Speaker 1: Now, last month, our friend, former Fox colleague Pete Hegsath
Speaker 1: was chosen by President like Donald Trump to be his
Speaker 1: defense secretary. Now, since President Trump's announcement, Pete has faced
Speaker 1: all the predictable slew of allegations about.
Speaker 2: When Pete Hegsett faced the Senate to become Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: Defense secretary, he was grilled over almost everything.
Speaker 3: We're always completely fiscally.
Speaker 4: Responded, and.
Speaker 5: His lack of experience.
Speaker 6: Mister Higgs that I do not believe that you are
Speaker 6: qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job.
Speaker 5: He's drinking.
Speaker 7: Many of your work colleagues has said that you show
Speaker 7: up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk.
Speaker 2: And these past remarks that women shouldn't serve in combat.
Speaker 8: Who said in your statement you don't want politics in
Speaker 8: the dot Everything you've said in these public statements is politics.
Speaker 8: I don't want women, I don't want moms.
Speaker 5: What's wrong with a mom? By the way, once you
Speaker 5: have babies.
Speaker 3: I have never disparaged women serving in the military.
Speaker 5: But the hearing also made something else clear.
Speaker 2: Hegzeth wasn't just being chosen to run the Pentagon in
Speaker 2: the ordinary sense. He was being chosen to wage a
Speaker 2: cultural and ideological battle inside it to bring what he
Speaker 2: called warrior culture back to an institution he and Trump
Speaker 2: believed had gone woke.
Speaker 3: I'm not a perfect person, but redemption is real and
Speaker 3: God forged me in ways that I know I'm prepared for.
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM today.
Speaker 2: Steve Herman, former chief national correspondent for Voice of America,
Speaker 2: on Pete Hegzeth, the war in Iran, and the role
Speaker 2: of Christian nationalism in the Trump administration.
Speaker 5: It's Friday, March twenty seven, Steve.
Speaker 2: When President Trump picked Pete Hagzev for the Defense Secretary.
Speaker 5: He chose someone who would not only shake.
Speaker 2: Up the Pentagon, but Trump used to joke about him
Speaker 2: being TV ready. He was a Fox News commentator. Later
Speaker 2: he was a host. Could you tell us a bit
Speaker 2: about his earlier years, his reputation at university and then
Speaker 2: when he was a TV personality.
Speaker 5: What was it he like to talk about?
Speaker 8: Well, Unlike some in the MAGA inner circle, heg Seth
Speaker 8: has been pretty consistent in his views for a long time.
Speaker 8: He was publisher of the Tory Conservative student magazine when
Speaker 8: he was at Princeton university, and he was railing back
Speaker 8: then about liberal indoctrination. He strongly opposed the diversity initiatives,
Speaker 8: and he was a member of circle of religious conservative athletes.
Speaker 4: They had a.
Speaker 8: Nickname, they were called the God Squad, and classmates remember
Speaker 8: him as deeply committed to this kind of crusade. Again,
Speaker 8: it's the liberal culture on campus. And then when he
Speaker 8: got on the Fox News channel, hag Seth built on
Speaker 8: this reputation as opposing the woke ideology we've.
Speaker 9: Got a new sheriff in town, the social justice engineering
Speaker 9: of Obama, the focus on gender and quotas, and all
Speaker 9: the things he did in the Pentagon which have nothing
Speaker 9: to do with fighting and winning wars.
Speaker 8: That ara is over, especially within the Department of Defense.
Speaker 4: You don't like women in combat, no.
Speaker 8: Hag Seth, maybe as a result of his experience in
Speaker 8: the military in the field, has a kind of chip
Speaker 8: on his shoulder, and he frequently argued that these DEI
Speaker 8: initiatives were undermining the lethality of the military.
Speaker 10: Return the Pentagon to the warfighters, Pete, get in there
Speaker 10: and clean out all the social justice, politically correct garbage
Speaker 10: on top, and get back to lethality war fighting.
Speaker 3: Account of meritocracy and readiness.
Speaker 2: And guess so, Steve, what was the appeal for Trump
Speaker 2: of bringing on Hegxeth other than his TV good looks.
Speaker 5: Why did he want him to run the Pentagon?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that had a lot to do with it. Nicole,
Speaker 8: This is somebody that Donald Trump, an avid TV watcher,
Speaker 8: especially of Fox News, had seen on a program called
Speaker 8: Fox and Friends Weekend, and he viewed heg Seth as
Speaker 8: somebody he thought would be trustworthy, wouldn't leaked to the press,
Speaker 8: wouldn't pushback on presidential directives because in the first administration,
Speaker 8: Donald Trump had a lot of problems with these military
Speaker 8: generals who really felt that their obedience was to the Constitution,
Speaker 8: not any particular individual or president.
Speaker 9: Unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refused to call
Speaker 9: bs and enforced standards or leaders who felt like they
Speaker 9: were not.
Speaker 3: Allowed to enforce standards. Both are unacceptable.
Speaker 8: And hag Seth also, I think mirrored trump and rhetoric,
Speaker 8: and with Trump's political brand, is trying to appeal to
Speaker 8: the enlisted soldier, the rank and file, rather than the
Speaker 8: generals and the admirals and the other high ranking officers.
Speaker 8: And because you know, the common man is engaged in
Speaker 8: this internal battle here in the country against this entrenched
Speaker 8: so called deep state. That's the way that they see it.
Speaker 2: Steve, as you were saying, religion clearly a very big
Speaker 2: part of Hegseeth's life now he follows an evangelical church.
Speaker 2: Could you tell us more about how religion has really
Speaker 2: informed and influenced his politics now and his view of
Speaker 2: the world and view of America's placed in it.
Speaker 8: Hag Seth essentially views the United States as a Christian
Speaker 8: republic and a republic that finds itself in a state
Speaker 8: of spiritual and cultural warfare. I think anyone who studied
Speaker 8: anything about American history is familiar with this concept of
Speaker 8: the separation of church and state. But folks like Pete
Speaker 8: Hegseth don't see it that way or say that that's
Speaker 8: not what the country should be. He has these tattoos
Speaker 8: the Jerusalem Cross, a Latin phrase that means God wills it.
Speaker 6: Hexath has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and neo
Speaker 6: Nazi movements, including what's known as a Jerusalem Cross, a
Speaker 6: symbol used by Christian nationalists.
Speaker 8: And these are symbols of the warrior Christian identity where
Speaker 8: it gets really dangerous is that in this framing, the
Speaker 8: conflicts of the Middle East are seen not as you
Speaker 8: some sort of fluid geopolitical activity, but rather part of
Speaker 8: God's divine plan.
Speaker 2: Because as an evangelical, he believes in the second coming
Speaker 2: of Christ, which would require Jewish people to return to
Speaker 2: the Holy Land.
Speaker 5: That's the belief there.
Speaker 2: So is that why israel I, guess, is such a
Speaker 2: central part of his views and why he's such a huge.
Speaker 5: Supporter of them.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 8: In the conversations I've had over the decades with the
Speaker 8: Christian evangelicals who subscribe to this particular aspect of ideology,
Speaker 8: they need to protect the Jews. The United States must
Speaker 8: support Israel because if the Arabs wipe out Israel, then
Speaker 8: Jesus won't be able to come back to Earth, you know.
Speaker 8: So there's a bit of discomfort, I can tell you
Speaker 8: among some Jews. Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has
Speaker 8: sort of embraces because, hey, we'll take our friends where
Speaker 8: we can find them. And you know, I don't believe
Speaker 8: in this, but if they do and it helps Israel,
Speaker 8: that's great. But other Jews will point out that, hey,
Speaker 8: these Christians are supporting us, not because they like Jews.
Speaker 8: In fact, they would love for all Jews eventually to
Speaker 8: become Christians. But rather this is fulfilling a biblical prophecy
Speaker 8: from the New Testament.
Speaker 5: Coming up, well, pete haigsith, fall on his sword.
Speaker 7: From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly
Speaker 7: restored Department of War is this war fighting, preparing for war,
Speaker 7: and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit.
Speaker 2: Steve pete Haig sith, he's obsessed with strength and power.
Speaker 2: He changed the name of the Department of Defense to
Speaker 2: the Department of or he's been releasing these sort of
Speaker 2: strange video promos about drug card tells the Iran war
Speaker 2: to what extent do you think he's there for Trump
Speaker 2: to look tough, overhaul the military and just deliver the
Speaker 2: president's message.
Speaker 5: Is that his role? Or does Trump really even listen
Speaker 5: to him?
Speaker 8: One thing I can tell you about Donald Trump and
Speaker 8: advice is a lot of the time it's just the
Speaker 8: last person that Trump has spoken to who wins out.
Speaker 8: He has obviously shown that he likes to be at
Speaker 8: the lectern lecturing, whether they're generals or reporters.
Speaker 7: It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in
Speaker 7: the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the
Speaker 7: country in the world.
Speaker 11: It's a bad look. It is bad and it's not
Speaker 11: who we are.
Speaker 8: He's made some strange and insulting statements belittling people. But
Speaker 8: what I think you see among Trump cabinet members in
Speaker 8: the second term, and we can point out the former
Speaker 8: Homeland Security Secretary Christy Gnome as an example that you
Speaker 8: engage in behavior that emulates the boss. But I really
Speaker 8: think there is a limit, and if the performance eventually
Speaker 8: reflects poorly on the administration, then the strategy can backfire.
Speaker 8: And if this war ends up badly for the Pentagon
Speaker 8: in US forces, it seems almost undoubtedly that Pete Hegseth
Speaker 8: will have to fall on the sword because Donald Trump
Speaker 8: is not going to blame Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: We know Haig Seth. He is the public face of
Speaker 2: all of this war and he has been talking about
Speaker 2: it in really religious terms as part of God's divine plan.
Speaker 11: May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight,
Speaker 11: and again to the American people, please pray for them
Speaker 11: every day on bendedde with your family, in your schools,
Speaker 11: in your churches in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Some of the commanders are also starting to use that
Speaker 2: similar language. What do we know about how religion is
Speaker 2: really being used to frame this war and is it
Speaker 2: changing the nature of the debate in the US?
Speaker 8: We did not mix in decades past Christianity and defense policy,
Speaker 8: but I think we're very clearly at that point these days.
Speaker 8: Is it changing how the war is being discussed in America?
Speaker 8: I don't really think so, because the American people, Congress,
Speaker 8: are the US allies aren't getting really any sufficient explanation
Speaker 8: about why this war was started, how it's going to
Speaker 8: be fought, what is the goal, what is the post
Speaker 8: war plan that there is going to be. That's the
Speaker 8: big problem.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 8: You also have the President referring to the potential of
Speaker 8: further attacks as possibly being launched, not because there's a
Speaker 8: strategic reason, but because it's fun.
Speaker 4: The line I said, why didn't we just capture the ship?
Speaker 4: We're going to use it?
Speaker 5: Why did we sink them?
Speaker 4: They said, it's more fun to sink them.
Speaker 6: They like sinking and.
Speaker 8: The Pentagon in the White House are producing these video
Speaker 8: game memes since the company for account, we've seen both
Speaker 8: Iran and the US embrace and U style of wool propaganda,
Speaker 8: notably using memes AI trothing.
Speaker 4: We're going to annihilate their navy, We're going to ensure
Speaker 4: that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the
Speaker 4: region or the world.
Speaker 8: There seems to be a mix of a really shocking
Speaker 8: level of unseeriousness. You know, a lot of civilians are
Speaker 8: dying in Iran, US military forces are dying, and I
Speaker 8: think there's a significant percentage of the American public that's
Speaker 8: finding this offensive objectionable, and we're starting to see a
Speaker 8: backlash against that. There's the politician in Texas who's running
Speaker 8: for the US Senate, a Democrat that seems to have
Speaker 8: a chance in a very red state, James tallerco who
Speaker 8: is a conservative Christian, but he is bluntly saying that
Speaker 8: what is happening now, these are not Christian values, whether
Speaker 8: it relates to immigration or the conduct of this war.
Speaker 12: They have co opted the Son of God. They've turned
Speaker 12: this humble rabbi into a gun toting, gay bashing, science denying,
Speaker 12: money loving, fear mongering fascist, and it is incumbent upon
Speaker 12: all Christians to confront it. And denounce it.
Speaker 2: And Steve, what do you think hag Zeth really says
Speaker 2: to us about the future or the direction of US
Speaker 2: politics under Trump?
Speaker 5: What is it he symbolizes?
Speaker 8: Well, I think what he symbolizes is that people are
Speaker 8: put into these positions as puppets, that they must be
Speaker 8: loyal to the president first and foremost. That is what
Speaker 8: is important. And we're hearing terms being thrown out by
Speaker 8: Trump by heg Seth that broadcasters who don't get in
Speaker 8: line and report the war the way that the president
Speaker 8: once it reported that those broadcasters could lose their license.
Speaker 8: And the word treason is being bandied about as well.
Speaker 8: So this is getting extremely serious. It's getting to be
Speaker 8: beyond intimidation. And you know, this is not what American
Speaker 8: media is about, because we have the First Amendment of
Speaker 8: the Constitution in this country, which guarantees freedom of the press. Look,
Speaker 8: if you want to put in sick of and goofballs
Speaker 8: and billionaires as the Secretary of the Interior or the
Speaker 8: head of the Environmental Protection Agency or something like that,
Speaker 8: there's a limited amount of damage they can do. But
Speaker 8: when you're talking about you know, the head of Homeland
Speaker 8: Security or the Director of National Intelligence, or the Defense Secretary,
Speaker 8: the US Attorney General. I think even a lot of
Speaker 8: people in Magaworld and supporters of the president would agree
Speaker 8: that he probably was not the right man, because it's
Speaker 8: going to be a man for the right job at
Speaker 8: the right time.
Speaker 2: Steve, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 8: My pleasure, Nicol.
Speaker 2: Also in the news, Iranian tourists will be banned from
Speaker 2: entering Australia for the next six months over concerns that
Speaker 2: once here they may not be able to go home.
Speaker 2: Humanitarian advocates have criticize the move, which will effect around
Speaker 2: six eight hundred Iranians with valid tourist visas, but Home
Speaker 2: Affairs Minister Tony Burke says triggering the tough new immigration
Speaker 2: laws is in the national interest and that many visitor
Speaker 2: visas issued before the Iran war may not have been
Speaker 2: issued if they were applied for Now and eight more
Speaker 2: footballers have joined a multimillion dollar concussion class.
Speaker 5: Action against the AFL.
Speaker 2: More than one hundred former players now claim to have
Speaker 2: been left brain damage by the game. Ten more clubs
Speaker 2: have now been listed as defendants alongside Geelong.
Speaker 5: And the AFL.
Speaker 2: May thirty one next year has been put forward as
Speaker 2: a possible trial date. I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven am.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.