Newsmax host Greg Kelly forcefully argues against confirming Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense
Kelly: “I still do not believe that he should be confirmed”
Published
Citation
From the January 14, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): I love President Trump, but he has sometimes gotten it wrong when it comes to the military. Who remembers General Milley? General Milley was Donald Trump's pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And what happened? He turned around and called him fascist to the core and basically waged a coup against Donald Trump while he was in office. That was a bad call. Let's see here. Esper, Mark Esper, secretary of defense, also a bad call, a guy who was totally beholden to the swamp and turned around and called him a threat to democracy. This is a guy that President Trump chose, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate. Another guy who turned out to be a mutineer, almost, General Mattis. He turned on President Trump big time. And it was kind of ugly there. And the swamp swooned.
Now, I don't think Pete would do that to President Trump. I don't think that is in the cards. I have a problem, however, still. And I think the regulations suggest that since he paid money in a confidential settlement to a woman who accused him of assault — I — it's akin to blackmail. And when you're when you pay blackmail, I don't think you're eligible.
...
KELLY: I think people can understand, but when you start paying money to an accuser — eh, it's problematic. We have all kinds of regulations that say if you're vulnerable to blackmail, you shouldn't be in a high level national security position. And that's what his own attorney has called it - blackmail and extortion.
...
KELLY: Is that true about Fox News? Because they rallied around him. I mean, I think they would actually have to — it's just an accusation. I don't know if they would turn around and fire him or fire anybody, actually, just based on an allegation. Tim Parlatore, Pete Hegseth's attorney characterized what happened as extortion and also blackmail. He was falsely accused of and my position is that he was the victim of blackmail, Parlatore said, calling it a case of successful extortion.
According to national security regulations — in fact, there's something called a National Security Directive 10450 signed in 1953 — it's still, in effect, explicitly bars individuals with vulnerabilities such as blackmail from positions of national security. There's also a special form, standard form 86, that is still used for all high level national security applicants. And they look into, hey, are you vulnerable to blackmail or extortion?
And there's the issue of the drinking. It's not — look, he went on The Megyn Kelly Show and he made a case that he didn't have a problem drinking.
...
KELLY: All right, so he told Will Cain in 2021 that, yeah, he had a problem.
...
KELLY: There's a discrepancy here. All right? So there was another moment today, Elizabeth Warren not impressed with her line of questioning, but I was surprised that Pete answered this question. A while back, he wrote a book that said, generals who serve on active duty once they get out should not be able to work for defense contractors for a decade after they leave active duty. That is a great idea. Should it apply to secretaries of defense once they leave the job? That's also a great idea.
...
KELLY: All right. She's obnoxious. It was a clever answer in the moment, but that would have been great. That would have been groundbreaking and game changing. All these secretaries of defense, almost all of them, go into the defense industry. And that's how a lot of corruption happens. That is one of the swampiest things out there.
So I still do not believe that he should be confirmed.
However, if he is confirmed, and it looks like it's likely, I'll do anything I can to help and I mean that.