On Tuesday night, as Matt covered, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had selected Pete Hegseth to serve as his Secretary of Defense. The reaction was swift and severe at times, with some denigrating Hegseth's service by focusing more so on his current role as a Fox News host. Perhaps the most shameful take came from the DNC War Room, which not only went with such a tactic, but also went after Trump by resurrecting thoroughly debunked claims about him and his regard for veterans.
"Donald Trump should focus more on our military and less on Fox News. Pete Hegseth isn’t just unfit – he’s dangerous: hailing the January 6 insurrectionists as people who ‘love freedom,’ opposing women serving in combat roles, and even expressing support for war crimes. Trump’s pick to lead our Department of Defense wants to scam our veterans out of their benefits, privatize their health care, and allow predatory for-profit colleges to prey on them without consequence. It’s obvious why Trump picked him after promising to turn the military against American citizens: Hegseth will always put defending Trump ahead of defending America," a Wednesday morning statement from DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd claimed.
Let’s be clear about who Trump's pick for Defense Sec really is. Fox & Friends’ Pete Hegseth has:
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 13, 2024
❌ Criticized veterans for applying for earned benefits
❌ Advocated for privatizing the VA
❌ Expressed support for war crimes
❌ Helped the for-profit college industry exploit…
My latest at @townhallcom covers the DNC War Room’s reaction to @realDonaldTrump selecting @PeteHegseth as his Secretary of Defense. They don’t even mention his service! Plus some good reminders from @ScottJenningsKY about such a pick as well! https://t.co/mEVByTpVlz pic.twitter.com/qrHqFrdyEE
— Rebecca Downs🇺🇸🟦🇮🇱 (@RebeccaRoseGold) November 13, 2024
Nowhere does such a statement reference that Hegseth has military experience as well. "Pete is a graduate of Princeton University, and has a Graduate Degree from Harvard University. He is an Army Combat Veteran who did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For his actions on the battlefield, he was decorated with two Bronze Stars, as well as a Combat Infantryman’s Badge," Trump's statement from Tuesday night read in part.
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Further, such a line of attack not only resurrects Democrats' favorite narrative of harping on January 6, but is also similar to how Vice President Kamala Harris went after Vice President-elect JD Vance in July, questioning his loyalty after he was selected as Trump's running mate.
The press release went on to engage in hysterics over how "Donald Trump just announced that he's picking 'Fox & Friends Weekend' co-host Pete Hegseth to be the United States Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has criticized veterans for applying for earned benefits, advocated for privatizing VA health care, defended those accused of war crimes, helped the for-profit college industry exploit veterans, and said 'we should not have women in combat roles,'" which again, fails to reference Hegseth's military service.
What followed in the press release was a laundry list of mainstream media headlines, including from far-left outlets, and with many headlines having nothing to do with the role of Secretary of Defense. Media Matters is even mentioned twice.
That's not all. Democrats appear unable to help themselves from bringing up the "suckers" and "losers" hoax, just as they did in 2020 and leading up to the 2024 election, though this time it didn't work. "REMINDER: Trump has repeatedly disparaged our military: He’s called veterans 'suckers' and 'losers,' and attacked military leaders as 'dopes and babies,'" the press release went on to claim, featuring a thoroughly criticized and debunked article from Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic, who was similarly savaged for his report last month trying to take down Trump.
Trump's pick of Hegseth has been a trending topic over X, with the negative attention bringing him support in many ways, actually.
Politico unintentionally building grassroots support for Pete Hegseth by leading with this quote on background from a defense industry lobbyist. https://t.co/dGZk65KezN pic.twitter.com/m9mduDg8iG
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 13, 2024
It's not just Democrats who have been going after Hegseth, but the mainstream media as well, with the examples from the DNC only scratching the surface.
During Tuesday night's episode of "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip," Scott Jennings chimed in to remind that Hegseth deserves a chance, and also that he's not the only one on television.
"Does anyone have confidence in the current leadership of the Pentagon and the way the defense situation has been operating for the last several years? I mean, from the Afghanistan pullout, which was an extreme debacle for which no one was held accountable. We've had spy balloons flying over the United States. We built a $300 million pier as a public relations stunt, which wound up killing an American service member. I'd say I've had just about enough of the so-called insiders running the Defense Department," Jennings offered with some hard truths about the current administration's handling of the Pentagon.
As he went to share that "I think we ought to give Pete Hegseth a chance," Jennings was cut off by Carl Bernstein.
"All the criticism of him is that he's not the expected Washington pick. And I'm just saying to you that the American people just voted against the expected Washington pick," Jennings also reminded, once he was able to speak up once again. "So, he's got 20 years in service, Afghanistan Iraq, two bronze stars, Princeton, Harvard, yes, he's on TV but so were the rest of us. And I think he ought to be given a chance."
Host Abby Phillip then jumped in to try to speak to those actions from the Biden-Harris administration as being a matter of "civilian leadership."
"The civilian leadership made decisions and then the people they put in charge of the Pentagon carried it out, and it was all pretty much a disaster," Jennings reminded. "So, now we have a new president who I think got elected in part because of some of those disasters and he's going to put in some of the non-insiders in charge of not just this agency, but a bunch of them."
Jennings emphasized that Hegseth is "an American hero," something the Democratic statement above never once did. "The man won two bronze stars for his service and he's been a champion for veterans. I mean, he's going to have to go up there just like everybody else and prove his knowledge of how to do this job. He's not immune from that, but we ought to give this man a chance, in my opinion."
HOLY SMOKES: @ScottJenningsKY just went scorched earth on Carl Bernstein and CNN panel defending Pete Hegseth —
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) November 13, 2024
— while excoriating current Pentagon leadership over their disastrous record.
🔥🔥🔥
“Does anyone have confidence in the current leadership of the Pentagon? And the… pic.twitter.com/dEs315grh4
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