Pete Hegseth Speaks Out in Exclusive Interview, Addressing Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Ep. 957
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 10 minutes
Words per Minute
200.81825
Summary
Pete Hegseth sits down with Megyn Kelly in an exclusive and his first interview after being nominated and after the allegations against him have been swirling and being launched from virtually every corner of the mainstream media which clearly does not want him to have this job.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
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Pete Hegseth, nominee for Secretary of Defense, sits down with yours truly in an exclusive and his first interview
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after being nominated and after the allegations against him have been swirling and being launched
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from virtually every corner of the mainstream media, which clearly does not want him to have
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this job. Pete and I go way back. I've told you this before. We worked together on Fox News for
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a number of years. He became a contributor with my full endorsement and backing, and we became friends
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while I was at Fox. And I haven't spent a lot of time with Pete over the last 10 years or so, but
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I've long respected him and his service to the country. I've been really dismayed by the amount
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of pylon that he's been suffering, and I've been outraged by the unfairness of the media's coverage
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of the allegations. You're going to be able to decide for yourself whether the allegations are
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true, relevant, and dispositive for this position. But my own goal was to give Pete the chance to
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respond to them, to bring context to them in the course of the interview so you would know,
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are they anonymous? Are they backed by a specific person saying who they are and how they know Pete?
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And what is the evidence on the other side? I believe that's the job of a journalist,
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to air the news, to discuss, frankly, what the allegations are, and to give the audience enough
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information to make up their own minds. We've gone through the alleged rape charge against Pete in
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great detail. We've devoted entire shows to it. That was just a week or so ago, so check the archives
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of the program if you'd like to see. But today, absolutely nothing was off limits. And I asked
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him that moments before we sat down, and he said, go for it. And I knew I was going to be able to go
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for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done this interview. It's not how we operate. So we got
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into it all. The allegations of excessive drinking, that explosive alleged rape charge,
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the allegations that he's a philanderer and cheated on all of his wives, the allegations that he
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supposedly mismanaged his veterans' charities, and what he would actually do at the Department
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of Defense. One other word. When I list all the allegations like that, it makes it sound terrible
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for Pete. It makes it sound like it's true, and he's a terrible man. Is it, or is this all part of
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an effort to ruin a man who is threatening an institution that some powerful forces would rather
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not see changed? Hopefully, that'll become clear to you, and you'll have a takeaway at the end
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of the next hour. Without further ado, Pete Hexeth.
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All right. So it's been an all-out assault since Trump named you.
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I mean, from alleged rape allegations to allegations about your marriage to financial
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mismanagement, allegations at your companies that you ran, your foundations, I should say.
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How's it going with Trump right now? Is he so far standing by you? And have you spoken to him?
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I spoke to him this morning, Megan. I mean, he's amazing. He's a fighter. He's been through this
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himself. And he told me. The last thing he said to me, well, two things he said to me when I left
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his office when he chose me, was, well, besides what he said about being a warfighter, we can get
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into that, was, you're going to need to be tough as shit. You're going to need to be tough as shit.
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But he paused again as I was walking away and said, but you're the man for this moment.
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I chose you because you're the guy that's going to put the warfighters first. We haven't had that.
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We need a guy that's kicked down doors and understands the consequences of war and why
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us deterring war, fighting it, and winning it is important. He gets it. And we can get into the
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policy of all of that. But ultimately, he reiterated the same thing this morning. Hey, Pete, I got your
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back. It's a fight. They're coming after you. Get after it. I think he'll be delighted that we're
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talking today. And we're going to do more talking because for so long, what was said about me,
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what has been said about me, it was so ridiculous and all anonymous that we didn't want to give it
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oxygen. You don't want to respond to things that don't merit response. And so we have it. But the
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sitting here with you and going forward, you know, the media is driving with this ridiculous narrative.
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It's our turn to, it's our time to stand up and tell the truth and our side. And he knows that.
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And so he supports me. We talk, I won't betray what we talked about specifically, but he said,
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you all meet those senators and I've got your back. It means a lot to me. Tells you who that guy is.
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So you are meeting with them. Any open wobbliness there? Do you like, how do you like your chances
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right now? I mean, I, Donald Trump won overwhelmingly, uh, 76 million votes. He's got 53 senators,
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all of which understand what the American people voted for. They voted for the change that Donald
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Trump is going to bring. And they knew in the picks that he's made, he's bringing in change agents.
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If you wanted, uh, another general or another admiral or an executive or a CEO or a politician
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or a lawyer to run the defense department, we've tried that before. He said, I want a warfighter.
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I want lethality, lethality, lethality. I want readiness, accountability, standards,
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warfighting, Pete, that's you. That's me. Clean house of the woke crap. All that stuff, all the,
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the, the, the, the, the climate stuff and the CRT and the DEI and the, and the genderism and the
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trend, get rid of it. Let's bring the Pentagon back to the people, the people's Pentagon for warfighters.
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Um, and that's the message he gave to me that I've projected back to senators and it resonates
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with when I get a chance to sit down, especially with these senators from the Senate armed services
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committee, that's the committee I'm talking to. They care about the military a lot. They've,
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they've run for office, spent their lives trying to invest in it. So the advice and consent process
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is a real thing. Like I'm hearing from these men and women, these senators who have great ideas,
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want to make sure that when I'm confirmed, I were able to implement them at the defense department.
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They're worried about the military and the country and not necessarily your love life.
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No, uh, no. Or your mom or my mom who did a fantastic job on Fox. We're going to show some
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of it by the way there that you'd be surprised how, um, little that has come up. Now, when they ask,
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I answer candidly. I don't answer these questions to the, the hyenas in the hallway, trying to chirp at
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my wife and I, as we walked down the hallway, I don't owe them an answer. I own answer to the members
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of the United States Senate who are going to vote for a confirmation here. And my meetings with them
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have been fantastic. No one has looked me in the eye and say, I have concerns and I can't vote for
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you. In fact, most have said, let's take a picture and I'm behind you all the way. Uh, and that's a
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reflection of Donald Trump and the strength of his election, but also the mandate to change something
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at the defense department. Uh, so the meetings have been great. We're going to continue doing it.
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We're not back down, backing down one bit. Um, we're going to get into the specific allegations,
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but let me start with this. Do you think you're being Kavanaughed right now?
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I had a member, um, not 45 minutes ago, look me in the eye and private, just he and I and say,
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that's what they're trying to do to you. That's what they're trying to do to you. That's their
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playbook. Get ready for more. And they're going to make it up just like they have so far. All
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anonymous, all innuendo, all rumor, nothing sourced, no verification. And they're just going to keep
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doing it because you're a threat to them. You're a threat to their system. You're a threat to all the,
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the, the, the things in Washington DC, the swamp, the things that people have rejected. You're a
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threat to that. And so they're coming after you. Um, and, and, and, and I know that he knows that
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when you stand firm on that, it's, it's, it's not difficult to just continue to fight. So yeah,
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we saw what happened, but guess what happened? Kavanaugh stood up and he fought and he won.
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And hopefully Republicans have learned that lesson. And Trump stood by him. And Trump stood by him.
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There, right. You're seeing right now with me is the art of the smear. It is the classic art of the
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smear. Take whatever tiny kernels of truth. And there are tiny, tiny ones in there and blow them up
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into a masquerade of a narrative about somebody that I am definitely not. And what they'd never
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quote, and we'll get into this too, are the legions of people from who I served with in combat,
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multiple tours from the multiple veterans organizations that I very proudly ran. And I,
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I really want to get into that. Um, and my time at Fox news, they never asked the people closest to me.
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No, they never asked the people who were involved directly. And when they do,
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and I've got a list right here of, of, of people and Will Kane and my hosts at Fox news have come,
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all the folks on Fox friends have all come out and said, this is not Pete. And we've worked with
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Pete for 10 years, every single morning, every single day. They never ask those people. Yeah.
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And that's what a smear looks like. It's a couple anonymous nuggets, usually from disgruntled people
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who were fired for cause who are jealous or want a little, a little bit of retribution.
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And so they peddle stuff to reporters who are not interested in the truth.
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They're interested in smearing someone who supports Donald Trump's agenda. It's really
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clear. I'm in the middle of it, but you know, I'm surrounded by a great team. I got a wonderful
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wife. Um, we love this country. We love Jesus Christ, our savior, and we're going to fight like
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hell. There's no reason to back down. Why would we back down? Do you know how many guys I'm hearing
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from right now? The guys I serve with gals that I work with at CVA and else don't stop. The guys are
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like, it's always, sir, you know, don't stop, sir. Please keep going. You, you are fighting for us.
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Like you are our voice. We've never had a voice like this before.
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Um, you know what? That's it. There's an interesting one there. First of all, um, I've never had a
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drinking problem. I don't, um, never, no one's ever approached me and said, Oh, you, you should really
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look at getting help for a drink. Never. I've never sought counseling, never sought help. I
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respect and appreciate people who, who do. Um, but you know, what do guys do when they come back
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from war? Oftentimes have some beers. Um, you know, how do you deal with the demons you see on the
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battlefield? Sometimes it's with a bottle. Um, unfortunately, tragically for too many guys,
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uh, it's with the bottle and then it's depression and even worse suicide. I mean, we've got an epidemic
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of that in our country. Thank God, by the grace of God, I found my chapters of purpose that pulled
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me out of that. I found, uh, in many ways, I found two things, my two J's, uh, my Jenny, my wife,
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Jennifer changed my life, saved me. There's just no doubt about it. Uh, and my Lord and savior,
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Jesus Christ. And without those two J's, I wouldn't be sitting here right now, but with those two J's,
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like my mom said this morning, and I didn't get a chance to see all of it, but God bless my mom.
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Um, I'm a very different person than I was 10 years ago than I was 15 years ago, but I'm also
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the right guy to be in the Pentagon, to understand what our young water fighters are going through,
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what we send them to do, what we ask them to do tour after tour, after tour, after tour,
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are we equipping them properly? Are they mentally prepared? Are we helping them on the way back? How are
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they transitioning? Were they used properly? I can speak to that because I've lived it not from a
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general's perspective, not from an air conditioned office in Washington, DC, or from a think tank
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from dusty boots and pulling triggers with bullets whizzing by. And you're wondering whether you're
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ever coming home. You know, it's funny, Pete, we've known each other for a long time since our time
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together at Fox news. Um, I did not fully appreciate your military background until I started reading
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up on you for, you know, this position. I did not realize that you got into Princeton and then
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volunteered to join the military and then joined ROTC and went off to Gitmo. I mean, most guys who
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got into Princeton and had done that well in school would have been riding that right into investment
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banking or some career as a partner in law. You volunteered after you had this Ivy league start
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to go join the military, went down to Gitmo, served your country honorably, then came back,
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then re-volunteered to go to Iraq during the most dangerous time you could be there, then re-volunteered
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to go to Afghanistan, all through like putting yourself and your life on the line and sacrificing a
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life that could have been very financially privileged. Eventually you wound up back at Fox news and you,
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after running a bunch of veterans charities, but it must feel somewhat galling to have members of
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the media now taking shots at you as unfit to lead these guys. Um, the, one of the things I've
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enjoyed the most about this is I stay in touch with a lot of the guys I served with. And I say guys
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because I served in infantry battalions, but there are, what women have done for our military is
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incredible. And I hope we get into that too. Um, but has been hearing from them. Um, and, and they say
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sir, they're reaching out, they're asking questions. What should I do? And I said, talk every single
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guy from Guantanamo Bay, from Iraq to Afghanistan, to when I was holding a riot shield outside of the
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White House during the riots in 2020 guys talk, you don't need my permission. I got nothing to hide.
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Go talk to the reporters about what we did together. The shared purpose we had, we were different
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people from different backgrounds, different colors, different shades, different everything,
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but we were united in purpose and we're brothers forever as a result. And so hearing them talk about
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me and their willingness to do it actively has been really, really cool. I mean, that's actually,
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I don't care what politicians think about me or what pundits think about me, certainly not media
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and reporters, but the guys you pulled triggers with and went out on patrol with and left the wire with
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stayed in combat outposts with or guarded asshole Al Qaeda detainees with what they think
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matters a lot to me. And that's the perspective I'm taking into the Pentagon. That's the perspective
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is how are we using these men and women? Are we training them properly? Are we giving them,
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are we wiping away the garbage of political correct social justice nonsense and focusing just on
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lethality and meritocracy? Because men and women like that are going to fight future wars that Donald
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Trump's going to have to make a decision about whether we enter or not. And I'm humbled to be in a
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position where I could come alongside him and say, our men and women are ready. They're prepared. And
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if we have to use them, they're ready to win. And I'll always be thinking about those men and women
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that I serve with because that's who I want to represent. Yeah. And unlike most, you could actually
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look their mothers and fathers in the eye and say, this was worth it depending on what conflicts come
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our way. All right, let's, let's go through the allegations, including the first one that got this
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whole campaign against you started. And that was this anonymous accuser. And by the way,
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just so the audience knows, I too have looked through all of the accusations, all the reports
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against you. There is not one name, not one person accusing you of any sort of misconduct
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has gone on the record with their accusation. It is all anonymous from NBC, CBS, The New Yorker,
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the usual suspects. And yet you are having person after person go on the record in your defense about
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your character from, you know, Will Kane and Dan Bongino at Fox, Joey Jones at Fox, the entire Fox
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and Friends crew this morning, standing up and defending you. Dozens of people from my vets
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organizations everywhere. Yes. So that just so the audience knows, but we do need to go through what
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people are saying. So you have the chance to address it. So the first is this alleged rape that
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took place in 2017 at a hotel out in Monterey, California, where the allegation is that you were
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the keynote speaker at a Republican women's conference that you were drinking into the
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wee hours and that a female so-called handler of yours who was meant to see you from A to B
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went back to your room with you to shepherd you there, found herself inside the room that you
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allegedly blocked the door. She quote, remembers saying no a lot. And the next thing she knew,
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things got very fuzzy and you allegedly raped her with her husband and children in their own hotel room
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down the hall. The police investigated. They chose not to charge. The DA did not see probable cause
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to charge this case. Um, we found out from the police report, certain exonerating details,
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which none of the media will report. Like you said, it was consensual. There was no drug and she
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wasn't, she wasn't drugged in any way. And she's on camera looking totally fine. According to the
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police, according to eyewitnesses and according to her own husband, to whose room she returned at 4am.
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She was fine. She was not slurring. She was not stumbling. And she apologized to him for being out
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saying, I fell asleep on somebody's whatever. And that's what you say. She told you she was going
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to tell the husband. All right. That's, that's the setup for those who haven't been paying attention.
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Did you rape a woman in a hotel in Monterey? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I've been honest
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about that encounter starting with law enforcement, um, from the beginning I was, I may have been drinking,
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but I was cognizant enough to remember every single detail. Uh, and, and I'm not here to say that my
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conduct was good. Um, you know, being in a hotel room with someone that's, you know, not the person
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you're with is not okay. I own up to that. And I've, I've had to own up to that. And that's been
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difficult. Um, and my wife's amazing and, and she knew about it, but going through it again is not easy.
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Um, but ultimately I went through that process with investigators, eyes wide open and honest,
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because I knew I had nothing to hide. It's a really unfortunate situation. Um, and ultimately
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they dug into everything, as you said, everyone that was there, all the video camera footage,
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all of her testimony, husband's testimony, my testimony. And they looked into it and said,
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no way we're not charging on this at all. In fact, there's other things that hopefully could come
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out in the future that would bend. Our team is, is benefiting from more information. So we always
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want more information coming out of this because the more information that comes out, uh, the more
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people realize what this actually was. Um, and, and, and ultimately, um, you know, it's never fun to
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have your name. All they want is your name in the headline with that allegation. That's all they want.
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And then once they do that, they run with, they don't care about all the details that you just
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pointed out. And when they summarize the case in the secondary reporting, they never include
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any of the exonerating details. Not at all. That's to be expected though. That's, that's how
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our media today operates. Uh, they take one thing, blow it up and then extrapolate ad nauseum on it.
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But notice how that story has sort of faded away because there's nothing to hang onto there,
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which is why. Okay. But what about, cause you did pay her off a couple of years later,
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she came back threatening and wanting some sort of a settlement and you paid her.
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So was it a substantial settlement and why did you pay her? Um, I paid her because I had to,
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uh, or at least I thought I did at the time. Um, I was newly married. I was up, up for potential
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jobs in the administration. So my profile was higher. Uh, and listen, they, they, she got lawyers
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that reached out to mine and said, if you don't come forward and if you don't pay money, then
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ultimately we're going to out him. We were in the middle of a me too movement. Uh, I had a great job
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at Fox and a wonderful marriage and I did it out of, I mean, it's not what I should have done,
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but I did it to protect that. I did it to protect my wife. I did it to protect my family and I did it
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to protect my job. And it was a negotiation purely, um, to try to prevent that. Um, we paid a sum,
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I'm not going to disclose that amount. Um, but it was, it was, um, yeah, I mean, there's, you don't
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expect to go through something like that. You obviously feel like you're being used, um, because
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of your public profile. There are plenty of people that have gone through that. The sad part for this
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is though that I, I think what it does is it cheapens the instances where there's real sexual
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assault. Like it's a real thing. It's a real problem, including in the military, which is
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something I will address very directly in the military. Hasn't been sufficiently addressed
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what some women in the military go through. And so when you make allegations that are proved to be
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bogus, fully investigated and cleared, um, and then you, and then you extrapolate that it harms
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other instances where it's very real. It undermines the credibility of other accusers.
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Okay. So that one we've dealt with, but then come the flurry of allegations about your personal
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life. And I think it's admitted, at least in your divorce proceedings that you did cheat on your first
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two wives. You're on your third marriage to Jen, a former colleague of my own at Fox and yours too.
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And, um, your hookup with this woman in Monterey happened when you were with Jen. So that's three.
00:22:20.360
Right. And there are a lot of women at home and men who will be like, it's a no, right? He's too
00:22:26.340
much of a serial cheater. Like, how can we put a guy in this position who's a serial cheater? So is
00:22:32.960
that a fair characterization of you? I think it would have been, it was a fair characterization of
00:22:38.540
me before I, um, truly was changed by Jen and my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And I mean that, I mean,
00:22:44.420
people can not believe that if they don't want to, but if you look at me and if you know me,
00:22:48.200
uh, if you have walked us, watched us walk into Colts Knight Community Church and Pilgrim Hill
00:22:53.840
Reform Fellowship, the churches where we've attended, um, that have truly, I mean, I'll never
00:22:58.800
forget a sermon that my pastor gave, Pastor Chris, who's a dear friend of mine, where he talked about
00:23:03.380
most people miss Jesus by 12 inches from their head to their heart. I grew up as a Christian. My mom
00:23:08.340
was on Fox and French. She's wonderful Christian parents. I intellectually was associated with it and
00:23:13.360
understood it, but never really lived it. Um, and it was those moments in those places in my
00:23:19.620
relationship with Jen, as we grew together in Christ, um, that I become a changed man. Um,
00:23:25.360
am I a perfect man? No. Was I a perfect man? Absolutely not. Uh, do I regret those things?
00:23:30.880
Yes. But is it who I am today? No. And, um, I'm just grateful for the grace of God that gives me a
00:23:37.280
new chapter. And I knew stepping out in this, that that would be part of what would come at me.
00:23:41.720
Is that scary? It was part of the calculation. Sure. But what's the alternative that people with
00:23:46.320
difficult, somewhat difficult pasts can never step up and try to serve the American people and serve
00:23:52.280
a president who was elected? Is that, is that the alternative? You, you have to be, you can't have
00:23:57.100
made any mistakes in your life or, or reconciled for them or ask for forgiveness for them. Uh, if you
00:24:02.280
want to serve in another capacity. And I just, my wife and I got together, we prayed about it a lot
00:24:06.260
and said, we know this, the slings and arrows are coming. Um, we're going to lock shields. That's why
00:24:11.360
we're together on the Hill. We're together everywhere in this process. Um, because if,
00:24:16.580
if we, if we can't do this together, then it's not worth doing and having that assurance in Christ
00:24:22.320
and with a partner where this is ride or die for the rest of our life, no matter what, um, is life
00:24:28.300
changing. And I've never had, I've never had that perspective before. And I did that foolishly as
00:24:32.560
someone who came home from wars and was untethered from, you know, accountability and all over the
00:24:37.480
place all over the map until, you know, we, we just got a couple of horses. I don't know anything
00:24:42.160
about horses, but it's, it's a beautiful exercise. But what you realize is you've got it. When you
00:24:46.460
handle them, you handle them properly. You've got to prove that you're kind of the alpha. They
00:24:49.900
got to want to follow you. And one of our horses is a little stubborn and we've got a trainer that
00:24:54.120
comes over and sometimes they got to yank on the, on the, on the harness. And I feel like sometimes
00:24:59.340
God had to yank on me a little, a little harder, um, to say, Pete, pay attention here.
00:25:04.260
I think this is your purpose, especially guys coming back from war, look for the answer in a
00:25:07.920
bottle and eventually find out the hard way it's not in there. And maybe it's in the Bible
00:25:12.640
instead of the bottle. I think I'm going to use that. It actually is like, I've read the Bible
00:25:19.020
before. This is the first year, this year where I've read it through cover to cover, uh, in addition
00:25:23.220
to devotions, in addition to, uh, daily prayer time. And you realize how foolish, how foolish we are
00:25:29.500
as individual human beings untethered from eternal truth, untethered for the wisdom of
00:25:34.480
the Bible, from the wisdom of the patriarchs, to the judges, to the prophets, to the disciples,
00:25:39.680
to Jesus Christ, to everything that happened. When we don't know and contemplate and, and
00:25:44.600
start our day on those things, we start them focused on ourself or our needs or our wants
00:25:49.640
or our prides, um, all of which are destructive. I mean, I, I talk to my kids all the time about
00:25:54.080
this. Um, you know, there's sin equals slavery. Um, the truth, the Bible equals freedom. And I've
00:26:02.160
created plenty of problems for myself, but I know here sitting, I'm, I'm a liberated man by the gospel
00:26:09.200
of Jesus Christ and the partner that I'm with. And people can take, take that or leave that and
00:26:14.080
believe that or not. I know that in my core, I know how we started our day this morning, uh, was in,
00:26:19.060
in prayer and it's not going to stop. And we hope we get a chance to serve the country in the process.
00:26:23.020
So what do you say to people who say, well, uh, you are nominated to be secretary of defense
00:26:28.240
and in this position, you'd run a military where they court martial people for infidelity.
00:26:32.840
So how do you look at those guys and say, I will judge you. I will pursue these charges against you.
00:26:38.380
Um, you follow the laws that supply. I mean, I, I don't, I, I don't know exactly what instances
00:26:44.800
they would point to and when, and what that process would be in the national guard. And I'm sure
00:26:48.680
that will be litigated. But my point is my job is to follow the law. The UCM
00:26:53.000
and I would do that. For those of us holding our breath for the past several months, we can
00:26:56.760
exhale in the wake of this presidential election. Work can finally be done on the major issues this
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00:28:00.200
Is the education system the cause and solution to the biggest problems facing America? Check out a
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PragerU.com slash real talk. What do you make of the drinking? Because this is another big thing,
00:29:04.000
and this could potentially come back to haunt you with these senators, even ones who like you,
00:29:06.960
right? Because nobody wants, even if you're not an alcoholic, which I believe, you can't have
00:29:13.360
somebody who's inebriated to the point where they need to be carried in from their hotel room as
00:29:17.320
alleged anonymously in these New York reports running the Pentagon. Like, you know that. So to the
00:29:24.780
people who have read these reports talking about public inebriation and needing repeatedly to be
00:29:29.780
carried into your hotel room at night, and even now there's an NBC report, Anonymous, which oddly
00:29:36.000
includes a Pentagon correspondent, which is very interesting to me. Why would a Pentagon, like,
00:29:40.800
it does make me wonder whether some of their sources are really there.
00:29:43.220
Well, maybe there's some people in the Pentagon that don't want me to do the Secretary of Defense,
00:29:46.080
which wouldn't surprise me. In any event, that's a report that claims that some of our Fox News
00:29:49.120
colleagues, former and current, are saying you showed up at Fox and went on the air intoxicated.
00:29:57.560
Check the tape, first of all. I want to start where we began. I want to start my comment where
00:30:03.600
we began this conversation. All of those allegations are anonymous. All of them are
00:30:08.860
unsubstantiated. No one's putting their name on it. No one can point to an actual incidence,
00:30:13.940
an actual place, an actual piece of evidence, none of it. I was at my brother's house last night
00:30:19.760
where I was talking about, where did this allegation come of me being in a strip club?
00:30:25.520
That's one of the things that's been reported. In Louisiana, that you were in a strip club,
00:30:27.900
not just in a strip club, storming the stage. On the stage at a strip club. And I was just sitting
00:30:34.120
there talking, end of the day. Where did this come from? And my brother and sister-in-law actually
00:30:38.640
both worked with me at Concerned Mead for America before she was my sister-in-law. They met.
00:30:42.380
And they said, Pete, don't you know what happened there? I said, no. He goes, there was an incident
00:30:49.600
at a strip club. Something happened that was addressed. You were nowhere near there. You
00:30:53.920
weren't even at the event. You weren't even in the state. Yet someone has made us, there's so much
00:31:00.480
information coming at us so fast that it's hard to digest it. You're being accused of something you
00:31:04.800
weren't even at. So if they're making up an instance of something where I didn't even attend,
00:31:10.200
how can you believe a single other thing that any of these people are saying in any instance to
00:31:14.660
include being carried up to my room? With a bunch of vets who are working hard, have come back from
00:31:20.480
combat deployments, would they have beers? Sure. I'm not going to dissuade you of that. The idea that
00:31:26.240
was constantly being carried up anywhere is patently false, which is why all of these people have come
00:31:31.460
out in writing with their names on the record. I'm not just talking about people that were on the
00:31:37.400
stage with me, production crew, field staff, administrative staff, volunteers, all willing
00:31:43.820
to come out and say, we've been with Pete for years and years across the country. And we've seen
00:31:48.140
none of these. Well, I don't know who these anonymous accusers are about the Fox News time,
00:31:52.340
but I did see Fox and Friends, every single member of Fox and Friends this morning, go on the air and
00:31:56.920
say, this is BS. And as I said, Joey Jones and Dan Bongino and Will Kane. And I worked with you for
00:32:04.280
years at Fox News. I am the reason you became a contributor there. Fact, fact, fact. And that was
00:32:09.700
primetime night hits that you were doing with me and never once, not even the hint of alcohol or any
00:32:17.300
alcohol problem. And so what I'm trying to do is prove a negative, right? So this is, again,
00:32:23.800
the anatomy of a smear. So they have tried to create a narrative based on what they said about
00:32:29.600
Vets for Freedom and CVA and all of that. And now they're trying to extend the string. This is what
00:32:34.120
they're trying to do with senators, right? Okay. We've got to extend this string from past behavior
00:32:38.100
to current behavior. And so what NBC is going to do is make up anonymous sources, none of which are
00:32:43.120
close to me, none of which know me, claiming that I had a drinking problem at Fox or was drunk on air.
00:32:47.960
I tell everybody out there, check the tape. Yeah. Check every tape. Find the drunken. And by the way,
00:32:54.640
talk to the, I got a text from my senior producer of Fox and Friends weekend recently said,
00:32:59.260
Pete, I was, you were the, by far, always the most reliable member of our team for every moment I was
00:33:08.860
there. You were there every morning on time, ready to go. Never missed a beat ever. Ask the primetime
00:33:14.880
hosts whose shows I do at, you know, seven, eight, nine, 10 o'clock. So most of the time when I'm in New
00:33:20.020
York, I'm doing a show at 10, nine or 10 at night. And then my own show at six in the morning.
00:33:25.000
Uh, it's patently false and patently ridiculous. And everybody who's around me from hosts to staff,
00:33:32.120
to producers, to production crew, you know, how many people are in those studios. I mean,
00:33:36.120
you know, how many people are in here right now? There's 25 people behind the cameras right now.
00:33:40.260
If I had a problem, even a sniff, there was a media reporter that came out on Twitter today on by their
00:33:47.320
name saying, I've covered Fox for 15 years. That place leaks like a sieve is what they said. He said,
00:33:53.700
I've never heard one iota of a thing about Pete. Honestly. And when I was there, you knew like there
00:34:00.040
were certain people, there was one who I won't repeat his name here, but he's come on my show
00:34:03.660
and talked about it, uh, who had a serious alcohol problem. And there was an intervention. Roger helped
00:34:08.960
him, got him into a treatment program. It wasn't even something that where, you know, you would
00:34:14.080
necessarily be fired or, you know, shamed, you would be helped, but nothing, nothing around you.
00:34:20.460
And you know, we, we knew about the wife situation, right? But nothing with respect to alcohol.
00:34:25.340
It is, it is again, the anatomy of a smear. They're trying to extend it out because they
00:34:29.720
want to create a scenario where senators go, okay, I could handle this. I could handle that. But
00:34:34.160
if he's drinking, I can't handle that. That's the, that is by far the least true aspect of any part of
00:34:42.240
this. So have you, have you stopped drinking now or what's this? Thank you for asking that. So when I
00:34:46.700
was, so my plan going forward ongoing is when I deployed, we had something called general order
00:34:53.000
number one, uh, and general order number one, uh, it is, you are not allowed to drink while you're
00:34:59.280
on deployment, right? So if you're in Iraq and Afghanistan in a combat zone, you're not allowed
00:35:02.600
to drink. That's how I view this role as secretary of defense is that I'm not going to have a drink
00:35:08.320
at all. And it's not hard for me because it's not a problem for me, but I need to make sure the
00:35:12.420
senators and the troops and president Trump and everybody else knows when you call me 24 seven,
00:35:18.100
you're getting fully dialed in P just like you always did in Iraq and Afghanistan. So this is
00:35:22.800
the biggest deployment of my life and there won't be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I'm doing it.
00:35:29.120
Okay. Let's talk about the financial allegations. Cause this is potentially problematic for some of
00:35:33.180
these senators. Um, you ran two different vets organizations, veterans for freedom and concerned
00:35:38.180
vets for America. And the first one anonymous reporting in the New Yorker, forgive me for
00:35:44.180
asking you about these anonymous reports. I know you have to though. That's, that's why we're here.
00:35:47.300
The reason these were, these, this has been allowed to percolate is because they were so ridiculous and
00:35:51.900
they were all anonymous that we didn't want to give them oxygen. I get it. But now because of where we
00:35:56.340
are, we're answering questions. Um, okay. So the anonymous reporting by the New Yorker says that that
00:36:00.680
organization wound up in enormous debt that they couldn't pay its creditors. They said without more
00:36:04.960
donations, they were going to be facing bankruptcy. This is under your leadership.
00:36:08.620
CBS news reporting that in 2008 at that organization, you guys raised 8.7 million,
00:36:12.880
but spent 9 million suggesting financial mismanagement. Is that true?
00:36:18.180
It's not true. Let me tell you why. Um, I'm really proud of the work we did at vets for freedom.
00:36:23.520
Uh, I didn't start the organization, but I came in, uh, shortly after it was started and built upon the
00:36:29.040
success of the group. And we fought for the war fighters and the surge in Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:36:32.480
Our job was to bring the message of the, what we believe to be a successful strategy in the surge.
00:36:37.800
And what general Petraeus was doing in Iraq and advocate for that in the American people.
00:36:41.960
And that made its way up to 2008. Well, what, what was happening in 2008?
00:36:46.720
Barack Obama was running against John McCain. John McCain had been a big advocate of the surge
00:36:50.840
and winning the war in Iraq. We had worked a lot with him on Capitol Hill. I actually know
00:36:55.340
a lot of the senators on Capitol Hill from my work at vets for freedom and concern vets for
00:36:59.740
America. A good chunk of the offices I'm walking into our senators who I've met with time and time
00:37:03.860
again, because of my work on military and veterans advocacy that started with vets freedom. We traveled
00:37:08.340
the country rallying the public. We went on Capitol Hill. We wrote op-eds. I went on TV. That might've
00:37:13.220
been the first time I was on TV with you. It was right around there. You, you probably gave me my
00:37:16.540
first shot, not just the contributorship. Uh, we're making the case for the war. And a big part of that
00:37:22.120
was raising money so that we could run ads, uh, that would promote veterans candidates or
00:37:27.880
we're a 501c4. So you can't get too political. You're a, you're a nonprofit, but you can issue
00:37:34.060
advocate. You can say, Hey, John McCain is for winning the war. And Barack Obama is going to,
00:37:38.840
is going to end it in disgrace or whatever you want to say that. And so we ran a lot of ads and
00:37:43.560
raised a lot of money. We were very successful. I'm proud of it. Um, ultimately we were political
00:37:49.040
novices. You know, I had, I guess I studied politics at Princeton. That's what I did,
00:37:53.660
but I didn't have any political experience. I was a, I'd been in the military. Um, we had some
00:37:58.440
advice on the outside, uh, some of which in very slimy ways are now turning on us, but that's to
00:38:03.080
be expected. Uh, and ultimately at the very end, I'll never forget. We were about two weeks out from
00:38:09.160
the election and the politico types were saying, we're looking at the polling and McCain's going to
00:38:14.720
lose. And it's time to turn off the spigot because he's going to lose. And you tell that to a guy
00:38:21.380
who's back from war, believes in the war has a candidate who's fighting for that war. And, and
00:38:28.140
that Lieutenant, which I was at the time is going to say, go fuck yourself. I'm fighting for this war.
00:38:34.240
I'm going to raise the money to do even more. I'm doubling down. When you say the fight is lost
00:38:38.200
because it matters to me and it matters to the war fighters. And that's what we did. So we spent a
00:38:43.860
little bit more than we had at the end, cognizant of it. We knew it. We said, Hey, we're going to
00:38:48.960
pour a few more ads in, in a few key places for a few races, because we want to double down on
00:38:53.540
trying to win this thing. We're not going to abandon this guy. We've been there for us,
00:38:56.840
but we knew we were over our skis. And when the election was over and McCain had lost,
00:39:02.660
uh, there was not much appetite for funding a veterans organization that was in debt because of
00:39:09.020
that. Uh, and so I spent the next, it was a very humbling experience. I spent the next year and a
00:39:14.840
half, um, fundraising from donors to pay off debt and working with, um, different, um, vendors to try
00:39:23.520
to negotiate down contracts and prices. But I spent a year and a half working every day and you know what
00:39:30.260
we did? We paid it all off and we squared it away. And ultimately we did merge with another
00:39:34.800
organization, uh, a friendly organization consolidated and moved on. And I moved on,
00:39:40.000
but in doing so, I felt a personal responsibility to make sure we were even when it was done,
00:39:45.420
but there was zero impropriety. There wasn't a dollar spent that we weren't proud of spending
00:39:51.000
on behalf of a cause we believed in. We were just amateurs at that moment in time.
00:39:55.820
For the record, uh, David Bolavia, co-founder of the organization brought you in. He's a medal of
00:40:00.300
honor recipient, uh, and said not one irresponsible fiscal decision was made by this group. Pete is a
00:40:06.800
leader to his core, uh, backing you Sergeant Sean Bryan, retired U S Marine Corps, total professionalism
00:40:12.460
at veterans for freedom with Pete Hegseth. And, and it went on. Okay. Concerned veterans for America.
00:40:18.220
That was a different group. And this is the one, there are a lot of allegations swirling around this
00:40:22.520
that appear to initiate to have been initiated by mostly, we now believe Jesse Jane Duff,
00:40:28.480
who is also a Fox news contributor. She was, she was never a Fox news contributor,
00:40:32.820
but she was on a lot. Okay. She was on a lot. Thank you. So she, the reason we think it was
00:40:36.900
her is because there's been reporting that she was the one who was behind this so-called
00:40:39.940
whistleblower report at concerned vets about you, that it was a seven page report. It's
00:40:45.420
now wound up at the New Yorker. And it's what Jane Mayer of the New Yorker who smeared Kavanaugh
00:40:49.760
is basing a lot of her reporting on. Um, this is some of what's in there. The New Yorker report
00:40:55.580
in large part, based on this report, January, 2016, you resigned from that organization under
00:40:59.820
pressure. Three sources said you were forced out due to mismanagement and an alcohol problem.
00:41:04.700
Uh, the whistleblower letter, it's making these accusations, including that there was public
00:41:10.740
drunkenness. There was inappropriate behavior. There was allegedly an attempted sexual assault
00:41:15.020
at that strip club in Louisiana. That was not me. No, but that you didn't do anything about
00:41:18.920
is the allegation. Um, and that, uh, there's a second, a second anonymous mail and forgive me,
00:41:28.040
Jesse Jane Duff, cause she hasn't actually gone on the record with any of this, but there's a second
00:41:32.020
anonymous mail cited in this report who says he went to a bar in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio with you on
00:41:37.980
May 29th, 2015, and saw you and another guy standing on the bar screaming in some quote, violent way,
00:41:44.320
kill all Muslims. Um, and when asked about this by the New Yorker, this person said to Jane Mayer,
00:41:50.540
I will deny that. I will deny that if you print that. And she says, well, I've got you on email.
00:41:55.040
So, and he said, well, I'm going to deny that it happened. So in any event, that's what we have
00:41:58.660
about your time at Concerned Vets. Would you like to address those allegations?
00:42:06.800
First of all, I will only say that I'm incredibly proud of what we accomplished at Concerned Veterans
00:42:12.180
for America. I actually would argue that there's not a single vets group in the country that
00:42:16.020
accomplished more in a smaller amount of time than we did. If you look at the reforms at the VA,
00:42:20.600
we talked about this a lot on your show, the Veterans Accountability Act and the Choice Act
00:42:24.340
for vets. Um, we, we were the intellectual harbor. We started that movement, built a whole report on it,
00:42:30.880
drove it up on Capitol Hill, and ultimately led to its passing by working with Democrats and
00:42:36.040
Republicans. And then Donald Trump took it and ran with it. Do you know how hard it is to get
00:42:40.140
reforms passed in this town? It's really, really hard, especially the ability to fire employees,
00:42:45.760
cut through the SES system, and the ability to take on the VA bureaucracy and let people choose
00:42:50.420
their healthcare. Like what we did, a couple of vets and military family members with, with generous
00:42:56.340
donors, organizing and building is truly remarkable. Again, the amount of people that are willing to go
00:43:04.120
on the record that were in all of these places with their name, with their credibility tied to
00:43:09.180
is staggering. Um, they're in the media and they're, they're talking that Jane Mayer and others who are
00:43:14.660
reporting this refuse to talk to those people. All they've done is talk to disgruntled former
00:43:20.760
employees. If, by the way, I'm at the point where I don't even know if they're talking to real
00:43:24.400
employees. I really mean that. I mean, this stuff is, is so bogus. How can you know? What does it take
00:43:28.500
to add a third or fourth or fifth anonymous source to a story? There's no accountability for them on
00:43:34.140
that. So I don't, I don't believe any of it at this point. Um, but ultimately, you know, all of
00:43:40.180
those allegations, again, anonymously, anonymously given a totally unsourced fly in the face of the
00:43:47.420
overarching trajectory of that organization. I want to get to the end of that as well. I was not fired.
00:43:53.660
I was not pushed out. There were no allegations of impropriety. There were no allegations of
00:43:58.880
excessive drinking. That was, I was, I knew all the people above us in the hierarchy of that.
00:44:04.520
Ultimately, I think it was actually, I think it was actually on your show. And I mean that
00:44:09.100
where I was talking about defeating ISIS. There was a foreign policy discussion going on. It was
00:44:14.040
the end of 2015, early 2016, how we need to crush ISIS. Very hawkish about that. And I'll never forget,
00:44:19.980
I got off the air with you. And I got a phone call from some of the folks tied to the organization
00:44:24.700
saying, um, this has exacerbated the perceived differences in policy we have about foreign policy.
00:44:32.800
And we need to start a discussion about whether this is going to work. I had a very, they had just
00:44:37.740
had a very different view of foreign policy than I did. And they didn't want the organization to move
00:44:41.660
into foreign policy. They wanted to stay focused on veterans and, and sort of economic issues.
00:44:47.720
And I'm saying, we got the black flag of ISIS flying over the place where I fought.
00:44:52.700
Right. You want me to be silent on this? I remember that. You remember that? I mean,
00:44:56.160
we had some, and so ultimately after a couple of weeks, it was agreed upon, let's just part ways.
00:45:02.800
Uh, and that's the other letter I have in here is the letter from the trustee of Concerned Veterans
00:45:06.080
for America. I have, well, I have some of this. So there's Randy Lair. Yep. That's it.
00:45:10.880
In 2016, before any of this broke, before any of this mirror campaign, he went on the record in the
00:45:15.260
letter saying Pete was a strong leader at Concerned Veterans for America and was not fired because
00:45:20.340
this whistleblower thing had, had raised its ugly head at that time. By the way, the word whistleblower
00:45:25.180
gets used just for everybody watching right now. Um, you know, I guess Alexander Vindman and others
00:45:29.600
exploded the definition of what that means. What that means is a disgruntled email to someone saying,
00:45:35.360
I don't like this person. Usually anonymous. Was anonymous. It was anonymous at the time,
00:45:40.620
Megan, except the person who wrote it wasn't good at hiding metadata. So 15 seconds worth of, uh,
00:45:47.240
research from someone who knew computers identified it as the person you just spoke about. Um, and the
00:45:52.700
reason I've known about all this for such a long time is when I left CVA, there was some jealousy of
00:45:58.580
my profile and what I was going to go do at Fox. And so that email that you're talking about,
00:46:03.020
the whistleblower report, the email was forwarded to every single executive and host at Fox news
00:46:08.940
channel. I mean, you just ask them. I remember, um, a number of dear friends being like, I just got
00:46:14.180
an email about you. That's really bad. Um, I don't believe it, but I just want you to be aware I got
00:46:20.240
it. And so that letter from Randy Lair was a response to me saying, Hey guys, help me out here.
00:46:26.280
I'm being totally impugned at Fox where I'm grateful to have this opportunity. Can you help me out?
00:46:30.560
And they don't normally do that, but they did it because it was such an overwhelming amount of
00:46:34.220
garbage being thrown at me. That was then also, um, I don't know what the process was at Fox,
00:46:39.300
but reviewed by Fox. And they said, Hey, Pete's good to go. So, uh, they identified it as anonymous
00:46:45.820
and salacious and ridiculous at the time, which is precisely what it always has been. So this is
00:46:51.320
Jane Mayer trying to traffic up old stuff that we knew about, like my team knew about, this was all
00:46:56.820
predictable. What you don't predict is the level to which they'll continue to twist and distort it
00:47:02.620
and add things to it. That adding more untrue things to things that are already untrue.
00:47:07.500
Uh, want to tell the audience too, that Holly Talley, uh, who was it with concern vets in
00:47:11.500
Louisiana said, you're an example of honesty, integrity, and character. She never saw any
00:47:15.700
inappropriate behavior involving you. Karen Vaughn, gold star mom who traveled with you for three
00:47:19.300
years with this group said, you're trustworthy, you're dedicated, you're brilliant. This is all
00:47:22.720
disinformation. You were born for this job. Mark Lucas, executive director of concern vets,
00:47:27.440
gave you a glowing assessment. There are many people going on the record to say they never saw
00:47:31.820
a hint of impropriety. They only had the most positive experiences with you. It just underscores
00:47:36.660
Pete, what a difficult position you've been placed in here. Um, and, and Jesse's welcome to come on the
00:47:42.540
show and, and repeat these allegations. I don't think, I don't think she wants to, because I don't
00:47:46.580
think she, I think she probably regrets a lot of that. She may not like me, but the reality is,
00:47:51.180
you know, she tried to call out that my combat experience wasn't real and that I really never
00:47:55.280
was in combat. And then I was everybody, you know, she had ideas of what she wanted to do in the
00:48:00.700
media. I was doing my own thing in the media. I don't have any desire to tear her down. She,
00:48:06.060
she can, but she's back. She, interestingly, she has gone on television since I was chosen and said,
00:48:11.540
I'd be a great secretary of defense. So you can roll that tape on your own. Just Google it. She said,
00:48:16.640
Pete would be amazing. And I love where he's at on the issues. You mentioned Holly Talley.
00:48:20.520
There's also Tina Kingston. Who's a, uh, both of them are female. Both of them work for me. Both
00:48:25.140
of them are wonderful. Uh, Tina Kingston was a Lieutenant Colonel. I may have been a Colonel.
00:48:29.680
I should be forgiven if I don't know that, but a Colonel, uh, in the, in Louisiana, both were in
00:48:34.500
Louisiana and Ohio when those purported incidents occurred and said that never happened. Females
00:48:42.080
who worked with me said that never happened. So I don't know how many more times we have to sort
00:48:46.460
of point that out to discredit these. I mean, by the way, they're not members of the media,
00:48:51.240
Megan, you know, that Jane Mayer and all these Gabe Sherman and all these trash artists,
00:48:56.660
they're not members of the media. They're leftists with keyboards. They are agenda drivers whose whole
00:49:03.560
job is to try to destroy anyone who supports Donald Trump, believes in what he's fighting for,
00:49:09.480
and is trying to advance it. And of course, if you're this young nominee for the secretary of
00:49:13.300
defense, uh, who's going to try to do big things on behalf of the warfighter and take on an entire
00:49:18.280
system, you're target number one, you are target number one. And so they've peddled this, uh, it's
00:49:24.840
not reporting. It's not real. It's fake. And we're going to fight back. And for far too long,
00:49:31.120
conservatives, Republicans, Trump support, not, not, not Trump supporters. That's Trump supporters
00:49:34.740
have learned. Donald Trump's led the way he knows how to fight. He never, he said that to me this
00:49:39.580
morning, like I said, but we have to learn to fight through like the chaos, um, and the violence
00:49:46.340
of the moment of the way they tear you down of the way they try to demoralize you. They try to
00:49:51.000
get people to turn on you. And what's been really cool in this process is that every, everybody that
00:49:57.900
knows me, and I mean, everyone who truly knows me and has been with me for the last 15 has put their
00:50:03.680
name on the record and said, I stand by this guy. That's a humble, I, I, you, we were talking just
00:50:07.740
for a second before the show out there and you relayed what I hadn't seen Fox and friends this
00:50:11.580
morning. It's the first time I got a tear to my eye in this whole process. Um, is that you said
00:50:17.760
that Brian, Steve Ainsley and Lawrence came out in my defense this morning as people who had worked
00:50:21.640
with me at Fox. It wasn't Ainsley. There was a sub in for her. Oh, it was, uh, it was, um, also
00:50:25.700
amazing, um, from outnumbered. Um, I don't know her. Oh, I know her. Well, she's with Kaylee. Uh,
00:50:31.520
it was Emily. Emily Campanio. Emily Campanio. She's wonderful. They're going out there with
00:50:37.900
unnamed sources. When we sit on the couch with him almost every day, I think it's just for over
00:50:44.600
10 years. It just, to me, that is the stunning part, especially when you don't reach out to his
00:50:49.660
co-host of the show for comment to say, Hey, what do you guys think about that? No one has been
00:50:55.580
contacted about that. I think that screams that it's a witch. And you can't fill in for Laura
00:51:00.700
Ingram, Sean Hannity, uh, work for eight hours every Sunday, fill in for all of us over the
00:51:06.040
course of 14 years. The way the, the, his detractors are describing him, it would be
00:51:10.520
impossible to think he'd still be surviving, but stay out of the marriages. It has nothing to do
00:51:15.640
with this. The fact that they do that, like they don't have to do that, but they also know me.
00:51:21.560
And if there's anything people know about me as well, I work really hard to be kind and fair to
00:51:25.520
people. I've been a tough business, tough business, advocating on Capitol Hill, tough
00:51:30.600
business, pulling triggers as an infantryman, tough business, playing basketball at Princeton.
00:51:34.420
Like there was no more. I sat on the bench for four years and told I wasn't good enough to play.
00:51:38.320
You know, like I'm used to being people coming at me. Um, but I also, the people that know me also
00:51:44.720
know that I'm kind and loyal to people and I work really hard and they have my back. And that means a
00:51:50.700
lot. How are we going to get anybody to volunteer for public service now? Like you were at Fox.
00:51:54.680
Yes. I'm sure you were making seven figures and you got offered this amazing opportunity to serve
00:52:00.100
our country again. And you said, yes, sir, I'll do it. And then what happened? They tried to destroy
00:52:04.680
you. They're currently trying to destroy you, not only from this role, but from any job ever again,
00:52:09.200
from going back to Fox, if this doesn't work out from going onto the private sector, you know,
00:52:13.660
what he's an alcoholic, philandering, rapist, uh, mismanager of money. I mean, everything they can
00:52:19.640
pile on you, they are piling on you. And all I can think is who the hell would say
00:52:24.400
yes to working for the government after watching this kind of thing. And it's fine. The audience
00:52:29.880
can make up their own mind about what's real and what's not, but the, but it requires reporting of
00:52:33.780
the other side. And that's why I raise the testimonials that are being given about you
00:52:38.360
for me as a friend of yours and as a member of the media, it's stomach turning. It's such a
00:52:44.180
their election of duty. Uh, so I, I understand it's, it is an arsenal of lies. It is an arsenal
00:52:50.640
of lies. Um, they, they mobilize to destroy. I've had senators look me in the eye, friends,
00:52:57.560
great said, they're trying to kill you. And, and what I, what I, when I wake up, I look at my wife
00:53:03.720
and talk about it and say, if Donald Trump can do this, if he can fight the way that he's fought
00:53:08.820
with everything they've done to them, then we better learn to be able to fight ourselves.
00:53:12.600
So we don't know precisely how this is all going to play out. I'm going to go up on Capitol Hill,
00:53:16.920
meet with all these senators, keep working hard, try to earn votes, respect the process.
00:53:21.480
The future is in God's hands. And I'm, I'm going to put my head on the pillow tonight,
00:53:25.360
content of that. And I pray that he gives me the opportunity to serve my country as the secretary
00:53:30.640
of defense. And if he did, I know I do a damn good job and I'd fight like hell. Um, if it doesn't
00:53:36.360
happen, I'm going to be able to know I did everything I could in this process that I told
00:53:40.660
the truth, uh, that I took on the haters and the liars and the media, uh, and there'll be another
00:53:45.880
chapter God will provide. Uh, and you know what? I ultimately, I've got seven beautiful kids who,
00:53:52.080
um, are going to have an opportunity to fight for the future of our country as well. And that's,
00:53:56.460
that's why I'm doing this. That's who I dedicated my last couple of books to.
00:54:00.200
They're going to have to fight for the Republic too.
00:54:02.020
Speaking of Ainsley Earhart on Fox news, after my, um, ending at NBC news, Ainsley
00:54:09.340
is such a, she's an angel. She sent me this beautiful, uh, display of orchids and the card
00:54:16.100
read, give it to God. And that's, that's where you are right now, right? Give it to God. Like
00:54:21.700
it's too much of a burden to carry yourself. Give it to God. And you know what, Pete, she was a hundred
00:54:25.900
percent right. Uh, like my own life turned around dramatically from that moment to this. So I feel
00:54:32.280
like whatever God has in store for you, whether it's this job or a different one, but I think it
00:54:36.520
will be this job. Um, I think greatness awaits. I like your newfound look, uh, look out on life,
00:54:42.940
your newfound connection to him, to your wife, like all of that goodness breeds more goodness.
00:54:48.840
That's my hope for you. And that's my belief too.
00:54:50.700
And I want to, and I want to thank everybody out there who's praying for me, who's praying
00:54:54.300
for us, not just from our church or the people that we know and hurt, but at Fox across the
00:55:00.140
country, the amount of incoming notes, emails, you can, you can feel it, but we need it. That's
00:55:08.040
the shield. That's the armor of God we need. And I just want everybody out there who's doing
00:55:14.160
Okay. But less happy would be, um, the confirmation hearings, how you're going to get cross
00:55:18.640
examined by Democrats and potentially an FBI investigation. Do you, do you welcome an FBI
00:55:25.000
Well, I can't wait for a FBI investigation. Can't wait. How soon can they start?
00:55:29.580
Yes. Because that gives me an opportunity for them to do a real investigation. So what the
00:55:34.320
media is doing right now is a, is witch hunt. Uh, it's, it's trial by false accusation and lies.
00:55:39.660
The FBI is going to look through what, and if they do their job properly, which I fully expect
00:55:44.320
they will, uh, they'll talk to everybody and get the full story and a full understanding.
00:55:49.120
That's a report I welcome. Um, so yeah, we're not, we're not hiding for that one bit.
00:55:52.960
Is there a point at which you do what Matt Gaetz did? You know, too much of a distraction,
00:55:58.380
realize I can't get through the senators won't do it. Is that, is there a point like that?
00:56:03.280
I mean, that's the president's call. What I know in this entire process is there's only one man in
00:56:09.200
America that got 76 million votes, one man that American voted for and for his, for change in
00:56:14.540
the Senate and in Washington, DC. He asked me, I shook his hand. I told him I'd fight like hell
00:56:19.740
for him. If there's a moment where he calls me and says, Pete, attaboy, but it's, it's, you're not
00:56:26.520
the guy I will salute and say, whatever assignment you need for me next, I'm, I'll do it. It's, it's his
00:56:32.840
call and he's shown great confidence in me and I respect his perspective on it, no matter which way it
00:56:37.900
goes. Can we spend some time on what you would do in the job? Please. I'd love that. The women in
00:56:43.800
combat thing is, has made some headlines. I've said already that I agree with you on it for various
00:56:48.780
reasons. There've been studies showing that the troops perform more effectively when there is a
00:56:53.080
separation and women can be extremely effective in supportive roles right around it, but maybe not
00:56:57.340
on the front lines next to the men. Is that a position you still hold? I wrote a chapter on that in
00:57:02.500
my book, which I would encourage people to read. I'm familiar with the studies that you're talking about
00:57:06.300
because I've, I've studied this issue. What I would say when I step back is that women are already in
00:57:11.740
combat, female engagement teams, fighter pilots, you know, EOD, military police, and they play an
00:57:18.340
indispensable role. My, my real concern here is not about men or women. I, the, the women of the
00:57:24.820
Pentagon of our military are revered, appreciated, and I will be a secretary of defense for them.
00:57:29.760
Like everybody else, their biggest advocate, all I've really ever cared about is making sure the
00:57:35.160
standards are maintained. Right. That, um, men or women, when we look at duty MOSs, jobs in the
00:57:42.500
military that were properly assigning a threshold for capability that has nothing to do with gender
00:57:47.940
and only to do with what is needed to do the job effectively. And that means some jobs will be open
00:57:53.680
evenly to every flying drones is a very different capacity than carrying a rucksack with a hundred
00:57:59.640
pounds in it and a, and a 240 Bravo. Um, that's going to have a different qualification. And if
00:58:04.880
we have the right standard and women meet that standard, Roger, let's go. If they, if they, if they
00:58:11.560
can't, that's, and that's a, that's a product of physical differences because the standard's high,
00:58:16.700
then that's just the reality. Uh, and I think that's an easy way to look at it stand, but we've seen
00:58:22.080
standards, um, formally and informally be eroded in pursuit of quotas, or we need a certain
00:58:29.240
percentage or number here. You can't do that. You got to get rid of all of that. Make sure the
00:58:33.840
standards are high and that they're applied properly. What do you think is the biggest
00:58:36.600
problem with the military today? Like what's something you'd like to address on day one?
00:58:40.080
Oh my goodness. Um, it's the charge that the president gave me. The biggest problem is we are,
00:58:44.600
the military has been distracted from its core mission, which is lethality, lethality, lethality,
00:58:51.280
close with and destroy the enemy, deter our enemies, and then have the ability to defeat them
00:58:56.620
swiftly and come home. That's it. The military is in the business of deterring and fighting wars,
00:59:01.980
killing bad guys. Anything else you're asking it to do is a distraction. So when you're pushing CRT
00:59:08.180
and DEI and all these notions that there's systemic racism, anybody who served in these units, and I've
00:59:14.720
written about this extensively and talked about it, knows that systemic racism is not a problem in our
00:59:20.400
military today. In fact, the percentage of racism and extreme and extremism in our military
00:59:24.700
is a fraction of what it is in the general public. Thankfully, our military has been a huge part of
00:59:30.000
racial reconciliation in our country from the very beginning. Ask any guy or gal. It's never been about
00:59:36.880
skin color. It's only about green and red that you bleed together. That's it. So CRT, DEI, climate and
00:59:45.900
green initiatives, you know, trans initiatives, all the quotas, get it out, out. Standards, accountability,
00:59:54.780
meritocracy, lethality. And that also means, by the way, no tolerance for things like sexual assault,
01:00:00.080
no tolerance for things that make us less capable. All of that's got to stop. It's got to go. It's got
01:00:05.600
to be dealt with. And so I think my background specifically gives me a chance to focus on the
01:00:10.520
warfighter and readiness. That's what the president has charged me first and foremost to do. And I think
01:00:15.140
when you, when that happens, Megan, I've already seen the amount of messages I've gotten from guys
01:00:20.780
and gals saying, I wasn't going to join. I'm 18, but I joined because President Trump was elected and
01:00:26.840
you're going to be the secretary. I'm hearing it too. And, or I was going to get out as an E6,
01:00:31.060
but I'm re-upping because I'm ready to go. We are on the cusp of a recruiting renaissance. We will see
01:00:37.320
guys and gals join this military in droves because we still have a lot of, we have patriots in this
01:00:43.380
country who want to believe in institutions that have traditionally fought for and defended this
01:00:49.260
nation. It's get back to basics as, and there's a lot of other things we can talk about back to
01:00:53.420
basics. And when we do that, I actually think, I know you'll see the vast majority of the Pentagon
01:00:58.700
respond to that as well. Do you think the folks who wear the uniform in Washington DC want to be
01:01:04.020
distracted by other things? Or do you think they want to focus on warfighting and lethality? I know
01:01:08.020
the answer to that and that's coming. Can you spend a minute on the forever wars and the risks
01:01:13.800
that we're looking at right now? We've got Syria in the midst of a civil war that's amping up where
01:01:18.760
we could see Bashar al-Assad deposed. We've got the risk of China possibly taking Taiwan in the second
01:01:25.380
Trump term. We've got the explosive powder keg in the Middle East. We've got Ukraine. There's a lot
01:01:31.000
going on that could potentially involve our military at a time where the American public's really not
01:01:36.820
feeling all that interventionist. So how do you look at those conflicts and the role of the
01:01:41.680
military in 2024, 2025 America? Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, I looked at the commander-in-chief's
01:01:46.840
direction on that, his America first agenda and how he wants to adapt and adjust the way we focus
01:01:52.280
on threats. He's the boss. I'm an execution arm and my job is to give him advice as it pertains to
01:01:57.960
our military and its ability to execute on that. Ultimately, we live in one of the most dangerous
01:02:03.200
times since the end of the Cold War. There's just no doubt about it. You've refined it.
01:02:05.840
But I'm also the product of two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where my view shifted a
01:02:11.480
great deal from where it was to where it is today, because you would have to be a fool
01:02:16.280
to look at the outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan and think that what we got out of them was beneficial
01:02:23.520
to American national security interests. And that's not to take away from every vet who gave everything.
01:02:28.360
I was one of them. Those last folks in Afghanistan, the 13 we lost, the people who fought for the places
01:02:34.400
that ISIS took back. Like that investment, that fight, that mission is real. And I love all of it.
01:02:39.200
But we have to be realists and clear eyed about what that intervention meant. The finite resources
01:02:44.720
that we have, the debt that we have, the threats that we have, the responsibilities our allies have
01:02:50.060
to show in Europe if they want to defend that continent. The reality of the outcome in Ukraine,
01:02:55.460
Donald Trump's been very clear about that, but that he wants to end it right away.
01:03:00.320
And that ultimately there's this huge looming threat in the Indo-Pacific, in the communist
01:03:05.160
Chinese, who are rapidly trying to build a military that outpaces ours, building military
01:03:10.940
trying to defeat us. So I don't want to get ahead of the president at all on any of this.
01:03:16.680
Part of the reason you don't normally do interviews in a confirmation process is that
01:03:20.120
anything you say will be used against you in the court of a hearing. So these are all things I've
01:03:26.140
said before and the president has said. But ultimately, yes, we live in a dangerous world,
01:03:31.220
which means if you're going to have peace through strength, you need to have the perception and the
01:03:35.940
reality of a hyper ready force ready to take on the next threat.
01:03:40.380
There was a report today. It was yesterday. It was this morning by the Wall Street Journal and
01:03:44.140
Fox News' Bill Malugin just confirmed it, saying that Trump had a face-to-face meeting at Mar-a-Lago
01:03:49.200
yesterday with Ron DeSantis. Don't know that it was specifically about this,
01:03:52.500
but that allegedly in that face-to-face meeting, they did discuss the possibility of subbing him
01:03:58.420
in for this position, depending on how things go for you. What do you think of that possibility?
01:04:05.400
Listen, it's all the president's choice. I spoke to the president this morning. He said,
01:04:09.540
I'm his guy. And I won't, I'm not going to give any other information from my conversations with
01:04:15.140
the president. I believe that what he shares with me needs to stay in confidence. But things were
01:04:20.640
addressed. And he said, you're my guy. Also saying that you're my guy was your mom on Fox and Friends.
01:04:30.040
If we all went back seven years, we would, we would see that maybe we were not the people we are today.
01:04:36.220
And I'm sure many of you across the country understand how difficult divorce is on a family.
01:04:42.400
There's emotions. We say things. And I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emotions.
01:04:51.800
I wrote that out of love. And about two hours later, I retracted it with an apology email,
01:04:58.140
but nobody's seen that. I want to say something about the media. And part of today is to discredit
01:05:04.680
the media and how they operate. When they contact you, I let a few phone calls go, but then they
01:05:13.280
call you and say they threaten you. That's the first thing they do. They say, unless you make a
01:05:19.000
statement, we will publish it as is. And I think that's a despicable way to treat anyone. Threats are
01:05:27.600
dangerous. I don't think the way you operate is, it feels almost criminal when reporters call you
01:05:34.260
and threaten you. I don't think a lot of people know that's the way they operate and they don't
01:05:38.500
care who they hurt families, children. Poor Penelope. Bless her soul. Can you believe the
01:05:46.020
New York times published that email? Oh yes, because it's the New York times. It was so mean. So mean,
01:05:51.440
by the way, do you want to say anything about the mean email that your mom sent you? And then the
01:05:54.960
meanness of the New York times in publishing it. Um, so first of all, multiple outlets to their
01:05:59.520
little bit of credit had received that email before. And my mom spoke to them on to those
01:06:06.040
reporters and to their little bit of credit, they didn't run it. Wow. So I don't even want to name
01:06:10.900
them because they don't deserve any credit. But of course the failing New York times, the trash bin
01:06:15.500
that it is, um, was willing to, even after my mother spoke to the reporter and it was, it was clear
01:06:24.040
that she immediately took it back. Not just now, immediately took it back. They published it.
01:06:28.600
That's what I feel for my mom. I was going through a divorce. Uh, the issue was over child, uh, custody.
01:06:34.820
I wanted more. I want, I've got these three amazing boys who I want all the time with I can have in the
01:06:39.480
world. And so if I'm guilty of wanting more time with them, that's true. Um, and it was, you know,
01:06:44.740
ask anybody who's been through that and it can be emotional. And I, I'll, you know, the days that
01:06:49.980
followed, we worked our way through it and she walked it all back and said it was emotional.
01:06:54.300
And, but you expect that those communications are going to be private. It was private. Um,
01:06:59.420
you'd hope a place like that, like the New York times would make it about Pete Hegseth,
01:07:04.160
not Penelope Hegseth. But again, it's all the anatomy of a spear. Trash, trash, trash, trash.
01:07:10.500
Even his mom doesn't like him. Even his mom thinks he's horrible.
01:07:14.540
Didn't CVS put a mic in your face today or yesterday saying, what would you like to say
01:07:18.260
about your mom? You said, I love her. I love my mom. And you know, it's, I mean, it's,
01:07:23.660
it's also a scenario where it's not as if, you know, it's, it's a good news story, right? It's
01:07:28.380
about family and family repair. I would do the same thing to my son. If you're involved in a
01:07:33.720
contentious divorce where I didn't like the way he was handling it, I would send a harshly worded
01:07:38.180
email to try to shore his behavior up. And it does seem like over time, Pete, you did
01:07:44.520
kind of hear her. I mean, that you did wind up changing.
01:07:47.220
I think you're, I think I saw you right. Yeah. You're a good, she's a good mom.
01:07:49.740
She's a good mom. She is a good mom. She always has been. And she's been wonderful to me and to
01:07:54.900
Jen and to our family. And, but it is, it's a great news story of redemption of, of family healing.
01:08:00.560
And it didn't happen over a long period of time. It happened real quick. You know, we were very close.
01:08:07.480
She spends weeks at a time at our house with our, with our, with her grandkids. They're with us for a
01:08:12.180
month over the summer. Her and my wife are dear friends. I love her to death. She knows it. She
01:08:16.700
wouldn't. And when I called her and said, mom, will you go on Fox and friends? I mean, it wasn't a
01:08:21.480
hesitation. She was like, I would be honored to have the ability to talk about you. So I actually
01:08:26.020
haven't seen the whole interview yet as of this recording, but from what I've heard from people,
01:08:30.540
mom did a great job. So thank you, mom. I appreciate it.
01:08:33.140
I think you're going to be very proud. And I'm sure she's very proud of you. Thank you for sitting
01:08:42.100
Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.
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