Fox host gushes over troops being sent to southern border, admits it's “more of a show of force than a policy solution”

Pete Hegseth: “There's not going to be a single member of our military interacting with a member of the caravan. That won't happen.”

From the October 30 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Video file

PETE HEGSETH (FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND CO-HOST): I think it's the right move, but it's more of a statement of priority, more of a show of force than a policy solution. The reality is, you talk to guys on the border, folks in the military, which I have, these troops are going to be very limited in what they can do at the border. They won the fight to actually have them armed. A lot of these troops, the National Guard guys currently on the border are not even armed, because they're away from the border providing logistical assistance. So, intelligence, surveillance, transportation, supply, meals. They're helping the Border Patrol agents do their jobs. There's not going to be a single member of our military interacting with a member of the caravan. That won't happen. They'll be in the back helping the Border Patrol agents who are doing their jobs. 

...

HEGSETH: They say all the time, a military guy replaces border guy so he can go -- anybody who knows headquarters, if you've got a border control (sic) guy who's been in headquarters for years and suddenly an Army guy shows up, he's not well-seasoned to be on the border either. So, it's not a one for one swap. It's the right move. It doesn't exponentially increase our ability to enforce the border. 

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): And when can you use that gun? 

HEGSETH: You can't. Self-defense, that's it. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): It's called Operation Faithful Pilot. What will the -- how will the Air Force help --

HEGSETH: Faithful Patriot.

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Previously:

Migrant caravan fearmongering is the new Ebola panic

Fox News guest claims migrant caravan is bringing “small pox and leprosy and TB that is going to infect our people”

Fox & Friends host: Migrant caravan could bring “diseases” to the United States