Eric Schmitt
Appearances
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
In response to all this, Hegseth said,
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Women obviously play a very important role in the military, but he doesn't really address some of the most extreme things that he's written and said in the past.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
We have to have a standards-based military. Again, going back to his theme about focusing on the warrior ethos and not some of the DEI characteristics of the current administration.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
That's what he's implying. He's basically saying that in order to accommodate, whether it's gender politics or other politics within the military, you've lowered the standards, the effectiveness standards of your basic soldiers here. And that's just not the case. The most elite units have got A specific test that both men and women who serve in those units have to pass.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then some of the allegations started seeping out about his misconduct. The Times unearthed a letter from his mother in 2018 saying he treats women terribly. His mom later said that she wrote that letter in anger, but still... Then we learned about an alleged sexual assault in 2017. Right. So these things are starting to pile up.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
It's not like there's a test for women and a test for men in these elite units. And to say, you know, that the standards have been, you know, warped under the current administration to serve their progressive politics, that's not right. And this is what some of these Democratic senators are saying, saying, wait a minute now, you know, they're calling him on it.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
So that was the Democrats. But what was perhaps the most interesting and one of the most awaited parts of this hearing was the support that Hexeth seemed to get from Republican Senator Joni Ernst.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
She is a combat veteran and also a sexual assault survivor, somebody who is seen as a pivotal figure in these hearings.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Where they do seem to kind of come together now is this question of standards.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Men and women must meet the same high standards. They must be physically able to achieve those standards in order to serve in these units. That, of course, is one of the main things that he's trying to get across. And now she seems to be saying the same thing.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
That's right. Other Republicans on the committee want to zero in on the whole question of standards and how the military should be based on merit and skill rather than DEI qualities.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And not the wokeness that they claim is making America weak and making America's military weak.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Senators such as Senator Tuberville of Alabama talking about how the military is way too focused on identity issues.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
This is why P. Hegseth has to be installed right away so that he can get to the job of focusing the nation's military on warfighting. That's really what's important here.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then we talked to former colleagues of his who talk about allegations of public drunkenness. I mean, any one of these things, you know, would have been enough to sink... a nominee in another time, but not Pete Hegseth. Right. So going into the hearing, I think there were really three major questions about how it would unfold. The first would be, what do the Democrats do?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
That is the focus that they have, which goes on for several senators.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
So another main area of questioning for the Democrats is just Mr. Hegseth's qualifications for the job. And this is where Democrats really leaned in, as if they were treating Hegseth to a job interview.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Senators like Tim Kaine and Mark Kelly zero in on Hegseth's conduct. They asked him about extramarital affairs that he has acknowledged he's had.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
They asked him about allegations of sexual assault.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
He asked him about reports of his excessive drinking.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
All of which is to say, you know, with this kind of background, you know, how in the world can we, you know, endorse you as the head of the Defense Department?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And in fact, Gary Peters, one of the senators from Michigan, basically... equated the Senate, at least the committee here, as a board of directors. And they're kind of grilling Hexeth on his limited job experiences.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And Peters in particular says, you got to be kidding me.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
You wouldn't be hired as a CEO of one of the biggest companies in the country. And that's basically what the Pentagon is. You're basically being hired as the CEO of the Defense Department.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
In response to all this, the Republicans kind of turned the idea of job qualifications inside out.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
You had Senator Wicker, the chairman, basically making a joke out of it, saying, you know, how many people do we supervise?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Then you have Senator Mullen of Oklahoma, who's basically saying, wait a minute, who among us hasn't had a drink too many at work or had an affair?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Do they recognize this is a foregone conclusion and basically meet Pete Hegseth on his own terms, or do they go to war with him? The second, for Republicans... Do they acknowledge any misgivings at all about Pete Hegseth's conduct, his fitness for the job, his experience, anything at all that would appear to give a crack in their support for him? Or do they just fall in line?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Another Republican senator, a new senator, Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, also weighed in on this.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
basically making the case that Hexeth has the experience that matters most. And he goes on to grill him about, you know, what kind of ammunition goes in certain kind of rifles and what tactics would you use in certain situations.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Yeah, he talks about, you know, what kind of batteries and night vision goggles. And it's just, it's kind of like, this is what real warriors care about, you know, not this other stuff. Let's get on with what's really important here, the Republicans seem to be saying.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Exactly. And along the way, you know, Democrats just seem completely unconvinced by any of this approach. Democrats are on the line. This guy is just a yes man for the president. He will do anything. He is so loyal to the president, he could even violate human rights or other laws or other norms and conventions to satisfy him.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Right, and there's this interesting exchange that Hexeth has with Senator Angus King of Maine.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
where he talks about the rules of war and the law of armed conflict and what U.S. soldiers shouldn't be having to do.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
It gets to, you know, Hex says... As a guy who used to be on the ground in these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this suspicion of higher officials, including perhaps some lawyers, who put restrictions on the soldiers who are going after bad guys in Hezik's view. Right.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
It may not mean to follow, not follow, but at least to challenge, to challenge the higher authority. And again, that puts Hexeth back in where he's been and where he's most comfortable. He's the grunt. He's an officer who is on the ground in the fight. He's certainly indicating challenging a chain of command or higher authorities that don't have these priorities in mind that he does.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
This is just another moment where Hegseth is kind of showing he's going to be a very unconventional defense secretary. Going back, he's going to be a disruptor, just like his boss.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then the third question is, how would Pete Hegseth carry himself? Again, remember, this is the firebrand Fox News commentator. He's used to being on television and really being hard-edged in the MAGA world. Or do we see a different version of him where he's kind of buttoned up, the Princeton grad, and ready to play nice with Democrats and maybe soften some of their opposition?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
I think you're right, Michael, that this election was about change and was about disruption. I think the Democrats have had to pick and choose which of these key cabinet offices they're going to challenge. On some, such as its Secretary of State, they're going to go along with this most likely. But they've drawn the line at the Pentagon, at least for now.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
But they just think he is the wrong guy at the wrong time at this place. In this case, they seem fine with the risk that they're going against the trend of disruption. The Pentagon is too important, too important an institution to put in the hands of such an inexperienced and unfit candidate, in their view.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Thank you.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
You know, which Pete Hegseth shows up in what form, and how does he present himself in this hearing?
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
So the hearing starts at 930 on Tuesday morning, and this is the Senate Armed Services Committee. And their job is basically to recommend or not for all their Senate colleagues, you know, how should they vote on this guy? Again, remember, Republicans are in control as of the last election, but there's a very narrow margin and it's still a question of whether the Republicans will hold together.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
So Hexeth takes his seat in front of the dais, and he looks kind of like you would see him on television, sporting a navy blue suit with a red tie, an American flag pocket square. And his wife and several other women, including Megyn Kelly, are sitting right behind him in support.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Roger Wicker of Mississippi is the chairman who starts with an opening statement.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Wicker signals pretty much from his opening statement the Republicans are going to be a heat shield for Pete Hegseth in his hearings.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
You know, the Biden administration has weakened the American military. The American service members are worn out. Recruiting is in the tank. It's just, you know, we need a jolt here.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And so this very quickly from the chairman of the committee makes it sound, you know, there's not going to be any doubts raised from his side of the aisle here at least.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
That's right. I mean, there are no reservations at all. It's full speed ahead.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then we get our first statement from the senior Democrat on the committee. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who's been on the committee for years, is a West Point graduate Army veteran himself, and he actually starts out with some niceties.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
But then... Reid, who's a relatively soft-spoken guy, not bombastic of all.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
He just launches into this extraordinarily harsh assessment of Pete Hexeth's qualifications.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Again, remember, this guy has a television personality, so he's on now. The light is on for him to speak. And he starts off, you know, quite deliberately trying to disarm the senators.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Saying this is going to be... A hearing where he's looking out for the best of the nation. He's going to work across the aisle as much as he can.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
He turns and he thanks his wife for her support.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
He tries to name his seven kids. Luke, Rex. Sorry, it's a lot of them. He forgets one of the names, which draws kind of a laugh. Right, I mean, who among us? Seven kids. Yeah, who among us? And then something dramatic happens inside the hearing room.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Not only that, you are a... Pecklers start screaming, you know, in protest of Hegseth's nomination. And the Capitol Police rush over and basically hustle this guy out.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And Hexeth tries to get going again. He tries to kind of regain his momentum with this.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then another heckler jumps up and starts screaming at something else. You may continue, sir. So it's very disruptive initially.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And this is all at a time when, you know, Pete Hexeth is trying to talk about how he's going to transform the woke military that has sunk to new lows into this, you know, new department of warriors.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And so how do you get that powerful military? You do that by focusing on the mission of the military, the building up of military might, and not being distracted by what Republicans say Democrats have spent too much time on of DEI policies and progressive politics and getting away from basic tenets of military effectiveness,
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
You know, he openly acknowledges he's not your usual defense secretary.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And what he says is, you know, I'm bringing a new, fresh approach to this. Thank you for the time.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
That's right. And remember, this is just the introduction to this hearing. Right. And the real fireworks are yet to come because the question and answer is going to go on for hours with... The Democrats and Republicans lining up. The partisan lines have been thrown down on both sides. And that's where the drama is really going to unfold in this hearing.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
So one of the big topics that came up, particularly from Democrats, who launched into Hegstaff's comments and what he's written about women in the military. And in the weeks leading up to this hearing, he's tried to walk some of those comments back. The Democrats haven't had a chance to really talk this thing through.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And this is their first time to really confront him with what he's actually said and written on this.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Jeanne Shaheen, for instance, the Democratic senator from New Hampshire, was one of several female Democrat senators who took Hexathon.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
Well, I think you said it's just amazing how unconventional Pete Hexeth's nomination is. I mean, when his nomination was announced, we all kind of scratched our heads and went, you mean the Fox News anchor, that guy? Right. And, you know, as it turned out, you know, he did have a record. He had run a couple of veterans groups.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And Shaheen, among others, really launches in some really tough questioning positions.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
This was something that other Democratic senators, including Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, also picked on.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And basically saying, wait a minute here, we already have women who are serving in the military and serving in some of these combat positions in the infantry and ground combat roles.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
And then you've got other senators. Senator Elizabeth Warren says, well, wait a minute. You've had these kind of vague pronouncements of how women are so great in the military.
The Daily
Drunkenness, Women and Wokeness: A Dramatic Confirmation Hearing for Pete Hegseth
It seems like you've had this conversion when you're trying to sand the hard edges off your myriad public comments about this.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
And I think Trump enjoys that and wants to let his secretary survive in this crisis.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
Well, Pete Hegseth basically says, no, it was not classified. But we have talked to several senior military officials and pilots who have flown these missions who say it certainly had to have been classified when it was shared. Whether it was declassified perhaps after the fact is possible, but we don't know that.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
Absolutely. And this veterans community is, in many regards, outraged by this. Not just by what we've talked about before, about disclosure of secret information, the risk it puts, but it also goes to the very concept of competence. is this administration competent? Is this defense secretary competent?
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
And one of the military operations that, of course, the Trump administration is focused on the most is the fiasco of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how that went so badly. And so here comes Pete Hegseth, here comes President Trump saying, we're going to change all that. And we're going to get back to the basics of what this military does so well, lethal combat operations. And I think
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
Once you start undermining this, I think it's very clear to the active duty military what's going on here. This would never be tolerated in a normal situation. And for the veterans community, for the reasons you've just articulated, I think, too, it's raised some real questions about their support for this president at this moment.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
It was sent just two hours or so before the first strikes were to take place against the Houthis on March 15th. And you don't want this information getting out ahead of any attack because it puts, in this case, U.S. pilots at risk. And so almost by definition, officials are telling us this had to be classified at the time.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
Okay, so let me give you one example. Two hours before this attack takes place, Pete Hanks alerts this group that this is gonna happen. The first group of F-18 Super Hornets off the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, which is in the Red Sea, these are about to take off. He's basically saying to anybody who might get ahold of this information, you have two hours
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
to adjust your defenses on the ground if you're the Houthis. And so this gives them advance warning to prepare to go after these planes in a much more aggressive way than they might be able to.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
Well, they're telling us they're angry, they're disappointed, because in a lot of ways, Pete Hexeth has come in and said, I'm one of you guys. I'm not one of the brass. I'm not one of these retired generals or retired lawmakers. I'm a rank-and-file guy. He wants to be one of the troops.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
You know, I think he wanted to be able to show off a little bit of what the military was doing by demonstrating the detailed strikes that were coming. But I think people are just shocked that he would be talking about this on a commercial messaging app. And if they had been caught doing this, they would have been brought up on charges and maybe court-martialed.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
That's right. They're saying it's reckless, it's cavalier, and it's careless. All things that can get people killed in combat.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
It's probably a little bit of both. He likes Pete Hexeth. Just earlier last week, he had an Oval Office ceremony to announce a new fighter jet named the P-47, 47 being President Trump. But Pete Hexeth was right at his side, cheering him on. And so I think... What Hegseth brings is a tremendous amplifier of President Trump's priorities.
The Daily
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
And that's when you talk to Hegseth and any time he makes public remarks, he comes back to the things that President Trump is doing. He's rooting out diversity issues in the military. He's sending troops to the southwest border where they are now. He is going to beef up the military and restore its lethality. Those are the themes that keeps coming back.