.

00:05:54.760 I served with Hispanics.

00:05:56.300 I served with Asians.

00:05:58.400 I served with just everything under the sun.

00:06:00.540 Everything you can think of.

00:06:01.600 All right.

00:06:02.620 Christians, Muslims, Jews, serve them all.

00:06:06.000 Okay.

00:06:07.100 Probably some Buddhists too, if I think about it, you know.

00:06:09.820 And the thing is, we never had any special classes on how to treat one another.

00:06:15.920 It was very simple.

00:06:17.520 Treat each other with respect.

00:06:18.620 That was it.

00:06:19.760 That was the bottom line.

00:06:21.120 And get the job done.

00:06:22.400 And the standard was always, as long as you can get the job done and perform your work up to mission standard, then you are good to go.

00:06:31.520 That's the standard of the military that I joined.

00:06:33.900 All right.

00:06:34.020 You have to, and you have to maintain physical standards.

00:06:36.240 You have to maintain your physical fitness.

00:06:38.200 You have to maintain all of that as well, as well as grooming standards.

00:06:40.920 For example, right now, I have a beard.

00:06:42.620 I am out of grooming standards.

00:06:44.060 My hair is in grooming standards.

00:06:45.760 That is basically the way the military used to work.

00:06:50.280 And that is the way that now, finally, thank God, the Department of War is returning the United States military to military operational readiness.

00:07:00.100 So join with us today as we embark on the Human Events Department of War special.

00:07:06.440 Stay tuned with the special interviews of various officials from the department filmed right inside the Department of War, the Pentagon itself.

00:07:17.180 Folks, you're in for a big treat.

00:07:20.520 Stay tuned.

00:07:21.000 Human Events Daily continues.

00:07:24.100 Nothing will stand in our way.

00:07:26.420 And our golden age has just begun.

00:07:28.780 This is Human Events with Jack Posobo.

00:07:30.540 Now it's time for everyone to understand what America First truly means.

00:07:35.220 Welcome to the second American revolution.

00:07:39.620 We're really excited here at Human Events Daily to be sitting down with Patrick Weaver.

00:07:44.820 He is the senior advisor to the Secretary of War specifically for Homeland Defense.

00:07:49.700 Patrick, thank you for being here.

00:07:50.800 Thanks for having me.

00:07:51.660 I mean, you work here.

00:07:52.480 So actually, for me, it wasn't that far.

00:07:55.000 How long was the commute to the studio?

00:07:56.920 Two minutes.

00:07:57.540 Two minutes.

00:07:57.900 All right.

00:07:58.200 All right.

00:07:58.400 So, but no, I, you know, just very appreciative of the department and the secretary for allowing us to have the space here and, you know, to be able to do the show, do these, this series of interviews.

00:08:09.160 Because I do think that that level of transparency is something that we haven't seen before, quite frankly.

00:08:14.240 And I, so we really appreciate it.

00:08:15.620 Absolutely.

00:08:16.260 Well, we're excited to have fresh journalists here who care about reporting the truth and the good work we're doing here.

00:08:22.520 Well, look, our job is to get the story out.

00:08:24.600 Whatever the story is, whatever the truth is, we're going to get that out.

00:08:27.820 And so, you know, if, if something comes up and, you know, we saw that, you know, the whole mainstream media was going off about these, you know, this, this drone strike off of Venezuela.

00:08:37.180 And, you know, I remember just with my own background as, you know, prior Navy intelligence, that's, that's kind of SOP actually.

00:08:45.100 And, you know, Admiral Bradley having been a Def Group commander at Team 6, you know, he's, he's following SOP.

00:08:51.160 That's always been that way for, for the background of, of his entire time in the Navy.

00:08:56.120 So, you know, it was really something where, even with my own background knowledge, having been in the military, just, I knew their story didn't make any sense.

00:09:06.180 And, but look, you know, I, I thought that the answers that we received, we had a, you know, briefing yesterday on that.

00:09:10.980 It was, I thought it was fantastic to be able to just sit here and ask basic questions and then hear the direct answers.

00:09:16.820 What a concept.

00:09:17.320 Exactly. And the left and the fake news have made it clear from day one that they do not support our mission with stopping the cartels and the drug flow to the United States.

00:09:28.500 And when the president, president designated these as foreign terrorist organizations, he unleashed a whole new level of authorities for us to stop the drug flow into the United States.

00:09:39.540 And that is what we're going to do.

00:09:40.840 Well, and I think that's actually been something that a lot of the media in this town doesn't quite understand is that these are the very same authorities that would be used in CENTCOM, occasionally in Indo-PACOM.

00:09:53.820 It's just, and by the way, in the past certainly have been used for a whole variety of hostile actors in the Western Hemisphere, in Northcom-PACOM.

00:10:04.280 It's just, that hasn't been the focus recently.

00:10:07.660 Absolutely. And as you know, and all of Trump's supporters know, when the president campaigned, he made promises to secure our homeland.

00:10:16.020 That's right.

00:10:16.440 And that's exactly what we're doing through the border and all our operations with Northcom currently.

00:10:21.440 So on the Northcom front, obviously, you know, we're sitting here a couple of days ago, we saw the, you know, the horrific situation outside of the White House with the West Virginia National Guardsmen, two of them being shot, one killed, one, as we talk, currently in critical condition.

00:10:38.580 We're, of course, praying for him.

00:10:39.680 But when we look at those operations throughout Northcom, what is the secretary's position on, I guess, obviously force protection for those operations, but the continuance of these operations and the priority that it really seems that the administration is making on it?

00:10:56.380 If I can take it a step back, if you remember in L.A. when the president deployed the guard there in a federalized status,

00:11:03.840 it was clear that the president and Secretary Hegseth wanted to use soldiers to protect federal law enforcement agents who are out there arresting illegal migrants and keeping law and order in this country.

00:11:16.360 So our view has never changed.

00:11:18.440 It will not change this administration.

00:11:20.600 We have the backs of the law enforcement officers who are out there keeping Americans safe.

00:11:25.420 And then with D.C. specifically, from day one, Secretary Hegseth authorized the soldiers to carry sidearms, and he continues to have that policy where our soldiers will have their weapons with them.

00:11:40.400 And so the policy is authorized.

00:11:42.860 Now, each individual commander can make different decisions on that.

00:11:45.980 I know this has come up, and there's still more reporting, I think, to come out on exactly the status of this.

00:11:51.380 But I do understand and believe yesterday, Press Secretary Wilson had said that they're looking to do, specifically in D.C. and probably others,

00:12:00.820 more direct patrols with local law enforcement and the guardsmen together to help that, you know, watch each other's backs, basically.

00:12:07.700 Yeah, absolutely.

00:12:08.700 And this is something we do on the border every day.

00:12:11.160 Our soldiers patrol alongside U.S. Border Patrol and other federal agents.

00:12:15.880 So I think incorporating that in D.C. and other cities is a great move.

00:12:21.000 No, I think that's right.

00:12:21.980 And so the whole idea being that when they're deployed in a title – obviously, D.C. is a little bit different.

00:12:26.820 But when they're deployed in a title tank capacity, that's always to support state law enforcement and – or excuse me, state law enforcement and federal law enforcement.

00:12:35.060 Because you talk about L.A., for example, these ICE agents were facing threats.

00:12:40.940 They were facing hostility.

00:12:42.080 They were facing riots.

00:12:43.580 I mean, that's the entire purpose of the National Guard, I thought.

00:12:46.400 Absolutely.

00:12:47.420 And we've seen this in Chicago, Portland, L.A.

00:12:51.480 These protesters are throwing rocks, damaging vehicles and government property, but then also injuring federal law enforcement officers.

00:13:00.120 And wherever we can, we will use our soldiers either in a National Guard status or a federalized status to protect law enforcement.

00:13:08.180 And if I could add just to the list, you know, I am from the Philadelphia area, so we can't leave Philly off.

00:13:14.400 We can't leave Philly off the list.

00:13:15.800 Absolutely.

00:13:16.420 And I'm from Lancaster.

00:13:17.680 Oh, you're from Lancaster.

00:13:18.380 Oh, no way.

00:13:19.180 Yeah, there you go.

00:13:19.820 And, yeah, Philadelphia has seen lots of crime and drug use there, and it's gone downhill.

00:13:24.600 Well, unfortunately, even Lancaster City has some issues these days.

00:13:28.080 Absolutely.

00:13:28.480 You know, you look at the lawlessness, and, you know, just to take a step back, I think the administration's only been in, you know, 10 months, 10 months into this, and it seems like an entire policy change from the previous administration to now.

00:13:44.060 How do you view, you know, the interagency and the way that they've sort of dealt with this big sea change?

00:13:52.340 Because I seem to get a sense, certainly from the media side, there's a lot of whiplash, but how has it been actually inside the admin, inside the government?

00:14:00.260 Yeah, I will say as someone who was sworn in as a political on January 20th, we got to work that same day with the interagency, specifically on border at the time.

00:14:12.300 But to this day, we talk daily about operations, whether it's law enforcement and our support to them, border operations or Western Hemisphere operations.

00:14:23.320 So all that to say, I've never seen government agencies work like this together.

00:14:29.420 And when the president signed his executive order clarifying the military's role with the border, that brought the Department of War up to be an equal player on the border operations instead of supporting DHS in a support role.

00:14:43.080 Well, and as it turns out, that the porous border, the massive level of crossings that we saw over the previous four years, 20 million perhaps, it's a choice, isn't it?

00:14:56.560 It actually is something that can be solved by policy.

00:14:59.260 Absolutely.

00:15:00.080 And leading up into the 24 election, you heard everyone say that it took an act of Congress to secure the border.

00:15:06.820 Right, right.

00:15:07.240 That was the whole...

00:15:08.400 That was the talking point.

00:15:09.180 Yeah, the whole talking point.

00:15:10.060 And they were trying to say Republicans were...

00:15:12.640 I remember this.

00:15:13.480 They were saying Republicans weren't for the bill, therefore it was the Republicans' fault.

00:15:18.420 Absolutely.

00:15:19.140 It made no sense.

00:15:19.920 Yeah.

00:15:20.140 But what we found out on January 20th is it only took a president who cared.

00:15:24.920 And when he declared the national emergency at the border, we had troops headed to the border on January 24th, just four days after.

00:15:33.000 Now, when you are looking at the border, and we talk about this, and my friend Bill Malugan over at Fox, he always says,

00:15:39.940 you know, I had to stop covering the border because there's nothing to cover, which I do think is funny.

00:15:44.120 He's actually here in D.C. now.

00:15:45.460 But at the same time, I have to imagine that there are still threats that you are tracking on the border or across the border.

00:15:52.780 What are some of the things, if you can share with us, that you do still see down there?

00:15:57.520 Absolutely.

00:15:57.880 Well, the cartels have had a hard time making money because they can't smuggle humans or drugs across the border.

00:16:04.980 Which is why they're switching to the boats.

00:16:06.240 Yeah.

00:16:06.460 So they've switched to the boats, but they're increasingly dangerous because they're trying to find ways to make money because they're hurting for funds.

00:16:14.060 So that's one example.

00:16:15.340 Well, drones, we've seen them weaponize drones and start testing them.

00:16:20.400 So getting our counter-UAS systems up on the border to protect our soldiers and the federal agents on the border, that's huge.

00:16:29.200 And then just continuing to adapt to the illegal aliens who are in our homeland that the Biden administration allowed into our country.

00:16:38.440 And specifically on those illegal aliens, are you tracking or do you ever see occasionally, because there's questions, obviously this Afghan migrant guy was a different capacity, but do you ever see opportunities or potential threats, indications and warnings of perhaps plots or operations that they're trying to use to go after Americans or to go after law enforcement or military?

00:17:05.040 Yeah, I would say that's probably a better question for federal law enforcement partners and their authorities.

00:17:11.560 But one thing that's unique that we created in this administration is the Homeland Security Task Force, which combines all the federal law enforcement agencies, the NCTC, which is headed by Joe Kent, and then the Department of War to target those criminals and foreign terrorist organizations now in the homeland.

00:17:31.980 So probably a better question for Joe Kent and federal law enforcement, but we're excited about this opportunity to find these illegals who are here to harm our citizens. 1.00

00:17:42.180 Well, that's great, because I remember, of course, I served at DIA for part of my time when I was in, and so they had DCTC, which would work with NCTC.

00:17:51.880 But, boy, sometimes it was like herding cats between the two of those two.

00:17:57.460 Absolutely.

00:17:58.100 Well, I think the NCTC has a new mission, and under this president, they will have better results.

00:18:03.520 I'm really glad to hear that.

00:18:05.200 When you look out at the status of these operations, particularly in NORTHCOM, looking at the cities, do you see, and I've got to ask, you know, are there any cities where you're looking to expand to?

00:18:17.900 Yeah, I would say when it comes to federal law enforcement, if the president asks us to protect his agents, we will do that.

00:18:26.700 We have some ongoing litigation in Chicago and Portland, so we're kind of waiting to see how the Supreme Court rules on that.

00:18:34.120 But the president, again, has made it clear that he's a president of law and order, and we're ready to support however he needs.

00:18:40.780 Okay, so it's almost like wait and see how the Supreme Court cases go, and then depending on the ruling, future operations will work to comply with that.

00:18:49.280 Absolutely.

00:18:50.100 And if protesters and rioters are attacking agents, the president hates to see that, rightfully so, and we're ready to support him.

00:18:58.640 And some of the left attacks me for being one of the youngest advisors to the secretary, and I'm excited to work on these issues because I know a lot of young people across America care about these issues, too, and protecting our homeland.

00:19:11.580 So I'm excited to work on this.

00:19:13.600 Aw, yeah.

00:19:14.120 How can you not trust a guy from Lancaster?

00:19:15.800 Exactly.

00:19:16.640 Thank you.

00:19:17.220 Take it easy.

00:19:17.580 Thank you very much.

00:19:18.040 Today, you know, they talk about influences.

00:19:21.400 These are influences, and they're friends of mine.

00:19:25.640 Jack Prasovic.

00:19:27.160 Where's Jack?

00:19:28.120 Jack.

00:19:29.080 He's done a great job.

00:19:32.360 I'm very excited to be on here, and not the first time that I've interviewed him, but certainly in a different capacity.

00:19:38.320 I know you as General Tata, but you are currently the Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness.

00:19:44.700 Thank you so much for joining us, Human Events Daily.

00:19:46.220 Great to be with you, Jack.

00:19:47.220 And so, you know, when it looks at it, the way I look at it is you're in charge of the home front.

00:19:54.260 Does that make sense?

00:19:55.260 That and many other things, but, you know, we've got 3 million men and women in uniform and non-department civilians in their families.

00:20:03.800 Right.

00:20:03.940 I've got 160 DoDEA schools, or DOEA now, Department of War Education Activity schools.

00:20:10.420 Globally, Europe, Asia, here in the United States, have over 600 child development centers, have over 300 youth activity centers.

00:20:21.380 We've got, we're in charge of recruiting, retention, and transition into civilian life after you've been a soldier, sailor, airman, marine, guardian individual.

00:20:30.780 And so, the broad responsibilities here.

00:20:35.040 I've got 955 military hospitals and clinics and 40,000 health care providers.

00:20:42.380 That's all home front stuff.

00:20:43.920 That's all operational stuff.

00:20:45.640 And so, the portfolio is vast and broad.

00:20:49.800 I've got 230 commissaries feeding the home front.

00:20:53.380 Oh, believe me.

00:20:54.220 If there's a problem with the commissary, the whole base is going to have a problem.

00:20:58.080 Right.

00:20:58.380 And so, and a very lean team back here in the building and around Northern Virginia that's operating all of this.

00:21:04.360 And so, our focus has been on taking a look at the presidential priorities.

00:21:10.600 Golden Dome, shipbuilding, southwest border, and reorienting personnel policy to support President Trump's priorities.

00:21:18.540 And then taking a look at Secretary's priorities, reestablish deterrence, rebuild the military, restore the warrior ethos.

00:21:25.620 How do we do that?

00:21:26.680 We rip DEI and CRT out of all the child care stuff and the education things that we're talking about.

00:21:36.120 I've got all the service academies looking hard at those curricula.

00:21:41.340 We pulled out the CRT and DEI out of that.

00:21:44.980 And, you know, that's warrior ethos.

00:21:46.420 No, you're saying there was CRT and DEI being taught.

00:21:50.460 And when you say service academies, you're talking West Point, you're talking Annapolis, you're talking Colorado Springs.

00:21:53.780 Air Force Academy, military colleges, North Georgia, Citadel, VMI, and so forth.

00:22:01.380 And they were teaching that those are meant to be the leaders of the future military.

00:22:07.420 And rather than being taught war fighting, strategy, how to think of a commander, they were being taught this kind of stuff?

00:22:14.340 They were being taught that plus some of the other things.

00:22:19.180 So we've ripped all that out and we've refocused in the secretary's message, president's message.

00:22:24.200 Let's focus on those things that unify us instead of those things that divide us.

00:22:27.920 Let's not, you know, identify all the differences that we have.

00:22:33.260 Let's identify our common purpose, unity of purpose, unity of command, lethality, mission focus.

00:22:39.240 Everybody from tooth to tail are focused on the same thing.

00:22:43.700 That's being a physically fit, mentally fit war fighter to get out there.

00:22:47.360 And how do you do that?

00:22:48.400 It starts with what you were talking about on the home front.

00:22:51.140 You have good quality education for your children.

00:22:53.460 You help with spouse employment and reducing that.

00:22:56.540 We have a 20% spouse unemployment number.

00:23:00.100 We have a goal to reduce that by 5% this year.

00:23:03.000 And it comes to portability.

00:23:04.320 We move people around so much.

00:23:05.620 How do we get the licensure and certifications right if you're moving from Virginia to California

00:23:10.880 and you're a teacher, you're a doctor, you're a lawyer?

00:23:13.320 How do you make sure that your education activity, if you're in Virginia,

00:23:17.020 move to Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps base,

00:23:21.100 that if you're on page 67 of the history book, you're on page 68 the next day when you move to Camp Pendleton.

00:23:26.780 And that unity of purpose and, you know, taking care of the family.

00:23:31.380 If I'm a trigger puller in Afghanistan, as I was, and I know my family is taken care of, I can focus on my mission.

00:23:38.660 Well, you know, I had a CO once in the Navy who that's exactly what he said.

00:23:44.560 He said, you have to take care of home before you can take care of the mission.

00:23:48.740 Because if you are worried about home, he said, you're going to be no good to me on mission.

00:23:53.840 You're going to be no good to me.

00:23:55.340 Right.

00:23:55.960 You're going to be looking for that call, looking for that email, looking for that letter,

00:24:00.280 making sure everything's okay if you've got a sick child.

00:24:03.480 Or if there's a pay issue, which, you know, certainly happens.

00:24:07.100 So all of that.

00:24:08.160 As we all know.

00:24:08.680 And, you know, I take a look.

00:24:10.060 I've got such a professional team working for me.

00:24:12.620 And, you know, I was at the other end, all professionals here.

00:24:16.300 But I think about why is my team so good?

00:24:19.000 You can't fail on recruiting.

00:24:20.560 You've got to make your numbers.

00:24:21.540 You can't fail on pay.

00:24:22.600 You've got to pay the troops.

00:24:23.400 You can't fail on benefits.

00:24:24.980 You've got to provide the benefit that they're due, that they're owed.

00:24:27.500 But the media told me the troops weren't getting paid.

00:24:30.320 Well, the troops are getting paid.

00:24:33.720 And during the shutdown, right?

00:24:36.280 During the lapse in government, you know, the shutdown, civilians weren't being paid because, you know, including me, senior levels.

00:24:46.640 But we made sure the troops got paid.

00:24:49.800 We found the money legally to pay the troops during the government shutdown.

00:24:54.120 And that was part of my job.

00:24:55.980 The comptroller would go to the secretary, say, here's how we can do it.

00:24:59.160 We checked with Earl Matthews, general counsel.

00:25:01.380 We made sure the troops got all their pay, as they should have.

00:25:05.460 They should not be caught in the political crosswinds that are happening whenever there's a continuing resolution or a shutdown or, you know, whatever.

00:25:14.860 Congress needs to do its job.

00:25:16.400 And I appreciate the fact that they were able to resolve that and allow us to move forward with, you know, full department pay and benefits.

00:25:25.220 Well, that's absolutely clear.

00:25:27.140 What would you say just on that point and final question, because I know we're pulling you out and we've got a lot to go on.

00:25:34.240 What would you say your general message is as when you, you know, focus on these issues for the troops?

00:25:40.620 So my message is for the troops is that you have a secretary and you have a president that are focused on your health and welfare so that you can be the most lethal fighting individual in force in the world

00:25:57.360 and that we are going to create this cohesive, focused force to deter our enemies so we never have to go to war.

00:26:05.100 That's my message.

00:26:06.020 You've got a focused commander in chief, a focused secretary, single-minded purpose of peace through strength.

00:26:11.980 Our secretary, great to see you again.

00:26:13.840 Great to see you, Jack.

00:26:15.800 And Jack, where is Jack?

00:26:18.800 Where is Jack?

00:26:21.100 Where is he?

00:26:22.380 Jack, I want to see you.

00:26:26.020 Great job, Jack.

00:26:27.460 Thank you.

00:26:28.200 What a job you do.

00:26:29.640 You know, we have an incredible thing.

00:26:30.820 We're always talking about the fake news and the bad news, but we have guys.

00:26:34.360 And these are the guys who should be getting policies.

00:26:39.120 We're very excited here to be at Human Events Daily.

00:26:42.780 We're sitting down with Eric Garcia.

00:26:44.180 He is the senior advisor for strategy for the Secretary of War.

00:26:48.000 Eric, welcome to the show.

00:26:49.320 Thank you very much.

00:26:50.140 It's great to be here.

00:26:50.920 I want to say thank you again for actually having us and hosting us here in the Pentagon.

00:26:55.420 This is obviously new for us.

00:26:57.220 We've done a couple of shows over at the White House and been with, you know, their press corps.

00:27:02.060 But I got to say, you know, the studio digs here are a little bit nicer.

00:27:06.480 We have a lot of room in the Pentagon.

00:27:08.360 There is a lot of room in the Pentagon.

00:27:10.800 So you've known Pete for a long time.

00:27:13.480 You served together.

00:27:14.240 You deployed together.

00:27:15.540 You're now working at this level of strategy.

00:27:17.600 How would you say your experiences and his experiences, having gone to war together, have shaped what you do now in terms of the office?

00:27:28.120 Those experiences that we shared in combat, they shape you for the rest of your life.

00:27:35.260 You learn different things in combat that allow you.

00:27:40.120 We're a little different than some of the folks that haven't been yet.

00:27:43.420 But some of the things is your priorities are forever changed on focusing on what you need to do to train your soldiers, prepare them for war, lead them for combat, and bring them back home.

00:27:57.580 In combat, you see the thing you make it's – you narrow your focus.

00:28:03.060 Like we're totally focused, you know, battle drills, medical training, physical fitness, marksmanship.

00:28:09.620 Your units can do that to the highest of standards.

00:28:13.420 They're able to do everything our country asked them to do, which is to go fight and win our nation's wars.

00:28:19.880 And so having that experience, especially serving together, really, that's what we're focused on.

00:28:26.700 And as you can see, a lot of the things the secretary has completely driven the whole department to – we want higher standards.

00:28:35.800 We want the soldiers to raise the level of their physical fitness.

00:28:39.260 We want the soldiers, all the service members to be experts in whatever their field is, their assigned weapon, because we want them – when we assign them a mission, when the president gives us the priorities, this is what we need to do, we've created those options for the president.

00:28:57.560 And they're trained and ready, as we can make them.

00:29:01.580 And the whole goal is get them to get out there, complete the mission, and bring them all home.

00:29:06.980 Well, it really seems that you – certainly in the prior administration, even before then, to an extent, that the focus was elsewhere, shall we say.

00:29:15.740 Over the past – it goes back quite – I served for 26 years in uniform, then I was a Department of Defense contractor, then I was a Department of Defense civilian.

00:29:26.680 We've gotten to where the military was focused on a lot of non-war fighting tasks.

00:29:35.380 And as a unit, especially for a small unit leader, you don't have a whole lot of time because you don't know, especially in some units like the 101st Airborne, 82nd Airborne, 75th Ranger, you don't know when it is you're going to be called out to conduct an operation for real.

00:29:53.140 So you only have so much time to prepare your troops.

00:29:56.500 And when the units are bogged down with all these non-war fighting tasks, some of these things that should absolutely have nothing to do with the military, some of those that look like social experiments, we don't have time for it.

00:30:10.660 We have a duty as leaders to make sure these soldiers, these service members, are trained and ready.

00:30:16.460 And when we pile on things that have nothing to do with that, we shouldn't be focused on that at all.

00:30:21.880 What the secretary has done, and because of President Trump and his leadership, is allowed to get the military to be focused on what the country needs the military to be.

00:30:32.860 And that's trained and ready, once again, to fight and win our nation's wars.

00:30:37.080 Well, not only that, but it's the relaxing of standards that you can just see it.

00:30:43.320 You can see it when you're in the area and you're around some of the various military installations that are all throughout D.C.

00:30:51.740 And you can just see the standards have become relaxed.

00:30:55.180 When you see, you know, I'm always looking at sailors as prior Navy, but, you know, I said, how is this person just walking around like that in uniform?

00:31:04.620 If I was, you know, in this guy's unit, I'd say I would have pulled him aside and said, what are you doing?

00:31:08.660 And you just see it all over and over.

00:31:11.460 And people think that's something small, but it's not actually.

00:31:14.340 It's something very important, isn't it?

00:31:15.740 Oh, it's the most important.

00:31:17.900 Like if these service members are not physically fit, they're not going to be able to do what we're asking them to do.

00:31:23.460 And they shouldn't find this out when it's too late, when we put them somewhere in harm's way.

00:31:29.380 You can go like when we started going back and look at this, there was like a whole bunch of people and some senior folks retired in uniform were really gouging into the secretary about some of the decisions and some of the focus.

00:31:42.980 I don't know how anybody can go back and say, hey, we don't want higher standards.

00:31:48.620 We don't want our service members to be in better shape.

00:31:51.740 We don't want them to be experts in their occupational field.

00:31:55.380 I don't know how anybody could go back and say that.

00:31:57.180 There's nothing political with that.

00:31:59.180 There's nothing because the enemy doesn't look at us of you're a Republican, you're a Democrat, you're this ethnicity. 0.94

00:32:07.380 All the enemy wants to do is kill Americans.

00:32:08.880 And it's our duty as leaders, especially for combat organizations, hence the Department of War, to make sure they have the best equipment, they're trained to the highest standards, that they're able to go accomplish the mission, get the job done, and come home safely.

00:32:26.240 And that's what the secretary's whole focus is. 0.87

00:32:28.980 And thank God we have President Trump that has paved the way to allow us to focus on this stuff.

00:32:34.080 Well, and it's been something where, you know, I remember during, you know, even Pete's confirmation, the secretary, and then when he became secretary, some of the speeches he's given.

00:32:42.680 And they try to twist his words to make it out as if he's saying something political, but he's not.

00:32:47.480 Having standards in the military goes all the way back.

00:32:49.580 We were just, this past weekend, I'm from the Philadelphia area, and I took my kids out to Valley Forge.

00:32:54.960 And I said, I was teaching them, I said, kids, this is the, this is where the first veterans came from.

00:33:00.200 This was the first military of the United States.

00:33:02.200 This was the first United States Army.

00:33:03.640 It's the Continental Army.

00:33:04.500 We didn't have the United States yet.

00:33:06.340 And that's what it was all about.

00:33:08.580 It was, it was the, the harshest possible conditions.

00:33:11.540 You've lost every major U.S. city at that point.

00:33:14.960 You're, you're out there, you're in cabins.

00:33:17.020 Many times they didn't even have shoes.

00:33:18.740 They're walking around makeshift tents and huts and different things.

00:33:23.080 And, and it was just the elements, right?

00:33:26.040 So you have to be willing and able and capable of dealing with all of that to be able to come forward.

00:33:32.560 And I, and I, you know, I see some of the things that we have now.

00:33:35.340 And I just think, you know, are we, are we treating that legacy properly?

00:33:41.100 We're definitely, you know, changing the, the, the culture back to where it needs to be.

00:33:46.760 It's a huge thing, but I can tell you, I have the opportunity to go out and visit units

00:33:51.680 from all the different services.

00:33:53.740 And what we're doing here, the decisions and policies that are being put in place by Secretary Hegseth

00:33:58.560 are 100% reaching and affecting these units.

00:34:03.400 And the, the troops are all on board.

00:34:05.300 They want, they want to be part of a winning team.

00:34:07.360 There's no, there's no mistake on why the recruiting numbers are through.

00:34:11.120 I was just, that's my next question.

00:34:12.900 Yeah, there's no mistake on why we looked at this year,

00:34:17.100 the highest number of folks going to special forces selection in years, largest class.

00:34:24.560 This is all for a reason.

00:34:26.100 You know, nobody wants to be part of a losing team.

00:34:28.900 People want to, they want, the people that join the military and enlist and then get commissioned

00:34:33.740 and come in, they want to be part of a winning team and they want to be the best.

00:34:37.380 They don't want us to lower standards.

00:34:39.600 They want a challenge.

00:34:41.120 These are the folks we need to be focused on.

00:34:42.880 And these are the folks that we want.

00:34:45.140 And those are the ones that are raising their right hand to serve the country and do the

00:34:48.660 things that they're doing for us.

00:34:49.760 Well, and particularly, and, and there'll be a couple of minutes left, but one of the

00:34:54.000 biggest issues, and I know with, with your, your breadth of experience, you'll know what

00:34:57.900 I mean when I say this, one of the biggest red flags that I saw over the past couple of

00:35:02.700 years prior to your administration coming in was the fact that military families were

00:35:09.180 starting to say that they didn't want their sons and daughters to join.

00:35:14.100 Talk to me about the importance of making sure that military families still continue

00:35:18.840 that tradition of service.

00:35:21.080 We say all the time, this is a family business.

00:35:24.280 I mean, I, I, I remember the first time I went to West Point and I got to go out there

00:35:29.260 and spoke and spent a few days with the firsties, which is the graduating class.

00:35:33.780 And I, and the first time I'd been there, never, didn't care about the officer training.

00:35:38.720 I was an NCO.

00:35:39.500 Yeah.

00:35:39.800 So it was the first time I got to see you.

00:35:40.880 You worked, you worked for a living.

00:35:41.680 Yep.

00:35:43.140 And, um, but I was surprised on, and it really hit home on how many of these kids, these

00:35:49.640 officers getting ready to be commissioned were all sons of people that I had served with.

00:35:55.400 And you don't just see that on the officer side, it's also on the NCO side.

00:35:58.580 But so when you, when we got to the point where these parents are saying, I don't want

00:36:04.400 my sons and daughters to do this, we, we were at a breaking point.

00:36:08.760 We were at a, and I'm, I'm telling you, I don't, I think if we would have went a few

00:36:14.060 more years, we would have been, uh, past the point in our return.

00:36:18.020 Um, I think in some of the, some of the things that's your core recruitment pool right

00:36:23.700 there.

00:36:24.140 A hundred percent.

00:36:24.580 And, and they're going to, the ones who grew up around the military, they, they, they're

00:36:28.040 the most familiar with it.

00:36:29.600 They know the, they know the routines, grew up on the bases, can always go to mom or dad

00:36:34.480 for information.

00:36:35.900 I mean, you lose that you, you're, you're broken, totally broken.

00:36:39.780 Yeah.

00:36:39.960 We were on the way, but once again, uh, president Trump and secretary Hegseth, you know, their

00:36:45.960 priorities, uh, the agenda were able to turn that around pretty quick.

00:36:50.140 And you can see it on, uh, every unit and every service member we meet with, you can

00:36:55.440 see it's, we're, we're going in the right direction.

00:36:57.620 The right direction.

00:36:59.060 Eric Garcia, thank you so much for joining us.

00:37:00.460 Thank you so much.

00:37:01.120 It was great to meet you.

00:37:05.420 Jack is a great guy.

00:37:06.860 He's written a fantastic book.

00:37:08.640 Everybody's talking about it.

00:37:09.780 Go get it.

00:37:10.880 And he's been my friend right from the beginning of this whole beautiful event.

00:37:14.920 And we're going to turn it around and make our country great again.

00:37:18.080 Amen.

00:37:20.140 All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're back.

00:37:22.260 Jack Posobiec, human events, daily Patriots.

00:37:24.400 Listen up for a limited time.

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00:38:26.880 So there was a new poll, by the way, that I didn't really get a chance to talk about on the situation regarding, listen to this, the drone strikes.

00:38:40.980 Yes, the drone strikes in a poll that was done from the Harvard-Harris team, again, Harvard University, regarding the drone strikes in the Caribbean.

00:38:53.900 And this is really interesting because I want people to dig into this.

00:38:58.380 I certainly am going to dig into this and have dug into this, but people don't realize that there is massive support for these drone strikes.

00:39:06.360 Harvard-Harris found, you got to love this, Harvard-Harris found that most support the drone strikes.

00:39:13.520 And, of course, this is the way you have to be very careful with the way that you, you know, you word this because they'll think, oh, well, the second one is worse.

00:39:22.280 The second one's like this.

00:39:23.880 The second one, no, no, no, no, no.

00:39:25.240 I'm talking about the current drone strikes on the drug boats in the Caribbean.

00:39:32.620 The drug boats strikes.

00:39:36.480 And guess what?

00:39:38.020 Think about this.

00:39:40.980 And I'm pulling it up right now.

00:39:42.860 There's almost 60% of Americans who support this out of the Harvard-Harris poll.

00:39:50.720 60%.

00:39:51.320 It is literally a 60-40 issue.

00:39:55.180 Should be an 80-20 issue, honestly.

00:39:57.440 Guess what?

00:39:57.880 Americans don't care about drug boats getting murked. 0.92

00:40:03.740 It's really as simple as that.

00:40:05.900 Americans want their military actually defending America.

00:40:09.780 And, look, you know, we're going to be doing this series on regime change coming up around Christmas time.

00:40:16.840 And I want people to dig into that because for so long we've been using the U.S. military overseas.

00:40:23.420 And they paint it with these romantic images and use this romantic flowery language of, oh, we're fighting them over there, so we have to fight them over here.

00:40:30.840 Oh, we're fighting the Ayatollah. 0.97

00:40:31.960 We're fighting the Tsar. 0.59

00:40:32.880 We're fighting the mullahs. 1.00

00:40:34.520 Whoever, you know, whoever we're fighting, et cetera, et cetera, the terrorists.

00:40:38.380 But at the end of the day, we don't actually use the U.S. military, or we hadn't up until this point, for direct threats against the homeland.

00:40:47.940 Just actual direct threats.

00:40:50.900 And people say, well, you know, most fentanyl isn't coming in from Venezuela.

00:40:55.760 There's more coming in from Mexico.

00:40:58.300 There's more coming in, you know, there's more cocaine from Venezuela.

00:41:02.380 Guess what?

00:41:03.260 Guess what?

00:41:04.080 Guess what? 1.00

00:41:04.940 I totally support killing the Mexican cartel members, too. 1.00

00:41:09.960 What a concept. 0.99

00:41:11.260 I remember saying this.

00:41:12.000 I was debating the libertarian.

00:41:13.700 When I debated the libertarian candidate for president last year, Chase Oliver, and Ryan Grimm was the host, I said specifically, I said, well, I do actually disagree with the idea of legalizing drugs in the United States.

00:41:26.540 And they said, well, the war on drugs has been a failure.

00:41:28.300 And I said, I disagree.

00:41:29.140 It has not been a failure.

00:41:30.400 I said, what do you mean?

00:41:30.920 Of course it's been a failure.

00:41:31.520 I said, no, I disagree because you haven't allowed us to actually fight drugs like a war.

00:41:38.480 And in a war, you don't sit around and fight it like a policing operation.

00:41:43.020 You kill people.

00:41:44.980 That's the difference. 0.99

00:41:45.980 In a war, you kill the enemy. 1.00

00:41:47.820 You fight them with violence and you kill them. 0.99

00:41:51.000 So now I said this to the libertarians. 0.99

00:41:53.180 Libertarians lost their minds because libertarians don't actually believe in such things.

00:41:56.580 But it does get to a point. 0.99

00:41:57.980 It does absolutely get to a point where someone is a terrorist or someone is a cartel member and you want to kill them. 0.87

00:42:03.500 And that's what's actually best for your country.

00:42:06.060 That's actually what's best for the defense of your homelands, the defense of your people.

00:42:09.220 Think about how many American kids get killed by fentanyl, how many American families get destroyed because of a fentanyl murder.

00:42:17.820 You're saving lives because these people are animals. 1.00

00:42:22.640 They're disgusting. 1.00

00:42:24.860 What they do to our country is disgusting and divisive. 0.92

00:42:29.000 And that is why it is okay to use the military in these types of operations.

00:42:34.100 And that is why 60% of Americans support it.

00:42:37.320 It's really simple.

00:42:38.820 And by the way, let me explain to you how these how these double taps work. 0.99

00:42:42.600 OK, because I may have been involved in a couple, three drone strikes in my previous profession.

00:42:49.760 The mission is not concluded until the objective has been neutralized.

00:42:55.360 What does that mean?

00:42:56.240 If your job is to take out the drug boat, you take out the drug boat until it's at the bottom of the ocean.

00:43:02.020 And if people are in the drug boat, that's what we call in the military collateral damage.

00:43:06.460 Now, you may not like that, but that's the truth, the fact.

00:43:09.660 And the military exists in the real world.

00:43:12.260 And you have to deal with big boy issues.

00:43:14.220 And big boy issues come with big boy answers.

00:43:18.800 And big boy answers means having to suck it up, buttercup.

00:43:22.020 So you say, wait a minute, why did you sleep the guys?

00:43:26.420 This is like this is like the same type of rhetoric you hear when when they say, why couldn't the cops just have shot him in the arm?

00:43:32.280 Why couldn't the cops just have shot him in the arm?

00:43:34.180 Why did they have to kill him?

00:43:35.120 Why did they have to do that?

00:43:36.120 It's so sad.

00:43:36.880 It's awful.

00:43:37.720 You know, Kyle Rittenhouse actually did shoot an arm off of somebody.

00:43:41.920 And look at how the liberals all treated him.

00:43:44.060 He actually did the thing that you guys have said for years that you wanted him to do, that you wanted someone to do.

00:43:51.040 Kyle Rittenhouse does it.

00:43:52.540 And look how they treated Kyle Rittenhouse.

00:43:55.620 Gage grows in cruts, right?

00:43:57.620 Communist Antifa Gage, right?

00:43:59.720 Now, I'll never forget that guy.

00:44:01.060 Even had to change his name.

00:44:03.180 It got that bad.

00:44:04.500 So when you look at the situation, it's very simple.

00:44:07.100 If these guys were left in the water, they would be picked up by their gun running buddies or their cartel buddies, and they would then be shot by the cartel buddies for abandoning their cargo.

00:44:24.580 Do you understand how cartels operate?

00:44:26.900 Do you have any inkling of how that world operates?

00:44:29.440 Do you have any clue?

00:44:30.740 Have you even given a second of thought to it?

00:44:33.060 They are not like us.

00:44:34.580 They do not operate like us. 0.77

00:44:36.360 This is not like your kid's little league team or something.

00:44:39.120 My gosh.

00:44:40.700 These are hardened narco terrorists running narco states in many cases, like Venezuela, like Mexico. 0.73

00:44:49.080 And so, yes, you do have to use violence.

00:44:51.680 Is it unfortunate?

00:44:52.420 Of course.

00:44:53.660 Of course it's unfortunate.

00:44:54.960 But let me tell you something right now.

00:44:57.520 Let me tell you something right now.

00:44:59.020 When it comes to defending my family, and this is the way you have to think about this, is there an amount of violence that you would not cross?

00:45:13.260 Is there a line that you would not cross when it comes to defending your family?

00:45:17.980 No.

00:45:18.720 Because for me, there is an unlimited amount of violence that I would be willing to employ in the defense of my wife and in the defense of my children.

00:45:28.740 And it's as simple as that.

00:45:30.780 It's really as simple as that.

00:45:34.520 So, call it what you want, but it's the truth.

00:45:37.940 And it's got to be the truth.

00:45:39.340 And that's the way the world works.

00:45:40.460 And I said it to Megyn Kelly.

00:45:41.960 I wasn't talking about cartels.

00:45:43.620 I was talking about leftist violence at the time and these leftist killer networks, the Marxist killers, like the ones who killed Charlie.

00:45:50.600 And I said, Megyn, no offense, but it's time to let the man handle things.

00:45:56.300 It's time to let the men handle things.

00:45:59.600 And when it comes to the military, that's what I mean.

00:46:01.860 People are going to say, oh, no, you're going to, what about women in the military? 1.00

00:46:05.140 Guys, guys, you know what I'm talking about.

00:46:07.320 When I say men in this sense, I mean real men making real decisions to provide real defense for our families, our cities, and our homeland.

00:46:18.680 And thank you to Secretary Hegseth and to President Trump for working to do that.

00:46:25.020 Because I've been down there and I've seen the type of operations, the type of work they're putting in, and that is their only concern at all.

00:46:33.440 They are mission-focused, and they're focused on protecting the United States of America and the people who dwell within it.

00:46:41.500 Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have my permission to lay a short.

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - December 12, 2025

Human Events Special： Department of War

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