Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) praised Pete Hegseth after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee, saying he is a “drill sergeant” who can get the Pentagon back on track. ”.
The former football coach spoke with Hegseth for about 40 minutes on Monday as he resumed meeting with senators ahead of his confirmation hearing in January.
After the sit-in in Tuberville's senatorial office, Tuberville, who knows Hegseth, told the assembled reporters that Hegseth was the right person for the job.
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, meets with U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 2, 2024. (Mostafa Basim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We don't need officers, admirals, senior commanders,” he said. “We need a drill sergeant to straighten out the military and get the woke people and DEI people out of there.”
Tuberville praised Hegseth's work ethic and intelligence, insisting that he would work to further the military's core mission of combat readiness, not protect the bureaucracy itself.
“He's going to strengthen the military, increase training and put money in the right places,” Tuberville said. “He will not be for those who are planning to fight, but for those who are actually doing the fighting.”
Tuberville added that Hegseth “understands the business side as well as the military side.” [he’s] It's been 20 years. He has actually been in the war, but he is old enough. [be] Someone who can empathize with the young men and women we need to recruit into our military. ”
The Pentagon's military branch has struggled to recruit in recent years, said Katie Helland, director of military entry policy. attribution It challenges “a competitive labor market with low youth service propensity, limited familiarity with military opportunities, and a market with diminishing youth qualifications.”
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But Tuberville believes that the military has strayed from its core mission and instead served as a social experiment and incubator for left-wing ideologies that run counter to American values, with potential recruits choosing to fight. He blamed it for the difficulties in recruiting.
“Our military is in trouble right now because we can't get enough men and women into the military who want to fight for the United States of America, because they don't want to be in a woke military. be” [and] I don't believe in the historical relevance of what this country teaches our military,” Tuberville said Monday. “We need a machine that will protect our country and its allies.”
Mr. Tuberville disputed the accusations recycled against Mr. Hegseth by the mainstream media, insisting that “at the end of the day, this doesn't mean anything.”
WATCH — President Trump's Secretary of Defense Pick Pete Hegseth delivers moving speech after 2020 election:
Hegseth has time to publicly respond to any criticism, he said, but “his biggest goal right now is to sell himself to at least 51 or 52 senators.” That's the job he has to do to get it approved.''He has a month and a half to put everything together.''
Tuberville praised President Trump's nominations of Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, saying that, along with Hegseth's nomination, the country is working to address core issues. He said that it is necessary to concentrate on
“There's so much going on right now that we can't focus on one thing,” Tuberville said. “That’s why we need to put the military in the right place with guys like Pete Hegseth.”
“We need to get back to basics. I think these people will help us,” he concluded.
Bradley Jay is Breitbart News' Capitol Hill correspondent. Follow him on X/Twitter. @BradleyAJay.
