In another one of the wild moments from the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for Pete Hegseth, the Army combat veteran and former Fox News Channel host who is now President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the Secretary of Defense position, woke Senator Liz Warren of Massachusetts tried cornering Hegseth in a “gotcha” moment and ended up humiliating herself.
That came as the two argued over Mr. Hegseth’s past comments that flag officers, or generals and admirals, should not be able to immediately, upon leaving their positions in the military, enter a defense contractor as an executive or lobbyist, as doing so seems to encourage revolving door-related corruption within the industry.
Hegseth has described himself as a “change agent” who would sweep the rot out of the defense contracting system, saying, “It is true that I don’t have a similar biography to Defense Secretaries of the last 30 years. But, as President Trump also told me, we’ve repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly “the right credentials”—whether they are retired generals, academics, or defense contractor executives—and where has it gotten us?”
Continuing, and getting to what Trump sees his role as being and how, unlike most in the defense sector, he’s not a revolving door lobbyist to one of the big contractors, Hegseth said, “He believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. A change agent. Someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives.”
In any case, it was regarding those comments regarding defense industry corruption that Liz Warren tried a “gotcha” moment and tried wrecking herself. Describing it, the “Vigilant Fox” account on X said, “The Democrats’ failed attempts to embarrass Hegseth hit a new low when Senator Elizabeth Warren thought she had him cornered with a “gotcha” moment. But she ended up humiliating herself instead as Hegseth dismantled her entire premise with a single, important fact.”
What happened was, pressing him on his claims, Warren asked why Hegseth allegedly wasn’t making the same pledge he would require of others, saying, “You are quite sure every General who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years but you’re not willing to make that same pledge?”
Hegseth, firing back, noted the gross inaccuracy in her attempt to smear him with a “gotcha” moment, noting that he never reached flag officer rank. He told her, “I’m not a General, Senator.” The crowd loved that excellent rebuttal of Warren’s attempted smear of Hegseth; as Vigilant Fox put it, “The entire room busted out laughing.” Watch the moment here:
President-elect Trump, posting about the hearing shortly before it occurred and wishing Mr. Hegseth the best of luck, showing his committed support to the controversial nominee, said, in a post on Truth Social, “Pete Hegseth will make a GREAT Secretary of Defense. He has my Complete and Total support. Good luck today, Pete!”
