CNN
By Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
(CNN) — As protests broke out throughout American cities in June 2020, Pete Hegseth, co-host of the weekend “Fox & Friends” present, joined an on-air panel to debate the scenario in Seattle, the place protestors had created a self-declared autonomous zone round a number of blocks close to downtown.
Hegseth, talking remotely from his residence, advised the one approach to save the town was to ship within the navy.
“The question is, do you send in the troops? Do you say, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to happen anymore’? Or do you let Seattle, sort of, implode on itself?” stated Hegseth, evaluating it to educating a wayward youngster a lesson.
“It’s the idea of you caught your kid with cigarettes underage. Do you take them away right away or do you force them to smoke every cigarette in front of you in the entire pack to learn the lesson of what’s not going to work?”
As President-elect Donald Trump’s choose to guide the US navy as secretary of protection, Hegseth could be in place to execute that type of order ought to it come from the White Home.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump by no means went as far as to order active-duty troops to place down riots in American cities. The closest he got here was in the summertime of 2020, when he ordered the DC Nationwide Guard to help native regulation enforcement in responding to riots and looting within the metropolis. He additionally requested governors to ship of their state guard models to DC.
Amongst those that deployed to the nation’s capital that summer season was Hegseth.
“If the National Guard had not been called up, I can’t help but think where Washington, DC, would be right now,” Hegseth stated on Fox Information in 2020.
Hegseth additionally applauded a controversial New York Instances op-ed written that summer season by Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who referred to as for the navy to interrupt up nationwide riots across the nation.
Whereas Hegseth referred to as the coverage a “very mainstream idea,” some Pentagon officers expressed concern about utilizing the navy to “dominate” protesters and nervous about utilizing navy pressure in opposition to civilians.
Polls on the time indicated Individuals had been evenly {split} on the concept of utilizing the navy to quell riots and protests that summer season.
Hegseth’s place on utilizing the navy to place down home riots is amongst quite a few controversial insurance policies he has supported previously, together with talking in favor of enhanced interrogation strategies comparable to waterboarding, pardoning US troopers convicted of battle crimes, concentrating on cultural establishments in drone strikes, and banning girls from fight roles.
CNN’s KFile reviewed lots of of Hegseth’s radio and TV appearances from 2008 by way of 2024, a lot of which occurred whereas he was a Fox Information contributor and host. After initially criticizing Trump’s lack of nationwide safety expertise throughout the 2016 presidential primaries, Hegseth turned one in every of Trump’s most ardent supporters after he received the election that yr.
On navy issues particularly, Hegseth has typically praised Trump’s choices and generally inspired him to go additional.
Hegseth’s choice has been clouded by quite a few components, together with his choice in 2020 to pay an undisclosed quantity in a settlement to a girl who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017. Hegseth strongly denies her allegations.
A New Yorker article revealed Sunday alleged Hegseth was pushed out as the top of two veterans’ advocacy organizations amid inside allegations of monetary mismanagement and private misconduct.
Hegseth’s lack of expertise has additionally raised considerations about his skill to handle a big group just like the Pentagon with its practically $1 trillion annual price range.
However his views on sure elements of navy coverage, albeit expressed from the confines of his job as a cable information co-host, strike some consultants as outdoors the mainstream, not consistent with basic navy doctrine, and all however inconceivable to implement.
“If he came into the secretary of defense job trying to institute all these policies, boom, boom, boom, the place would stop functioning and he would find himself an irrelevant secretary of defense,” stated retired Military Maj. Gen. James “Spider” Marks, a CNN navy analyst.
In an announcement to CNN, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition touted Hegseth’s file of navy service and defended his previous feedback as a Fox Information host.
“Pete has shared points of view in the past as a private citizen and media personality, but as nominee for Secretary of Defense, he’s committed to upholding the Constitution and President Trump’s Make America Strong Again agenda,” the assertion learn.
An early Trump critic
A Princeton and Harvard graduate, Hegseth, 44, joined the Military Nationwide Guard in 2002 and served for practically 20 years earlier than retiring as a serious. He deployed to Guantanamo Bay, the place he served as an infantry platoon chief, and later served fight excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, amongst different awards, for his service.
He often appeared on Fox Information whereas working at veterans-related nonprofits and later turned the weekend co-host of “Fox & Friends” in 2017.
Throughout the 2016 presidential election, Hegseth initially supported Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. He harshly criticized Trump’s grasp of nationwide safety points and for saying that he acquired his navy recommendation from individuals like himself on Fox Information.
“You wouldn’t want a top-tier presidential candidate getting all of their military advice from watching ‘Meet the Press.’ There’s a lot more nuance. There’s a lot more detail,” Hegseth stated in August 2015. “Foreign policy, national security is not about TV shows. [The campaign is] going to have to walk back a little bit from this idea that he gets it from the political shows.”
Earlier than Trump secured the 2016 Republican nomination, Hegseth additionally attacked him for his 5 draft deferments throughout the Vietnam Conflict, calling him an “armchair tough guy.”
“[Trump is] all bluster, very little substance. He talks a tough game. But then when pressed he’s an armchair tough guy,” Hegseth stated on Fox Information in March 2016, noting that Trump sought his “own five military deferments.”
In October 2015, Hegseth additional attacked Trump for flip-flopping his place on the battle in Afghanistan – first saying he by no means supported the battle and calling it a mistake earlier than reversing that place – and condemned Trump’s stance on the Iraq Conflict and the veterans who fought in it.
Hegseth on quite a few events was crucial of Trump’s stances on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the president-elect has shifted a number of instances over time. Nonetheless, Hegseth has since embraced Trump’s skepticism of these two wars and his “America First” ethos.
“If you step back for a moment and look at what was our return on investment, you start to realize, I can eat – I need to eat some humble pie. Put America first and realize that our orientation in the Middle East is ultimately not making us safer right now,” Hegseth stated in September 2020.
Conflict criminals and waterboarding
In 2019, CNN reported that Hegseth was privately courting Trump to pardon some servicemen accused and convicted of battle crimes. Towards the recommendation of his Pentagon officers, who nervous the pardons would undermine the navy justice system, Trump pardoned two service members and restored the rank of a Navy SEAL who had been demoted.
Hegseth reiterated his assist for not criminalizing troopers on a podcast in June 2024.
“Donald Trump pardoned a bunch of guys I advocated for in his last couple years in office. They killed the right guys in the wrong way, according to somebody. I’m done with that,” Hegseth stated. “We need to fight total war against our enemies when we do. And yeah, you don’t kill civilians on purpose, but you kill bad guys. All of ’em, you stack bodies, and when it’s over, then you let the dust settle and you figure out who’s ahead.”
Hegseth additionally pushed Trump to take additional motion in opposition to Iran after the president ordered a drone strike in January 2020 that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
In a Fox Information section, Hegseth advised Trump ought to take additional motion by concentrating on cultural websites which will harbor harmful weapons – a violation of each worldwide regulation and the Division of Protection’s coverage.
“If we want to defeat them, we have to think smart about how we navigate within these rules, without playing a game rigged to help them,” he stated in January 2020. “I don’t want to hit cultural sites on purpose. If you are using one to harbor your most dangerous weapons, that should be on the list.”
Like Trump, Hegseth has additionally praised waterboarding as an “effective” tactic. He stated it was “absolutely a mistake” to take waterboarding off the desk in 2016 and stated the president had the ability to convey it again.
“If it’s gonna keep us safe, all it would take is an executive order by the next president to change that law,” Hegseth stated in 2016.
Congress codified a ban on waterboarding in 2015.
CNN’s Winter Hawk and Ileya Robinson-Williams contributed to this report.
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