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A heated exchange unfolded as Republican strategist Scott Jennings defended President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense against skeptics questioning the selection.
During the panel discussion, Jennings highlighted Hegseth’s credentials as a “Fox and Friends” weekend co-host with two decades of National Guard service and multiple combat deployments. He pointed to recent military setbacks to challenge the effectiveness of establishment leadership.
CNN's Scott Jennings DEMOLISHES critics of Pete Hegseth.
"The American people just voted against the expected Washington pick."pic.twitter.com/YgEnpMPQcb
— Resist the Mainstream (@ResisttheMS) November 13, 2024
“Does anybody have confidence in the current leadership of the Pentagon and the way the defense situation has been operating for the last several years?” Jennings asked the panel. “I mean, from the Afghanistan pullout, which was an extreme debacle for which no one was held accountable, we’ve had spy balloons flying over the United States, we built the $300 million pier as a public relations stunt which wound up killing an American service member.”
“I would say I’ve had just about enough of the so-called ‘insiders’ running the Defense Department, I think we ought to give Pete Hegseth a chance,” Jennings asserted, leading journalist Carl Bernstein to question, “You think that’s about insiders?”
The discussion touched on the devastating loss of thirteen service members in Kabul’s August 2021 bombing and the costly Gaza pier project that claimed a soldier’s life after mere weeks of operation.
Dan Bongino @dbongino with a glowing endorsement of Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth as the new Secretary of Defense. And our political opponents’ reaction:
“Folks, diapers were being changed everywhere…people were cr*pping all over the place in their diapies…” pic.twitter.com/MX6BTR1GeX— MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) November 13, 2024
“All the criticism of him is that he is not the expected Washington pick and I am just saying to you that the American people just voted against the expected Washington pick,” Jennings responded. “He has 20 years in service, Afghanistan, Iraq, two Bronze Stars, Princeton, Harvard. Yeah, he is on TV, but so are the rest of us. I think he ought to be given a chance.”
The announcement follows Trump’s other key appointments, including John Ratcliffe as CIA Director nominee and Rep. Michael Waltz, a former Green Beret, as national security advisor.
