The Megyn Kelly Show - Megyn Kelly's Instant Analysis of Pete Hegseth Hearing and Dem Absurdity, with Michael Knowles, Dakota Meyer, and Rob O'Neill ｜ Ep. 982

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00:01:00.200 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:01:03.300 Live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:01:06.980 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly.

00:01:14.760 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:01:16.160 Coming to you today from Washington, D.C.

00:01:18.300 Where we just attended the Senate confirmation hearing of Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

00:01:24.620 We've got the whole hearing covered.

00:01:26.760 Gavel to gavel for you today.

00:01:28.840 We're going to be joined in a second by Rob O'Neill and Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor winner, in just a bit.

00:01:36.160 And Michael Knowles will be here to kick things off in two seconds.

00:01:39.080 But first, just want to give you my overall thoughts.

00:01:41.800 No one laid a glove on him.

00:01:43.860 He's good.

00:01:44.840 He's got this.

00:01:45.960 I have zero doubts now that he will be confirmed.

00:01:49.460 Joni Ernst was the big question mark.

00:01:51.460 And she was great today.

00:01:52.500 She was very nice in her questioning of him, very respectful.

00:01:57.260 That's not a no vote.

00:01:58.640 No way.

00:01:59.700 And, you know, this is just the Senate Armed Services Committee.

00:02:02.780 He has got to, he'll get out of committee.

00:02:04.360 But, like, she was the big pivotal vote, even if Trump is going to lose potentially McConnell, potentially Murkowski and Collins, which now they're saying he might not.

00:02:16.160 I don't, I don't think Pete Hegseth has trouble.

00:02:18.840 I think he's going to get confirmed.

00:02:20.000 And I don't think anybody touched him.

00:02:22.040 And really, to me, the story of the day was how some of these Democrat senators embarrassed themselves trying to.

00:02:28.820 I was humiliated for some. 0.99

00:02:31.580 Why do the women always have to be so shitty? 1.00

00:02:34.840 Why do the women have to be, like, these hysterical fools? 1.00

00:02:37.820 Why can't they be more dignified? 1.00

00:02:39.480 You know, like, you could lay gloves on him.

00:02:41.880 I mean, Tim Kaine was the worst, I should say that up front.

00:02:44.320 The worst. 0.99

00:02:45.360 The most disgusting, I should say. 0.97

00:02:46.840 But he wasn't, like, an hysteric. 0.98

00:02:48.000 Hysteric. 1.00

00:02:49.260 Maisie Hirono is so dumb. 1.00

00:02:52.520 I can't believe she's a U.S. senator. 1.00

00:02:56.060 Christian Gillibrand was like, women can be in combat. 1.00

00:03:00.820 You've hurt our feelings.

00:03:02.200 It's like, oh, my God.

00:03:04.440 You are undermining the very cause that I know you so desperately want to promote right now.

00:03:10.020 So I was embarrassed for them.

00:03:12.240 I was embarrassed for my sex and how they are behaving today.

00:03:16.760 Then there was Slotkin, who's the newest Democrat over on the left side.

00:03:22.580 And while her background sounded impressive, she'd been with the CIA and so on.

00:03:26.620 She was so annoying. 0.92

00:03:27.940 Oh, I know you've genuflected.

00:03:29.300 Okay, you've done your genuflection to Donald Trump.

00:03:34.120 Like, everyone was just, there's a way of doing cross-examination where you don't wind up the least likable between the person you're crossing and yourself.

00:03:43.260 And obviously, these people, most of them, haven't done it.

00:03:47.820 You can tell the difference.

00:03:49.160 You know, like, you see a Trey Gowdy cross-examination.

00:03:52.600 You think, he's the man.

00:03:54.840 Like, that guy knows what he's doing.

00:03:56.440 You see these people try to do it.

00:03:57.780 You're like, are you trying to make me hate you?

00:04:00.180 Like, I'm not inclined to hate you just because you're a dem or against Pete. 1.00

00:04:05.300 You're just behaving like a prick. 0.98

00:04:06.900 Anyway, before I bring in Michael, I just want to say, so I went there today. 0.98

00:04:11.640 I've never gone to a Senate confirmation hearing as, like, a regular person as opposed to as a member of the press.

00:04:20.140 I did it because the Hegseths invited me, and I said, you know what, this would be a great experience for me for a couple of reasons.

00:04:27.880 Number one, I do support Pete Hegseth and am very happy to telegraph to the world that I do and that I hope he gets through. 0.71

00:04:35.180 And if my sitting there in any way telegraphs to people who need it to be telegraphed, that it would be a good thing to support him and that I think the allegations against him are bullshit, great. 0.86

00:04:46.760 I'll do it. 0.98

00:04:47.420 Fine.

00:04:47.700 But number two, I did think it would be a fascinating experience for me, too, having been on the other side so many times, not as a senator, but as a member of the media, just covering these things to see what it's like to be in the middle of it all.

00:05:00.060 And my takeaway is it's very, very boring.

00:05:03.360 It was you had to sit there from 930 straight.

00:05:06.900 We got out at two.

00:05:07.660 There are no breaks.

00:05:08.560 Well, some kept it kind of exciting.

00:05:11.560 For the most part, it was like, oh, especially these Democrat senators who just want to hear themselves talk.

00:05:16.860 You know, the Republicans actually asked him questions that would help us get to know him a bit.

00:05:20.180 The Dems, for the most part, just grandstanded.

00:05:23.200 And that was annoying.

00:05:25.340 It's like, fine.

00:05:26.340 It was a freezing cold room.

00:05:27.700 It doesn't really make you want to run out and run for Senate.

00:05:30.060 I'll say that.

00:05:30.740 So Chris Murphy of Connecticut, you should be feeling good because I'm less inclined to take your job now. 0.95

00:05:35.660 But when I decide to take it, it will be mine because you're a disaster.

00:05:39.980 Anywho, it was just did we really learn anything or was it all just like an exercise in preening?

00:05:48.140 Right.

00:05:48.420 Mostly on the Dem side and the Republicans in earnest trying to search for some answers on what Pete's going to do inside defense.

00:05:55.100 That would be different.

00:05:56.640 I enjoyed that.

00:05:57.960 Anyway, enough about me.

00:05:59.360 I think he's getting through.

00:06:00.700 I think he did his job.

00:06:01.760 And one top Democrat senator told me he thought that this was going to be the toughest hearing for Trump's nominees, like worse than RFKJ, worse than Tulsi.

00:06:11.460 So we'll see if that's true.

00:06:13.640 Trump should be feeling great right now because my prediction is Pete will have no problems.

00:06:18.160 Bringing in now Michael Knowles.

00:06:20.680 He's host of The Michael Knowles Show on The Daily Wire.

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00:07:34.820 Michael Knowles, did any one of these senators jump out to you more than another?

00:07:39.300 They all jumped out of the screen at me and made me turn down my earpieces because of how shrill and awful they were.

00:07:44.880 But in terms of impressing me in their questioning, absolutely not.

00:07:50.660 Pete did even better than I thought he would do.

00:07:53.400 As you say, Megan, they didn't lay a glove on him.

00:07:56.000 Pete Hegseth will be the next secretary of defense.

00:07:58.920 People had questions about Pete's qualifications for the Pentagon going in.

00:08:02.860 I don't think people really have questions about that right now.

00:08:05.820 I think, in fact, the result of this hearing is that people have questions about the qualifications of these Democrat senators.

00:08:12.360 It was humiliating.

00:08:13.940 They went absolutely nowhere.

00:08:15.640 So Pete was the first confirmation hearing.

00:08:18.320 And many people were suggesting he would be one of the more difficult.

00:08:22.020 Notice, though, how these hearings have been scheduled.

00:08:24.280 It opened up with Pete.

00:08:26.340 And then all the rest of them, today, tomorrow, Thursday, were relatively easy.

00:08:33.000 These are kind of shoo-in people in terms of Tulsi, in terms of Bobby Kennedy, in terms of Kash Patel.

00:08:38.160 Some of the more controversial nominees, you'll notice that they were pushed a little bit later in the process.

00:08:44.040 I think Pete Hegseth was the canary in the coal mine.

00:08:46.960 I think that the Trump team wanted to see how much pushback they would get from the U.S. senators.

00:08:51.640 Pete absolutely knocked them down.

00:08:54.760 It was a complete strike down the bowling alley. 0.99

00:08:57.960 Not one of them was left standing afterward.

00:09:00.400 So not only does this bode very well for Pete, not only does this bode very well for the shoo-in nominees that Trump has coming up,

00:09:07.880 but I think even the more controversial ones are going to make it through a major, major win for the Trump transition.

00:09:14.880 Okay.

00:09:15.420 There wasn't anything more disgusting today than Tim Kaine. 0.96

00:09:19.900 Tim Kaine, who literally pulled out the old, how long have you been beating your wife? 0.96

00:09:28.360 I mean, it was stunning.

00:09:30.340 We know the allegations against Pete.

00:09:32.280 We know that Pete has been a serial cheater on his wives.

00:09:35.600 That is known.

00:09:36.880 Okay?

00:09:37.200 So that's fair game, I guess.

00:09:38.420 If you want to go there, you can go there.

00:09:40.080 You could go with the anonymous, you know, the alleged rape accuser.

00:09:45.740 Her story fell apart.

00:09:47.240 It was telling that pretty much nobody really zeroed in too much on that one. 0.88

00:09:51.800 But how long have you been beating your wife is defamatory.

00:09:56.260 Not literally, because you can't sue senators for what they're saying in this context.

00:09:59.480 But my point is, that was so below the belt for Tim Kaine.

00:10:04.840 Let's just take a listen to some of Tim Kaine today.

00:10:08.200 At that time, you were still married to your second wife, correct?

00:10:13.620 I believe so.

00:10:14.920 And you had just fathered a child by a woman who would later become your third wife, correct?

00:10:20.360 Senator, I was falsely charged.

00:10:23.380 Fully investigated and completely cleared.

00:10:25.620 So you think you are completely cleared because you committed no crime.

00:10:29.780 That's your definition of cleared?

00:10:31.560 You had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife.

00:10:36.600 I am shocked that you would stand here and say you're completely cleared.

00:10:41.160 Senator, her child's name is Gwendolyn Hope Hegseth.

00:10:44.640 And she's a child of God.

00:10:45.820 And she's seven years old.

00:10:47.120 And you cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that daughter was born, didn't you?

00:10:54.260 Those were false charges?

00:10:55.940 It was fully investigated and I was completely cleared.

00:10:58.460 And I am so grateful for the marriage I have to this amazing woman behind me.

00:11:02.720 You've admitted that you had sex at that hotel in October 2017.

00:11:08.200 Now, if it had been a sexual assault, that would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense, wouldn't it?

00:11:14.440 It was a false claim then and a false claim now.

00:11:16.500 If it had been a sexual assault, that would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense, wouldn't it?

00:11:23.880 That was a false claim.

00:11:25.620 So you can't tell me whether someone who has committed a sexual assault is disqualified from being Secretary of Defense?

00:11:35.140 Senator, I know in my instance, and I'm talking about my instance only, it was a false claim.

00:11:40.900 That's good.

00:11:41.260 But I assume that in each of your weddings, you've pledged to be faithful to your wife.

00:11:45.300 You've taken an oath to do that, haven't you?

00:11:47.920 Senator, as I've acknowledged to everyone in this committee, I'm not a perfect person, not claiming to be.

00:11:52.900 But no, I just ask the simple question.

00:11:54.480 You've taken an oath like you would take an oath to be Secretary of Defense in all of your weddings to be faithful to your wife.

00:11:59.260 Is that correct?

00:12:01.140 I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully, I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

00:12:07.200 Okay.

00:12:07.560 I will get to the domestic violence accusation in a second because that was the wrong soundbite, but it is a relevant soundbite that we want to get to.

00:12:15.900 So, this guy with his holier-than-thou on the cheating allegations and what he did was Hillary Clinton's running mate.

00:12:27.820 Yeah.

00:12:28.400 Yeah.

00:12:29.020 Okay.

00:12:29.860 So, this man was fine with Bill Clinton, right?

00:12:36.660 This man who wants us to believe any extramarital activity is abhorrent to him, he's disgusted by it, that's the same Tim Kaine, right?

00:12:48.320 We're talking about the same Bill Clinton, no problem, fine, but as president, right, or Hillary too, but this is a bridge too far, Pete Hegseth, even after he's admitted to being unfaithful in his marriages and then getting on the straight and narrow.

00:13:05.840 This is the guy, look at him, look at him, with his head on Bill Clinton's shoulder.

00:13:09.780 He loves Bill Clinton.

00:13:12.020 Accused by sexual assault or rape by how many women, how many affairs has he had on Hillary Clinton, and he wants to get out there and lecture us on Pete Hegseth, Michael Knowles.

00:13:21.260 It was a complete joke, so it was fitting that Tim Kaine looked like Jack Nicholson's Joker from the Tim Burton Batman.

00:13:27.840 Someone needed to hand that man a comb before he walked into the hearings, and he goes there with that wild look on his face, and he says,

00:13:33.820 you think you're cleared just because you were cleared of charges against you?

00:13:37.620 To which Pete Hegseth should, he didn't say anything, he just said, yeah, that's literally what it means, Senator.

00:13:41.880 But then he goes on, as you say, he's preening about this.

00:13:45.100 This is a man that we've only ever heard of because of his political alliance with the Clintons.

00:13:50.680 This is also a man who voted in federal law to abolish the definition of marriage.

00:13:54.400 So, listen, I'm gratified that Tim Kaine has had this sudden change of heart, and he now takes so seriously the sanctity of marriage.

00:14:01.880 And also, I'll give Tim Kaine credit.

00:14:03.880 His attack on Pete Hegseth's personal life was by far the strongest of any of the similar attempted attacks from the other Democrat senators.

00:14:13.820 And the fact that Kaine's was the strongest shows you just how weak it was.

00:14:18.540 But the rest of them, Elizabeth Warren, Gillibrand, for goodness sakes, Maisie Hirono, they didn't even come close.

00:14:25.740 So the Democrats came out there.

00:14:27.680 Tammy Duckworth, give me a break. 0.99

00:14:30.020 It was really, really weak.

00:14:33.120 And so I'm actually surprised because knowing that Pete's was going to be the first confirmation hearing, the canary in the coal mine,

00:14:42.260 I expected the Democrats to make this Kavanaugh 2.0.

00:14:45.620 However, Pete Hegseth had a real advantage going into this hearing, which is that people thought, because he's a good-looking guy who smiles well and did a morning TV show, 0.97

00:14:56.980 people thought that this guy was kind of dumb or incompetent. 0.69

00:15:00.500 And they failed to look at his resume, which kept coming up today, to realize he's extremely educated. 0.96

00:15:06.660 He has served his country honorably.

00:15:09.260 He's been under fire, literally, on many occasions, and he was not going to be pushed around by Kristen Gillibrand or Elizabeth Warren or certainly not Tim Kaine.

00:15:20.560 It looked, from the perspective of Pete, it looked like he was shooting fish in a barrel.

00:15:25.620 Okay.

00:15:25.940 I just want to say one more thing about Tim Kaine.

00:15:27.900 All right.

00:15:28.060 So first of all, not only was he running for office with Hillary Clinton, he was totally fine with Clinton's behavior.

00:15:34.200 No problem whatsoever.

00:15:34.980 But Pete Hegseth is a bridge too far for him.

00:15:37.140 Okay.

00:15:37.580 Fine.

00:15:39.060 But he was campaigning with Doug Emhoff after the allegations against Doug Emhoff about banging the nanny while still married to his first wife,

00:15:50.920 allegedly impregnating said nanny, and then she lost the baby somehow, and abusing some other girlfriend by slamming her in the face. 0.85

00:16:00.820 Tim Kaine out there with Doug Emhoff.

00:16:02.620 Yeah.

00:16:03.720 Let's go blue. 0.99

00:16:04.980 That's no, but Pete Hegseth is a disgusting dirtbag who little Tim Kaine can't stand. 0.99

00:16:10.700 This is like how it just oozed out of my, like you're, you're watching it. 0.99

00:16:14.360 You're like, disdain is oozing out of my pores.

00:16:16.820 Like I have to tell you, Michael, it's very hard, especially for someone in my position or your position to sit in there and not stand up and start answering the questions. 0.98

00:16:25.560 Like, are you fucking kidding me, Tim Kaine? 0.97

00:16:28.140 Take a seat. 0.99

00:16:28.840 You're like, it was very, very hard.

00:16:31.840 And then I've got to get to point number two on Tim Kaine.

00:16:35.840 I know the allegations against Pete backward and forward.

00:16:39.600 Trust me.

00:16:40.260 I have researched them all.

00:16:41.840 I did a comprehensive interview with the guy where we went over every single one.

00:16:46.260 Beating his wife is not on the list.

00:16:49.800 And the nerve of Tim Kaine to come out there and throw it out there.

00:16:55.180 Watch.

00:16:55.460 Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives?

00:17:00.680 Senator, absolutely not.

00:17:02.900 But you would agree with me that if someone had committed physical violence against a spouse, that would be disqualifying to serve as Secretary of Defense, correct?

00:17:10.560 Senator, absolutely not have I ever done that.

00:17:13.760 You would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?

00:17:18.220 Senator, you're talking about a hypothetical.

00:17:21.200 I don't think it's a hypothetical.

00:17:22.900 Violence against spouses occurs every day.

00:17:26.880 And if you as a leader are not capable of saying that physical violence against a spouse should be a disqualifying fact for being secretary of the most powerful nation in the world, you're demonstrating an astonishing lack of judgment.

00:17:41.500 He didn't seem to care about Doug Emhoff's violence against women, which actually is backed up by a whole report by an attorney who was his girlfriend, who she filed it anonymously, but she filed it in the Daily Mail.

00:17:57.640 What is he talking about?

00:17:58.860 What is this?

00:17:59.660 This is just a blatant character assassination attempt. 0.99

00:18:03.120 Megan, is it wrong that I'm most scandalized in that stupid question by the inability of a sitting U.S. senator to know what a hypothetical is? 0.99

00:18:13.320 Tim Kaine said, if such and such occurred, that would be disqualifying, right? 0.99

00:18:17.960 And Pete rightly said, Senator, you're asking me to engage in a hypothetical.

00:18:22.000 And Tim Kaine, with this unearned haughtiness, says, I don't think that's a hypothetical.

00:18:29.020 It's literally a hypothetical.

00:18:30.260 That's how the English language works.

00:18:32.120 That is not up for debate, Senator.

00:18:33.380 You know, this is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world.

00:18:38.300 These people have a loose grasp on the English language.

00:18:42.520 We haven't even gotten to Maisie Hirono yet.

00:18:44.880 No serious country would ever have Maisie Hirono as a senator. 0.99

00:18:48.680 It was appalling, Megan.

00:18:50.820 No serious country would have her. 0.99

00:18:53.400 And yet we do. 0.98

00:18:55.160 She was an embarrassment. 0.89

00:18:57.100 Here's a little sampling of her.

00:18:58.120 Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement relating to this kind of conduct?

00:19:05.180 Senator, I was falsely accused in October of 2017.

00:19:10.820 It was fully investigated and I was completely cleared.

00:19:14.740 I don't think completely cleared is accurate.

00:19:17.240 Will you resign as secretary of defense if you drink on the job, which is a 24-7 position?

00:19:24.340 I've made this commitment on behalf of the men and women I'm serving.

00:19:27.900 I'm not hearing an answer to my question, so I'm going to move on. 0.95

00:19:36.900 Would you carry out an order to shoot protesters in the legs?

00:19:40.880 I saw 50 secret service agents get injured by rioters trying to jump over the fence, 0.98

00:19:46.620 set the church on fire, and destroy the statue.

00:19:48.400 You know what? 0.96

00:19:48.620 That sounds to me that you will comply with such an order. 1.00

00:19:51.160 You will shoot protesters in the leg. 0.99

00:19:53.440 Wait, there's more. 1.00

00:19:58.900 She pressed him on Greenland, too.

00:20:01.800 She has us invading Greenland in Sod 18. 0.95

00:20:04.540 Would you use our military to take over Greenland or an ally of Denmark?

00:20:19.220 Senator, one of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand.

00:20:23.420 And so I would never in this public forum give one way or another direct what orders the president would give me in any context.

00:20:30.480 That sounds to me that you would contemplate carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland and take over the Panama Canal.

00:20:37.840 How about a trade, Megan?

00:20:42.760 How about – listen, I love Hawaii.

00:20:45.440 It is one of my absolute favorite places on earth.

00:20:48.180 I'm beginning to think we might have made a mistake in 1959.

00:20:51.520 So what if it's just a fair trade to Denmark?

00:20:53.700 Denmark gets Hawaii, they get Maisie Hirono, and we get Greenland.

00:20:57.780 Easy.

00:20:58.820 So she was terrible.

00:21:00.780 She was just so – she thought she was scoring points.

00:21:03.760 You know, you could kind of feel that she was like, yeah, I got him again.

00:21:07.460 Well, the rest of us are laughing at her.

00:21:09.080 Everybody in the gallery was laughing at her.

00:21:12.020 So that was Maisie.

00:21:13.400 But, I mean, honestly, I don't want to choose, like, the worst woman. 0.95

00:21:17.940 But Kirsten Gillibrand was –

00:21:20.360 She was the worst.

00:21:21.080 Like, hysterical.

00:21:22.440 First of all, she looks like she's aged 30 years in the past four.

00:21:27.900 Like, I looked around, and she looked like a woman in her mid-40s the last time I looked at her. 1.00

00:21:31.980 And then from afar, I was like, she looks like an elderly woman over there. 0.74

00:21:35.020 I'm sorry.

00:21:35.820 I'm not trying to attack her personally.

00:21:37.260 I'm just saying, like, I think the job has been a lot for her.

00:21:40.840 And it's also backed up by her hysterics. 0.99

00:21:44.160 Like, people's feelings are hurt.

00:21:46.720 Here's a sample.

00:21:48.600 We have hundreds, hundreds of women who are currently in the infantry, lethal members of our military serving in the infantry. 1.00

00:21:57.400 But you degrade them.

00:21:58.880 You say, we need moms, but not in the military, especially in combat units.

00:22:04.340 So please explain these types of statements, because they're brutal and they're mean.

00:22:09.420 And I would point out I have never disparaged women serving in the military.

00:22:14.080 I respect every single female service member that has put on the uniform past and present.

00:22:19.440 My critiques, Senator, recently and in the past, and from personal experience, have been instances where I've seen standards lowered.

00:22:28.360 So just, you cannot denigrate women in general, and your statements do that.

00:22:32.960 We don't want women in the military, especially in combat. 1.00

00:22:35.960 What a terrible statement.

00:22:37.740 Everything you've said in these public statements is politics.

00:22:40.580 I don't want women. 1.00

00:22:41.500 I don't want moms. 1.00

00:22:42.400 What's wrong with a mom, by the way? 1.00

00:22:43.840 Once you have babies, you therefore are no longer able to be lethal, because I don't want you thinking, can't serve if you're a mom, can't serve if you're LGBTQ, and then last, can't serve if you're a leftist.

00:22:57.820 Michael, thoughts?

00:22:59.620 Yeah.

00:23:00.580 I think that Kirsten Gillibrand began her line of questioning trying to persuade people that women do belong in combat. 0.98

00:23:09.760 And I think by the end of it, she had people wondering if women belong in the United States Senate. 1.00

00:23:13.560 That was really awful.

00:23:14.980 I think we need Senator Megyn Kelly to go restore the reputation of women in the deliberative body. 1.00

00:23:21.460 She did not persuade anybody of anything.

00:23:24.840 No, I don't know why.

00:23:27.540 They, you know, on this show, sometimes I have a temper, I'll get out, whatever.

00:23:32.300 If I were in the Senate, trust me, I would be composed, and I would be able to make my points without getting hysterical.

00:23:39.140 Yeah, I wrote it down in my notes.

00:23:40.360 It was one of the few notes I took.

00:23:42.280 At one point, she says, your comments are so hurtful.

00:23:46.220 They're so hurtful.

00:23:47.400 They're so mean.

00:23:48.440 To whom?

00:23:50.180 To the warfighters?

00:23:51.660 So you're saying the female warfighters' feelings are hurt? 0.99

00:23:56.420 Do you see how you're undermining your own point, madam?

00:23:59.420 Like, are they warfighters who can go in there and take, you know, bullets?

00:24:05.900 Or are they like weepy little schoolgirls who, Pete, you know, hurt their feelings and they need a public apology?

00:24:11.980 Go ahead.

00:24:12.240 Even to raise this point of women who are in the military, who are mothers, that maybe it's not the best idea to go send our mothers out there to go catch bullets from jihadis. 0.90

00:24:21.840 Maybe there's something a little weird about that.

00:24:23.620 You know, it's so disingenuous, the objections that she's making.

00:24:27.460 Because when it comes to all of these questions, until very, very recently, we didn't have women in combat. 0.79

00:24:34.260 Everyone agreed, Republicans, Democrats, independents, women should not be in combat catching bullets from terrorists.

00:24:40.900 Until very, very recently, we all agreed men who think that they're women don't belong in the military.

00:24:45.900 They belong in counseling because there's something that's gone wrong in their heads.

00:24:49.080 Until very, very recently, we all agreed that DEI and all other forms of political correctness and methods of promotion that are not based on lethality and merit have no place in the military.

00:25:00.920 Everyone agreed with that until the Obama administration, basically.

00:25:04.300 And so to suggest now that to want to rewind the clock back to those long ago days of, what, 2013 or something, that that is somehow regressive and beyond the pale.

00:25:18.160 It's just absurd.

00:25:19.460 I mean, this is the kind of radicalism that the American people rejected at the ballot box in November.

00:25:25.120 And I don't think the mood has changed between that time and Kristen Gillibrand's shrill line of questioning.

00:25:32.060 I loved how Senator Wicker was the chair and he did a great job.

00:25:36.060 He's like, no, you're not getting a second round of questioning.

00:25:38.620 We're going to run this the same way we ran the last two when the Dems were in charge.

00:25:41.920 And then you've got the ranking member, Jack Reed, who was making all sorts of points.

00:25:47.840 But here's what I love about it.

00:25:49.660 He had all sorts of points.

00:25:51.020 He was trying to score against Pete, but this is how he would do it.

00:25:54.080 Well, I would like the record to reflect that.

00:25:56.820 I want to say the following terrible things about Pete.

00:25:59.320 I'd have to follow the terrible things about Pete.

00:26:01.220 He got so far away from the microphone every time he spoke, you couldn't hear him at all.

00:26:10.820 His staff put a note in front of him saying, get in front of the microphone.

00:26:14.660 You can't hear you.

00:26:15.560 He listened to it one time and for the rest of the time he was like, and another thing about Pete Heggs is, I want you to know this.

00:26:21.640 Good.

00:26:22.340 It was better for them. 0.99

00:26:23.380 It was better for the Democrats that people not hear their ridiculous arguments. 0.96

00:26:27.600 You know, on this point of rhetoric and oratory and showmanship, this was the point. 0.54

00:26:33.440 I forget which Democrat senator raised it about Pete Heggseth.

00:26:36.760 I think it might have been Mark Kelly who said, look, I'd vote for you for Pentagon spokesman, but I'm not voting for you to be the head of the Pentagon because, you know, you're just a smooth talker basically.

00:26:46.860 And that manifestly was not true.

00:26:49.680 He just also happens to be a good communicator.

00:26:52.000 He's a guy who has multiple degrees from very prestigious institutions, who has served in combat, who has led troops, who has fought for veterans, who has gotten legislation advanced.

00:27:03.120 He is a really serious and accomplished guy.

00:27:05.900 Oh, and he also happens to be a good communicator.

00:27:09.280 Maybe that would be a nice thing.

00:27:10.920 You know, the U.S. senators don't even know how to use a microphone. 1.00

00:27:13.520 Maybe it would be good in an era when the American people so distrust our institutions to have a guy who is competent, intelligent, educated, right minded and also able to speak to people in a persuasive way, as he did during his confirmation hearings.

00:27:29.860 One more for you.

00:27:30.960 How great was it when Senator Mullen of Oklahoma took the mic and got up there and just unleashed on everybody on the other side? 0.99

00:27:38.300 Like, you're a bunch of drunks. 0.93

00:27:40.100 You think he's a drunk? 1.00

00:27:40.920 You're drunks. 0.96

00:27:41.520 Here, watch this. 0.91

00:27:43.920 There's a lot about qualifications.

00:27:45.580 I think it's so hypocritical of senators, especially on the other side of the aisle, be talking about his qualifications, not going to lead the secretary or be the secretary of defense.

00:27:55.800 And yet your qualifications aren't any better.

00:27:59.240 Your own secretary that you all voted for, Secretary Austin, we had to vote on a waiver because he stepped off the board of Raytheon.

00:28:05.680 But I guess that's OK, because that's a Democrat secretary of defense.

00:28:11.820 The senator from Virginia starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job?

00:28:17.700 How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night?

00:28:21.780 Oh, boy.

00:28:22.220 Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign for their job?

00:28:28.160 And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have.

00:28:31.300 And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives?

00:28:36.180 Did you ask them to step down?

00:28:39.160 No.

00:28:39.600 But it's for show.

00:28:42.320 You guys, make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake.

00:28:50.420 Great.

00:28:51.040 Look at Tim Kaine.

00:28:52.280 Tim Kaine doesn't say boo because everything that Senator Mullen said was obviously true.

00:28:58.560 This is not even the sort of thing that only the senators know about.

00:29:01.820 This is widely known in Washington, D.C.

00:29:04.900 Anybody who's ever spent any time around Capitol Hill knows this.

00:29:08.280 The percentage of senators who sleep with staff members or lobbyists or or members of the media is pretty significant.

00:29:16.000 And and the number of senators who show up to Voterama, maybe they've had a few drinks.

00:29:21.000 It's a lot.

00:29:21.980 And that's why all of those Democrat senators were dead silent.

00:29:25.200 You know, he was great because they were puffing themselves up so much as these arbiters of morality. 0.96

00:29:31.080 These are the kinds of people who support murdering babies and castrating little children.

00:29:36.020 But all of a sudden they have such moral authority.

00:29:38.600 They're going to castigate Pete Hegseth, a man who has quite clearly turned his life around.

00:29:43.560 They're going to attack him for past misdeeds.

00:29:46.480 And then you get Mullen in there.

00:29:47.540 He says, hey, guys, I'd like to enter into the record.

00:29:50.720 This giant mirror.

00:29:52.140 Do you remember who you are?

00:29:53.780 Yeah.

00:29:54.060 Great.

00:29:55.020 Please.

00:29:55.580 Usher along our secretary of defense.

00:29:57.180 Here's the other thing.

00:29:58.600 One of the thing they were like, how many people did you manage at Concerned Veterans for America?

00:30:03.900 How many people did you manage at Vets for Freedom?

00:30:05.940 And he was like, you know, maybe eight to ten, eight to ten, eight to ten.

00:30:09.220 That's all.

00:30:09.760 And you're going to manage all these people at the Department of Defense.

00:30:12.920 Let me.

00:30:13.240 And he finally said, you know, I'm going to work for a CEO who is extremely successful.

00:30:16.920 How many people had Barack Obama managed before they made him president?

00:30:24.020 OK, he was a community organizer.

00:30:26.820 He didn't do anything managing people.

00:30:30.320 I mean, literally nothing.

00:30:32.300 He was he went to Harvard Law School.

00:30:35.100 He worked like a summer at Sidley in Austin, I think.

00:30:39.220 And then he decided to be a community organizer, becoming an activist.

00:30:44.080 He managed no one.

00:30:45.560 Pete Hegseth on the battlefield as a major commanded far more people in advance of this role than Barack Obama ever did.

00:30:54.200 And their party made him commander in chief.

00:30:57.180 The nerve of these people, Michael Knowles, I'll give you the last word.

00:31:00.460 I loved the correction when the chairman said, I'd just like to point out that Pete Hegseth has managed many more, many more people than the average United States senator.

00:31:08.120 These people who sat in judgment of Pete today were had absolutely no credibility to attack him.

00:31:15.900 They didn't bring the goods.

00:31:17.020 Pete Hegseth is going to be the secretary of defense.

00:31:19.600 And the rest of Trump's nominees are going to have a much easier time because of it.

00:31:23.780 Yes, totally agree.

00:31:25.460 Thank you, Michael Knowles.

00:31:26.480 Great to see you.

00:31:27.820 Great to be with you.

00:31:28.540 Thanks, Megan.

00:31:28.900 All right, coming up next, Dakota Meyer and Rob O'Neill, those warfighters that we were hearing so much about today from Pete and others, they'll respond to what they saw.

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00:35:34.220 I want to get more reaction now to Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing from two men who know exactly

00:35:44.280 what we need in a Secretary of Defense. Dakota Meyer, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who 1.00

00:35:49.960 became the first living Marine in over 40 years to receive the Medal of Honor in 2011, along with Rob

00:35:56.440 O'Neill, a U.S. Navy SEAL veteran who participated in over 400 combat operations, including the raid

00:36:02.640 that killed bin Laden. He's the man who did it. He's now the host of The Operator podcast. Guys,

00:36:09.460 great to see you again. How are you doing? Good. Doing well, Megan. Thanks for having us.

00:36:14.180 Oh, my gosh. I'm dying to hear your reaction to what we saw today. Rob, let me start with you,

00:36:20.060 because it really was like these senators who most of whom they don't like they're happy to send you

00:36:27.200 to into war while they sit in these air conditioned offices. But when they get an actual war fighter in

00:36:33.600 front of them, they treat him like he's the gum on the bottom of their shoe.

00:36:39.200 Yeah, Megan, it's crazy. My my initial reaction was Senator Blumenthal, who I can't believe shows his

00:36:45.500 face in that committee because he lied about Vietnam the entire time. He's been lying about

00:36:49.560 Vietnam since he didn't fight there. And then he finally got busted, had to come out and say,

00:36:53.460 you know, I apologize for misspeaking. There's a huge difference between fighting in Vietnam with

00:36:57.680 real Marines and misspeaking and lying. And so he's up there doing that. We didn't mention that.

00:37:02.560 I love how high and mighty they all get. They're not mentioning Senator Ben Cardin had a staffer who had

00:37:07.160 gay sex in the Judiciary Committee room, filmed it. No big deal. And then even as far as I love how 0.99

00:37:14.760 how Senator Mullen from Oklahoma said, you know, they come in drunk. I've seen you come in drunk.

00:37:21.400 It's almost like there's some Senate like the Democrats are playing their the cards they play

00:37:26.200 and their, you know, their sentences that they don't their questions they don't want answered.

00:37:29.240 But now all of a sudden you turn the light on and the roaches just scatter. It's I mean, it was it

00:37:33.540 was Pete did a great job. But I think Democrats look horrible. Yeah, here's Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut

00:37:40.520 trying to get trying to get it was a gotcha against Pete on exactly what numbers are in

00:37:45.660 which branches of the military. Watch. Mr. Hexeth, I'm asking you a very simple question.

00:37:52.440 How many men and women currently serve in the United States Army? Senator, the United States Army,

00:37:58.000 450,000 on active duty, sir. And how many in the Navy? And the Navy is 425, sir.

00:38:05.540 Well, it's 337 this year. How many in the Marine Corps? 175,000, sir. 172,300. Those numbers dwarf

00:38:17.520 any experience you had by many multiples. I don't believe that you can tell this committee or the

00:38:28.280 people of America that you are qualified to lead them. I would support you as the spokesperson for

00:38:37.680 the Pentagon.

00:38:40.140 Oh, so rude, Dakota. What did you make of that?

00:38:44.480 I mean, look, I think that I mean, I watched the whole thing and it just it blew my mind. First off,

00:38:50.160 that the leaders of the policymakers, lawmakers of this country, that these were the priorities that

00:38:56.340 they were focused on, on someone who is about to go and and be in charge of the force that not only

00:39:02.180 maintains and secures the United States national security, but but also really is is is the the

00:39:09.360 the the stabilization of the globe. And right. And these were the questions that they wanted to ask

00:39:14.040 the ha ha gotcha. They use these these moments right now in this confirmation hearing to sit here 0.53

00:39:19.820 and focus on, you know, the same thing over and over about just trying to ha ha gotcha. And, you know,

00:39:24.780 the thing when I watch Pete there, it's like, you know, one side of it, I'm sitting back and I'm

00:39:29.360 like, well, say this, you know, from my point, but it's like he knows the game, right? He's sitting

00:39:35.720 there. He knows that no matter what he says, he's got to get through this. And he's got to limit

00:39:39.340 exposure. Right. And and that's the problem with the with all of this is like, there is no

00:39:43.960 accountability for them sitting up there on on that in that position. There's no accountability for

00:39:49.480 the lawmakers. There's no accountability for any of them up there. But they want to turn around.

00:39:52.300 They want to critique this man over and over, which was rightfully so. Look, I think we have

00:39:56.840 to to sit here and vet and we have to make sure that that, you know, these people are going to

00:40:00.580 uphold the policies and they're going to support the Constitution of the United States. And I,

00:40:04.580 you know, we want to hear his views on what he's going to do about, you know, the issues that are

00:40:08.780 truly, you know, threatening the United States of America. But like to sit here and make this out,

00:40:14.600 it just shows you that the priority of the security of the United States of America is not the

00:40:19.300 priority of the left right now. Mm hmm. It was pretty remarkable when Pete got there. He had

00:40:24.140 the support of the crowd. In fact, some Democrats were saying they'd never seen the hearing room like

00:40:28.840 this, that they were stunned at the number of people who showed up to support Pete. And when Pete

00:40:33.860 walked in, they start, they broke out in chants of USA. Here's a little bit of that in SOT 1.

00:40:40.300 USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

00:40:53.860 And one of the most interesting things, Rob, was when they were trying to cross-examine him,

00:40:57.820 a couple did, but Jack Reed, the ranking dem in particular, on whether he thinks we should follow

00:41:03.760 the Geneva Convention. And Pete was trying to say, look, my criticisms have been, you've got these

00:41:08.560 people in, you know, another land who come up with these rules, but warfighters on the ground

00:41:13.120 get conflicting messages, especially in today's modern military, where they're fighting against

00:41:17.940 insurgents. And they need better guidance on exactly what they're allowed to do, what they're not

00:41:23.460 allowed to do. Here's something akin to that exchange in SOT 13. Your definition of lethality

00:41:30.920 seems to embrace those people who do commit law crimes, rather than those who stand up and say,

00:41:37.340 this is not right. So what's the response to your service members who personally witnessed these and

00:41:44.080 took courageously reported them to their superiors? Senator, as someone who's led men in combat

00:41:51.980 directly and had to make very difficult decisions, I've thought very deeply about the balance between

00:41:58.300 legality and lethality. Sir, I'm talking about restrictive rules of engagement that these men and

00:42:03.800 women behind me understand they've lived with on the battlefield, which has made it more difficult 0.94

00:42:09.160 to defeat our enemies. In many of the cases you're talking about in particular, sir, there was evidence

00:42:14.600 withheld, there was prosecutorial misconduct. And as someone who looks case by case and defaults

00:42:21.160 to the warfighter, to the men and women with dust on their boots, not the second-guessers in air

00:42:26.280 conditioned offices in Washington, D.C. I look case by case and was proud to work with President Trump

00:42:31.920 to understand those cases and ensure that our warriors are always looked out for.

00:42:38.880 Go ahead, Rob.

00:42:40.640 Well, I think that the rules of engagement have a tendency to get way too strict, especially

00:42:46.320 the longer we make a war last. And, you know, the Geneva Convention was one thing, but things

00:42:51.580 change. And then everything, I mean, I've seen everything from NCIS, which by the way, the worst

00:42:56.340 thing that ever happened is they made a TV show making those guys look cool. They're going to get

00:42:59.880 promoted. The more people they can prosecute and play the, play the, um, the good guy, then the

00:43:04.240 bad guy and they get, you know, whatever credit when they put someone in jail. Uh, what I've noticed

00:43:09.640 with, especially with my unit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the, the fewer rules we had, the

00:43:14.660 better we were because we had the latitude and we're more precise and like it or not, we, we on the

00:43:19.540 ground are the good guys. And the Monday morning quarterbacks to sit in Washington, D.C. and, and,

00:43:24.160 uh, put people in Leavenworth for murder in war. Uh, I remember even on the bin Laden raid when we,

00:43:29.320 before we even got in the house, one of my friends shot one of the couriers and then his wife jumped on top.

00:43:33.600 He shot her. He looked at me outside the house. This is outside Ben Laden's house. And he said,

00:43:37.460 I just shot one of the women. She just jumped in front. Am I going to be okay? It's like, 1.00

00:43:41.480 stop worrying about that. That should not be in your mind. And when a Marine is in a gunfight,

00:43:45.280 they should be worried about, well, is some dude in a nice suit that's never been in mud going to 0.62

00:43:49.380 prosecute me for this? It's nonsense. And this is what, this is the bureaucracy that happens with

00:43:54.080 the further you go, the bigger the government agencies get. And then it turns into the self-licking

00:43:58.140 ice cream cone, personal power. Can I put an American in jail so I can get a Navy achievement 0.98

00:44:03.360 medal? And that's, that's what Pete's getting at. And the reason there's so much blowback is

00:44:07.240 because what needs to happen is the fat needs to get trimmed. But what needs to happen at the,

00:44:11.160 at the Pentagon is exactly what Elon Musk did at Twitter. Get rid of everybody,

00:44:14.820 almost change the name and they'd be more efficient. And that's, you're, you're just,

00:44:17.720 you're seeing the, the death throes of, of, of dying policies. And that's what these senators

00:44:22.500 were doing today. And Pete nailed it.

00:44:24.020 And so Dakota, he, uh, you heard there that a little suggestion that that's where Blumenthal was

00:44:29.780 going. Like you don't, you can't manage these numbers in the army and the Navy. You're, you've

00:44:34.520 never managed anything. It's too big. You've done nothing. It's totally ignoring. As I pointed out

00:44:39.740 before you guys came on, Barack Obama managed absolutely nothing before he became president of

00:44:44.740 the United States. He was a community organizer. That's it. Um, and then you finally have the last

00:44:50.500 person to question Pete of anybody up there who was the newly elected, uh, Republican Senator

00:44:57.320 from the great state of Montana. That's Rob O'Neill's home state, Butte, Montana, um, who gets

00:45:03.900 up there, she, he, and starts, who's an actual veteran and he decides to go a different way with

00:45:11.160 Pete. Watch. How many genders are there? Tough one. Uh, Senator, there are two genders. I know that 1.00

00:45:18.860 while I'm a she, so I'm on board. What is the diameter of the rifle round fired out of an

00:45:28.600 M4, a one rifle? Uh, that's a five, five, six. How many pushups can you do? I did five

00:45:35.880 sets of 47 this morning. What do you think? What do you think our most important strategic

00:45:43.020 base is in the Pacific? Uh, in the Pacific, Guam is pretty strategically significant.

00:45:48.740 And then he went on Dakota, that continued for another five. Well, I mean, maybe three

00:45:54.200 minutes and Pete knew all those answers and he was trying to make a point there.

00:45:59.880 Yeah, look, I mean, I, I think that, that all of us sitting back, um, and trying to figure

00:46:04.940 out or to decide how Pete's going to, if he, how he's going to do or how he's not going

00:46:08.760 to do, I mean, that's all a hundred percent on Pete's shoulders and we're about to find

00:46:12.060 out. Right. I think, you know, questioning Pete about what he said on Fox news. I mean, he

00:46:16.160 was in the, he was in a role of a reporter. Now he's about to go into the role of, you

00:46:19.940 know, the secretary of defense, which all of us should be coming and rallying around and

00:46:23.640 trusting. Look, I'll say up front, like, let me, let me just go ahead and own this up

00:46:27.280 front. Megan is like, in the beginning of this, I was not an advocate for this. I was

00:46:31.860 a hundred percent against it. Right. I was, I was emotionally tied to it. I, I had a lot

00:46:36.280 of questions, uh, and all that. And, and, and, you know, I, I had to get set down and,

00:46:41.360 and, and really spoken to by another veteran who's, who's in all of it. But, you know, she

00:46:47.840 looked at me and she said, Hey, look, um, you know, he's going to be carrying out not

00:46:51.240 his personal views. This isn't about the personal Pete. This is about the person who's

00:46:54.980 going to go out and carry out what the president of the United States, uh, wants him to do and

00:46:59.720 what's on behalf and the best interest of other people. And, and when it comes down to

00:47:03.360 that, like, I a hundred percent believe that we all have got to stand behind and hope and

00:47:07.240 support that, that, you know, Pete on this, that he's going to go out and do the right

00:47:10.160 thing. I mean, I, like, I think Pete's got a huge learning curve, like every single one

00:47:14.180 of us or anybody that steps into that role is going to do. What I can tell you is, is

00:47:18.640 that historically, uh, the, the, the last few people who have been in there, uh, have not,

00:47:25.160 have not been doing or making a great difference, nor have they been, you know, doing what, what

00:47:29.420 we need to get our military focused on doing. Our military is made in the

00:47:33.280 focus for our military is two things, lethality, war fighting and people, war fighting and people

00:47:40.900 that is the business. And that is the only two focuses that, that, that aspect should

00:47:47.620 be focused on. And that's what we've got to get back to. And I trust that Pete's going

00:47:51.120 to do that. I trust that Pete loves America. I trust that Pete puts America first. I trust

00:47:56.560 that, that, that Pete loves troops. And I trust that he is going to be loyal to the

00:48:03.060 president of the United States, the constitution, and that he's going to carry out the orders

00:48:06.300 that he needs to in the best interest of the United States of America. And that is

00:48:09.940 what I know about Pete Hedgeseth. And that is what I care about right now is that somebody

00:48:13.460 goes up there and look, none of us, none of us have a clean record that, you know, on

00:48:18.780 our worst times, none of us would want to trade Pete's seat and sit up there with all these

00:48:23.240 people trying to go and find the skeletons in our closet. I can tell you, nobody watching

00:48:27.200 this, nobody watching that confirmation hearing today would have traded seats with Pete. If

00:48:32.980 anybody would have knew about a 10th of what people have been going and digging on him for

00:48:36.920 the last couple of months. Right. So I just think that like this hypocrisy of all of us

00:48:41.620 sitting back and throwing rocks at the man in the arena right now is something that, that

00:48:47.620 is, is not helpful, nor is it, you know, we all should sit back here and we should hope

00:48:52.420 that and get behind Pete. And we should try to sit here and hope that he goes and that he can

00:48:57.520 handle this job. And if he can't, then we'll see pretty quick, but none of this is on any of us to

00:49:02.000 figure out it's on Pete Hedgeseth now. And I trust that all of us should come around him and we should

00:49:05.980 sit here and help him become successful because if Pete's successful, the president's successful,

00:49:10.240 the United States of America is successful. And not only that, the globe is successful. So that I

00:49:14.760 think that that is the point that we've all got to rally around right now.

00:49:17.480 I love your honesty. I, I, I know that you were at best lukewarm on Pete, which is one of the

00:49:23.360 reasons we wanted you to be here. We don't, not just looking for uniformity and thought,

00:49:27.280 uh, Rob, one of the things or a couple of things that Pete said today, I know are right up your alley.

00:49:32.900 I mean, we've talked about it many times and one of them, of course, we heard over and over how he

00:49:38.000 wants to get woke out of the military. And that's been a big priority for Trump. But the other one

00:49:42.620 speaks to the total lack of accountability for the people who have lost our wars, who have endangered

00:49:49.180 guys like you in, in many cases, unnecessarily without any accountability for it, like the

00:49:54.780 disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. And Pete spoke to that a bit, um, at the end, take a listen to

00:50:00.340 SOT 17. The wokeness comes not from the uniform ranked Senator, but from the political class. Um, on day

00:50:07.700 one, on January 20th, when president Trump is sworn in, he will issue a new set of lawful orders

00:50:12.620 and the leadership of our services will have an opportunity to follow those lawful orders or not.

00:50:18.100 Those lawful orders will not be based on politics. They will be based on readiness, accountability,

00:50:22.860 standards, and lethality. That is the process by which leaders will be judged. And accountability is

00:50:29.220 coming because everybody in this room knows if you're a rifleman and you lose your rifle,

00:50:35.260 they're throwing the book at you. But if you're a general who loses a war, you get a promotion.

00:50:44.080 That's not going to happen in Donald Trump's Pentagon. There will be real standards for success.

00:50:51.300 Matt, never heard a message like that from anybody nominated to this post before.

00:50:57.140 Yeah, that was the best quote of the day. I remember when he said that, and that's exactly

00:51:00.640 what he's bringing to it. He's trying to simplify it. Uh, he's not trying to spin anything. Uh,

00:51:04.820 we're going to fight the war and we're going to win it. And accountability is huge. And every

00:51:08.060 veteran back there, there was a lot of special forces, a lot of, uh, infantry and Marines behind

00:51:12.260 him. You could, you could almost hear him, hear them agreeing with him because that's what they

00:51:16.140 want is accountability. They want to be able to have a line solidarity. They want to forward

00:51:19.580 defense and deterrence. They're not worried about the political class. Like Pete was just saying

00:51:23.380 brilliantly that that that's where all this stuff comes from. And you could even hear it spun

00:51:27.320 today. I think it was, uh, Mazzy Hirono from Hawaii who said something like, it doesn't matter who you

00:51:33.240 love. If you fight in a war, it's like, well, it's not quite that Pete saying, if you live up to the

00:51:37.940 standards, you can work. And it's not the worry about the LBG LGBTQ stuff. It's the, are you going

00:51:44.520 to get an operation that will requires you to recover for 18 months and you're not operationally

00:51:48.600 ready? That's all he's saying. But the problem is a lot of times, especially even dealing with

00:51:53.360 politicians, uh, you really got to be careful telling the truth because you might just offend 1.00

00:51:57.540 stupid people. And that's all that's happening here. But Pete nailed it. And that's, that's 1.00

00:52:01.060 right too. The only person who's been held accountable for the disastrous withdrawal from

00:52:04.880 Afghanistan was a colonel who's who spoke up and just, and he didn't even say anything

00:52:08.680 disparaging. It's like, Hey, where's the accountability? Boom, fired. And that's the way

00:52:11.920 they handled it because you get to a certain level in the military. You stop being military

00:52:16.100 and you start being political because you want to get that job at Raytheon. You want to be a

00:52:19.400 contractor. You want to run for politicians. And I've talked to so many, I've been

00:52:23.320 saying for a long time, we need a mid-level officer with experience on the ground to take

00:52:27.680 the Pentagon. I've talked to so many good officers at the major level, Lieutenant Commander level

00:52:31.960 that get out of the Navy, get out of the army because they're tired of dealing with the

00:52:35.160 bureaucracy. I have a simple plan too. If you want to keep it simple, the second you stop

00:52:39.080 carrying your own bags, you need to get out of the military and that's it. So we need a major in

00:52:43.860 there, a Lieutenant Colonel to run the, I think it's a perfect choice. And you know what, if we're

00:52:47.060 wrong, we're wrong, but we're going to find out. Pete just cruised today. He's going to get nominated.

00:52:50.140 He's going to get the job. Confirmed. It's funny because I realized sitting there today that

00:52:55.700 everything I know about military ranks, I learned from MASH. Am I alone in that?

00:53:01.800 You're like, wait a minute. Who is above? Clinger. And then there was, anyway, Hawkeye.

00:53:08.500 Okay. And I would like to add on that. You look at my instance, right? We do have an officer

00:53:14.080 problem. We've got a lot of great officers. We have a lot of great officers. I want to say it up

00:53:19.040 front. You know, there, there are some generals that are by far some of the best human beings

00:53:24.300 that I know that, that wear the stars on their chest. But what I also want to say is we've got

00:53:29.800 a lot of bad ones too. And I, you know, you look at, you look at my instance, you know,

00:53:33.200 you take Afghanistan, my situation where we've got two investigations, direct loss of life due to

00:53:37.620 leadership. These officers got, they got letters of reprimand. They got promoted. Then they got out

00:53:45.480 and retired. And then as this other general got out, he ripped up those letters of reprimand and

00:53:50.780 nobody was held accountable. Now, let me tell you this. If I had made the decision and got somebody

00:53:55.020 killed or done the same thing that they had done, I would have been hammered. Anybody enlisted would 0.86

00:54:00.340 have made or planned that mission that they could have pinned it on. The enlisted would have been

00:54:04.620 hammered. And so like seeing Pete come in and hopefully recognize that and fixing it. I just think

00:54:09.340 that like, I said it a long time ago, the, the, there has got to be some level of accountability.

00:54:15.380 The accountability has got to be equal and it can't be this good old boy club that everybody

00:54:19.160 is, is overlooking in the aspect of it. Like I'm in, I'm in, let's just hold them accountable.

00:54:25.180 Like, like if you mess up on what the same level that you're going to hold this private who goes out

00:54:33.520 and, and, and does something wrong or loses their rifle. Like, I just don't understand why a general,

00:54:38.660 like, you know, a general isn't held to the same, same standard as, you know, a, a, a Lance

00:54:42.900 corporate and gets in trouble. And it's just, there's no way that anybody in the military will say

00:54:47.540 that that is not the case. Um, okay. Let's spend a minute on the, on the sort of main lines of

00:54:53.500 attack against him. We covered a couple, like you, you don't have the experience or you haven't

00:54:57.580 managed enough. Um, they, or you, you allegedly beat your wife. Okay. Thanks, Tim Kaine. Sure.

00:55:04.360 Great. Um, but then there was the Mark Kelly, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. He brought up

00:55:11.340 some of the allegations that we've seen in the anonymous, uh, press, the press citing anonymous

00:55:16.180 sources. Here's a little bit of that in SOT 16. An event in North Carolina, drunk in front of three

00:55:21.480 young female staff members after you had instituted a no alcohol policy and then reversed it. True or 1.00

00:55:28.200 false. Anonymous smears. December of 2014 at the CVA Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt at

00:55:34.460 Washington DC, you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. Is that true

00:55:42.080 or false? Anonymous smears. Another time a CVA staffer stated that you passed out in the back

00:55:49.420 of a party bus. Is that true or false? Anonymous smears. In 2014, while in Louisiana on official

00:55:57.720 business for CVA, did you take your staff, including young female staff members to a strip 0.65

00:56:05.400 club? Absolutely not. Anonymous smears. Okay. I'll just say the audience heard me talk about this

00:56:13.180 kind of thing before that. That wasn't great by Pete because choose one or the other. Either you're

00:56:18.140 going to say no, no, no, no, or you're going to say an anonymous smears the whole time, but to jump

00:56:23.120 in with absolutely not on just the one is sort of an admission. It sounds like an admission to all

00:56:27.560 the others, right? Like, I don't think it was an admission. I'm just saying. So anyway, what did

00:56:34.700 you make of it, Rob? Was it effective? Well, yeah, I mean, well, because when he's when he's

00:56:39.420 talking to Senator Kelly, who, by the way, is just ramping up for a run in 2028, that's all he's

00:56:43.680 doing. But at one point he was saying it's anonymous and he always said was, well, they're

00:56:48.300 not anonymous with no proof. Like, oh, well, then who's the who is it? Well, they are. But I think that

00:56:54.660 the beat your wife thing was so egregious that Pete had to say absolutely not, because 0.99

00:56:58.320 that's just ridiculous. I mean, it's to the point where, well, if you did. Well, no, he

00:57:01.960 said absolutely not on. Did you go to a strip club? But by the way, it's already all over

00:57:05.840 the press by people who actually did go to the strip club that Pete wasn't there. Like

00:57:09.840 that's already actually been out there. That didn't make it in anybody's questioning that

00:57:13.980 a third party independent witnesses said I was there and he was not there.

00:57:18.020 Well, he was saying it was addressed and he wasn't there. If he wasn't there, that's

00:57:23.400 not really on him, I don't think. I don't think the chain of command in the civilian sector

00:57:27.000 works like it does in the military. It would be on the, you know, probably on the XO or

00:57:30.140 the CEO if a bunch of his guys went to the bar on a weekend on a trip and then got in

00:57:35.060 trouble. That would be on them. But I don't think it is there.

00:57:36.840 But, Rob, don't you think this is where, like, all the anonymous press allegations did their

00:57:41.420 job, right? They made their way into the hands of a U.S. senator who then got to list

00:57:46.740 them off like they were all real and verified. And, you know, it's like just the assumption

00:57:52.460 that he was guilty of them all was built in, which is why I think anonymous smears was

00:57:56.880 actually a good answer for all of them. And he probably just should have stuck with that

00:58:00.900 straight through strippers or no strippers.

00:58:04.140 OK, I mean, you put it that way. Yes, I agree with you. I was just thinking it was the

00:58:07.860 strip club or the beating your wife thing. He's going to answer it that way because, I 0.80

00:58:11.240 mean, you got to consider with all the stuff being thrown at him, he really handled his

00:58:14.680 emotions very, very well. This is one of the major reasons I'm not running for office

00:58:18.400 or trying to get confirmed into anything. But he handled it like a pro and he did get

00:58:22.480 a little upset. But, I mean, he did a really good job knowing the Democrats. He did such

00:58:26.980 a good job today and the Democrats were so bad. I think it's going to make the next

00:58:30.480 confirmation hearings go a lot smoother because they're going to shoot their shot like they

00:58:34.300 always do. We've seen in landslide elections where the American public wants it. Even the

00:58:38.720 media is taking a knee to what's going to happen. This is where they've got six days

00:58:42.760 left. They're just doing what they can and then they're gearing up for the next election,

00:58:45.480 which is what politicians do.

00:58:47.100 The other big thing was women in the military. I mean, they just beat that horse until it 1.00

00:58:51.560 was absolutely dead and dead again today. He made so clear that what he's been talking

00:58:56.500 about is like, yes, women can serve in combat if they can meet the standards. It's like what 1.00

00:59:00.980 I've been saying all week on the firefighters out in L.A. and what most normal Americans feel.

00:59:06.060 They can serve if they can do the job. Although I have to say, you know, there are other

00:59:09.600 arguments for women not serving in combat, like the distraction of it. Like I actually

00:59:13.320 I don't know how Pete truly feels, but I think I might be further to the right than he is

00:59:17.800 on it. But Dakota, do you think that that's going to be an ongoing issue because all the

00:59:23.000 women up there seem to be, you know, indignant about that Pete would ever say that there's 0.99

00:59:28.240 a question about whether women should be serving certain combat roles?

00:59:30.960 Look, I think that, um, I mean, look, I think it doesn't matter what Pete said today. I don't

00:59:38.800 think, I don't think it was going to matter. Right. I don't think if he had said one way

00:59:42.380 or the other, I don't think any of it really mattered. Like it was just all about, it was

00:59:45.680 all about them getting their talking points out and their show out. So, I mean, the women 0.99

00:59:49.740 in combat thing, like me and Pete, I told Pete on the phone that I, you know, my, what

00:59:54.480 he, what he is, I think he clarified today for me. He clarified today. Initially what I'd

00:59:59.360 heard like small snippets, right. Of, you know, which talking points or whatever has

01:00:03.720 been spun out is, you know, no women in combat or I don't support women in combat. Right. 1.00

01:00:07.400 But what you heard him today is clarify is like, no, look, I think I add an opportunity,

01:00:11.720 but like the standard has got to be the standard. We cannot change up the physical demands.

01:00:16.760 You can't sit here and you can't mitigate. You can't overlook those, nor can you tailor

01:00:21.960 those, uh, the physical demands that boots on the ground, combat roles are going to require

01:00:28.620 and it's not, it's not gender based. It is, it is the job based. And so I think when he

01:00:33.480 clarified that up today, I a hundred percent agree with that aspect of it. Right. I, I,

01:00:38.180 you know, I a hundred percent agree with that because to be honest with you, Megan, like I

01:00:41.620 have seen women that could help perform the, some of the men that go to combat next to me.

01:00:45.500 Right. And so when it comes to that aspect of it, I have watched, I have watched women

01:00:49.860 who deserve to be in combat more than some of the guys that I've been in gunfights with

01:00:53.360 and that I'd rather take them anyways. Right. So I just don't, I don't get wrapped

01:00:56.760 up into that aspect of it. Like meet the standard, like go meet the standard. Can

01:01:00.700 you lead people? Can you meet the standard? Can you go out and perform and can you be

01:01:04.320 professional about it? Right. Because that is, that is what it's about. And I think

01:01:07.740 that that's what Pete portrayed today. I'm so glad he got to clarify that. And he got

01:01:11.520 to, to, to, to, you know, to really elaborate on some of his prior statements or, or what

01:01:16.700 was spun or whatever. Right. But I just think that like, I don't think anything that

01:01:20.860 he met, like what he said today was not changing any of their minds. It was all

01:01:24.760 about. I think you're right. I think you're right. No, no. He's not going to get a single

01:01:29.480 Dem vote from the look of it. Last question. How many pushups did you guys do this morning?

01:01:36.560 Dakota, I'll defer to you first. Cause I think I outrank you.

01:01:41.600 Well, I worked out with, uh, I worked with Lance Armstrong this morning. So I don't know.

01:01:45.160 I think we, we did. I think we did have some pushups in the workout, but I can't remember.

01:01:48.980 Nice. I had, I had leg day. Cause I'm still, I'm at leg day. I'm still moving out of my house.

01:01:53.120 A lot of stuff, a lot of furniture to carry. Okay. Well, I think it's unanimous. I did zero

01:01:57.980 too. You guys, it's awesome to see you. Thank you as always for being here. Thank you for your

01:02:04.100 service. God bless. And, uh, to be continued once it gets confirmed. Thank you, Megan.

01:02:10.120 Awesome. Thank you. All the best guys. Wow. Okay. Great show. We got to go. I got to get, uh,

01:02:14.680 on my, on route back to where do I live again? Up in Connecticut. And, uh,

01:02:19.160 thank you so much for being with us and for, uh, for bearing with us as we dropped the show a little

01:02:24.060 late today, given where I was all morning. Uh, we are back tomorrow with VDH. See you then.

01:02:31.460 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:02:36.140 Thank you.

The Megyn Kelly Show - January 14, 2025

Megyn Kelly's Instant Analysis of Pete Hegseth Hearing and Dem Absurdity, with Michael Knowles, Dakota Meyer, and Rob O'Neill ｜ Ep. 982

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