Newsmax's Greg Kelly says Pete Hegseth “can't” be secretary of defense
Kelly: “This secretary of defense thing is not going to happen. It just can't, not after what we're learning about.”
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From the December 2, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): Alright, Pete Hegseth.
Pete. Life is long, and Pete Hegseth is a talented guy with a lot to offer. But this secretary of defense thing is not going to happen. It just can't, not after what we're learning about. And yeah, I understand that, oh, you know, we — this is a tough thing to say. And there's a lot to like about Pete. He is the only person in public life other than some folks around here who says that CQ Brown, the corrupt general of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chairman, should be fired.
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KELLY: Well, music to my ears. And getting rid of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — yeah, that guy waged, I believe, essentially a soft coup against President Trump. Hyperpolitical statements in the summer of 2020 designed to promote Democrats and actually harm MAGA. Some people say you can't fire this guy. He's so fireable. He's actually probably prosecutable. Pete Hegseth also served in combat, and that's a big deal. Very few secretaries of defense lately have seen combat here. Here we go. All the way back to 1981. That's — what is it? 40 years ago plus. OK. How many of these guys actually have seen combat? Alright. The minority, the minority. Let's see here, the average age of a secretary of defense is 61. Pete is — how old is Pete? Pete's 44 or so. Alright.
Now here's what I'm talking about. There is time for Pete to make a big, valuable contribution to this country. Life is long, but now is not the time. I'm sorry. The stakes are way too high now. Now, Donald Trump likes Pete Hegseth, respects Pete Hegseth, and that's amazing. But there are things about Pete Hegseth that he has got to deal with. And I'm going to briefly deal with them. And I know there are people like, why are you doing that? Well, I'll tell you why I'm doing that. Because the left, that's what they do. They pretend things like the Hunter Biden laptop doesn't exist. They pretend that money wasn't going from China to Hunter to the brother to the president himself. I can't ignore certain things.
Pete Hegseth, mom has some things to say or has some things to say about Pete Hegseth. Texts of the email that Pete Hegseth mother sent to him. I am not going to go through the entire thing, but if his mother said this even at one point, got a problem. Doesn't mean can't be secretary of defense, but not now. And I'm sorry to do this. "You're an abuser of women. That is the ugly truth. And I have no respect for any man that belittles lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego." She goes on and on. She also says that she and her husband, they love Pete, they are praying for Pete, and they want him to get some help and take an honest look at himself. This is all the way back in 2018. It just came to light. Country needs some time to absorb this. Pete can make a contribution, a big one, unlimited, quite frankly, but not right now.