Republican TV commentator Scott Jennings has come to the defense of fellow conservative television personality Pete Hegseth amid a fallout over the Fox News host’s pick to lead the Defense Department.
Newly elected President Donald Trump announced in a post on Tuesday evening that 44-year-old Hegseth was his choice as Secretary of Defense.
The pair have a close relationship, with Hegseth being a long-time supporter. But the military veteran and likely Trump loyalist is a controversial choice.
He previously lobbied the president-elect privately and publicly during his first term to pardon soldiers accused of war crimes. Hegseth has also publicly argued that women should not serve in combat roles in the military.
Famed author Carl Bernstein said on CNN on Tuesday that Trump’s nominations are “in an insidious way” trying to change the philosophies and priorities with which the US has lived since World War II.
But Jennings came to Hegseth’s defense.
“Does anyone have confidence in the current leadership of the Pentagon and the way the defense situation has functioned in recent years?” Jennings asked.
President-elect Trump chose conservative television personality Pete Hegseth as his choice to lead the Defense Department
The Republican strategist cited the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the spy balloons flying over the US
“I would say I’ve just about had enough of the so-called insiders running the Department of Defense,” Jennings said.
“I think we should give Pete Hegseth a chance,” he added.
Jennings claimed that all the criticism against him is that he is not the expected “Washington choice” and argued that the American people “simply voted against the expected Washington choice.”
Hegseth graduated from Princeton University in 2003 and was commissioned into the Army National Guard. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Guantánamo Bay.
Although he has military experience, he does not have senior military leadership or national security experience as he prepares to lead potentially 1.3 million active-duty U.S. troops and the US$800 billion-plus budget. department to manage.
When it was pointed out that Jennings was entrusting civilian leadership decisions to the Pentagon, he pushed back.
‘You make a good point. The civilian leadership made decisions and then the people they put in charge of the Pentagon executed them, and the whole thing was more or less a disaster,” he said.
Scott Jennings (left) appears on CNN on Tuesday after Pete Hegseth announced Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon
Pete Hegseth poses with President-elect Trump, who holds a copy of the 44-year-old’s book
Hegseth has been on Fox News for a decade and most recently co-hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend” before Trump’s announcement.
He also served as CEO of the veterans advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America and earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard.
In an interview earlier this year on “Fox & Friends” to promote his book, Hegseth shared that his unit was supposed to monitor President Biden’s inauguration, but members of his unit leadership deemed him “an extremist or a white nationalist because of a tattoo.” .’
He described it as a tattoo of a Jerusalem cross, but claimed it was used to revoke his orders.
Hegseth’s appointment will have to be confirmed by the Senate. Although Republicans will have the majority in the Senate from January, it is not clear that the small Republican margin will give him enough support to be confirmed.
Hegseth was reportedly considered to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in Trump’s first term, but he was never nominated because he was concerned at the time about whether he would be confirmed by the Republican Senate majority.
“He’s going to have to go out there like everyone else and prove that he knows how to do this job. He’s not immune to that, but in my opinion we need to give this guy a chance,” Jennings said.