President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, recently shut down a reporter asking him about CNN’s reporting of him. Refusing to entertain the reporter, in what would’ve likely been a “gotcha question,” Hegseth firmly stated that he was not interested in entertaining a question related to the left-leaning outlet’s coverage of him.
The CNN coverage referenced by the reporter pertained to past comments from Hegseth in which he allegedly criticized gay people serving in the military as part of a Marxist agenda. Hegseth has not shied away from criticizing the state of the U.S. military, which many believe has seen a deterioration of standards amid the prioritization of woke policies such as DEI.
A reporter asked, “Mr. Hegseth, do you believe that gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.” He responded, “Yes.” The reporter followed up. “Can you just respond to the CNN report this morning, it was highlighting some of your previous comments. Hegeseth immediately shut down the question, saying, “I don’t feel the need to respond to CNN.”
One person commented, “CNN is no longer the trusted news in the world much less the most trusted news. Good on Pete Hegseth. I greatly respect him and feel confident he will not bow to the Establishment. #FightFightFight @realDonaldTrump chose well. Thank you President Trump for choosing Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Thank you Pete Hegseth for accepting the position.”
Hegseth previously outlined his concerns with the military, worrying that standards and combat readiness have been sacrificed at the expense of pursuing a social agenda. “And what you’re seeing is a military right now that is more interested in social engineering led by this president than they are in war fighting,” he said.
Addressing the increasing prevalence of women serving in the military, Hegseth added, “So as a result, through ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and women in the military and these standards, they’re going to inevitably start to erode standards because they want that one female special operator, that one female Green Beret, that one female Army Ranger, that one female Navy SEAL.”
Hegseth blasted current woke recruiting practices that make people “feel good” but do not actually serve a purpose in strengthening the military. “So they can put them on a recruiting poster and feel good about themselves and has nothing to do with national security,” he continued. “And these war fighters are realizing they’re just going to start ticking away at the standards until they get one.”
In contrast, President-elect Trump views on the military as something that should be entirely focused on meritocracy over progressive social issues. “Like President Trump, Pete wants to see the U.S. military focus on being the world’s strongest fighting force – not on cultural and social issues. Bottom line: If you can meet the standards, you can serve,” the spokesperson said. “But given the threats we face, our priorities shouldn’t be lowering standards and wasting taxpayer money to meet arbitrary social quotas – our priorities should be readiness and lethality.”
“I don’t feel the need to respond to CNN.” @PeteHegseth
The evolution of a legacy brand from biased…to agenda…to propaganda…to embarrassment…to irrelevant. pic.twitter.com/3yQhmrKF7R
— Will Cain (@willcain) December 12, 2024
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