Speaker 1: There really are no words, not in English, that are
Speaker 1: adequate to describe the ascension of Pete hegseeth to be
Speaker 1: the United States Secretary of Defense, to be atop the
Speaker 1: chain of command of five thousand plus nuclear warheads, the
Speaker 1: ballistic missile submarines, the captains and the crews, the strategic bombers,
Speaker 1: the United States Marine Corps, and the Army and the Navy,
Speaker 1: and the Coastguard and the Space Force. This is the warning.
Speaker 1: This is a moment of deep, deep shame and dishonor,
Speaker 1: and yes, collapse. The founders of this country envisions that
Speaker 1: the Congress of bi cameral legislature made up of two houses,
Speaker 1: upper and lower, one representatives of the people, the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, the other the United States Senate, to whom
Speaker 1: was given the responsibility of advice and giving their consent
Speaker 1: on the President's nominations, not as a subordinate branch of government,
Speaker 1: but a coequal branch of government. Not so long ago,
Speaker 1: the United States Senate was known and admired all over
Speaker 1: the world has its greatest deliberative body. Think about that,
Speaker 1: and then watch this clown from Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: Mark Wayne Mullen, the Senator from Virginia starts bringing up
Speaker 2: the fact that what if you showed up drunk to
Speaker 2: your job? How many Senators have showed up drunk to
Speaker 2: vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them
Speaker 2: to step down and resign for their job? And don't
Speaker 2: tell me you haven't seen it, because I know you have.
Speaker 2: And then how many senators do you know have got
Speaker 2: a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask
Speaker 2: them to step down?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: But it's for show, you guys. Make sure you make
Speaker 2: a big show and point out the hypocrisy because a
Speaker 2: man's made a mistake and you want to sit there
Speaker 2: and say that he's not qualified. Give me a joke.
Speaker 1: He's a case study. Watch him talk about Matt Gates
Speaker 1: before Donald Trump laid his magic hand on him.
Speaker 2: You got to think about this guy. This is a
Speaker 2: guy that didn't have that The media didn't give a
Speaker 2: time at day to after he was accused of sleeping
Speaker 2: with an underage girl. There's a reason why no one
Speaker 2: in the conference came defended him because we had all
Speaker 2: seen the videos he was showing on the house floor
Speaker 2: that all of us had walked away of the girls
Speaker 2: that he had slept with. He'd brag about how he
Speaker 2: would crush ed medicine and chase it with with an
Speaker 2: energy drink so he could go all night.
Speaker 1: And after he's.
Speaker 3: Already heard from the lawyer, from some of the people
Speaker 3: who did testify to the House Ethics Committee that he
Speaker 3: had a client who testified that she had not only
Speaker 3: seen him pay for sex with women, but also engage
Speaker 3: in sex with a seventeen year old woman at a
Speaker 3: drug filled party. Is that something that concerns you?
Speaker 2: Well, if it is true, and I mean I got
Speaker 2: to say that that is true.
Speaker 1: Are you disturbed by it? Do you think it's funny?
Speaker 1: Or can you comprehend that? It's the preface to catastrophe.
Speaker 1: It's the preface to the Pete Hegsath Era. Department of
Speaker 1: Defense is a one trillion dollar government agency. The man
Speaker 1: who is likely to lead it is unfit. He is
Speaker 1: the exact type of person we spend billions in this
Speaker 1: country trying to keep the officers of our armed forces
Speaker 1: from becoming He is the case study for the lack
Speaker 1: of character, judgment, probity, and rectitude the Cadets study. Pete
Speaker 1: Hegseth is a moral disaster. As a leader for the
Speaker 1: armed forces of the United States, Pete Hegsath showed pre confirmation,
Speaker 1: pre installment, prepower, his sneering, abject contempt for America's democracy.
Speaker 1: For the United States Senators, what we witnessed yesterday was
Speaker 1: the abandonment of a central tenant of the American democracy,
Speaker 1: most spectacularly in the form of Jony Ernst. Jony Ernst
Speaker 1: claims herself to be a sexual assault survivor and a
Speaker 1: combat veteran. Maybe so, but let's be clear, there will
Speaker 1: be more rapes in the military, and there are too
Speaker 1: many already. Jony Ernst does not care about them. She
Speaker 1: gives absolutely zero and I mean zero fi Jony Ernst
Speaker 1: cares about one thing, Donald Trump and being in his
Speaker 1: favor because Jony Ernst likes being told what to do,
Speaker 1: apparently not exercising independent judgment or thought. A woman who
Speaker 1: is elected in part on the basis of her service
Speaker 1: as a National Guard lieutenant colonel, a combat veteran, would
Speaker 1: dare to vote for Pete Hegseth to lead the American military.
Speaker 1: It can be said at the instant the vote is
Speaker 1: made to confirm this low man that the Republic has
Speaker 1: fallen because the United States Senate has subordinated itself, stripped
Speaker 1: itself of power, has prostrated itself, laid down, and done
Speaker 1: nothing to exercise the constitutional power it has to prevent
Speaker 1: the catastrophe that Pete Hegseth will augur. And let's understand,
Speaker 1: it is not just the perfidy of the MAGA senators, Yeah, Jeck, stupidity,
Speaker 1: the imbecility of the apologists for the indefensible. It is
Speaker 1: beyond that. It is the utter fecklessness of the Chuck
Speaker 1: Schumer Democratic Senate. What is the plan to stop this? Chuck?
Speaker 1: The answer is, like always, there is none. Empty postures
Speaker 1: and hollow words from a silly man leading a political
Speaker 1: party broke it and corrupt enough that the American people
Speaker 1: chose this over them. Many of them believe they ran
Speaker 1: a flawless campaign. There are no words. This is a
Speaker 1: moment of grave danger for this country. What happened in
Speaker 1: November is coming due. The inauguration is here, and it
Speaker 1: will be appalling. There is nothing standing in Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: way except the courts of law, democratic governors, state legislatures,
Speaker 1: and the most powerful interest group en force in the country,
Speaker 1: which is the American people, who are historically slow to
Speaker 1: rise in anger, but they do rise in anger, the
Speaker 1: anger of the American people, help put Donald Trump back
Speaker 1: in power, and I fear we will pay for it
Speaker 1: a very high price. Pete Heseeth isn't Defense Secretary yet,
Speaker 1: but it looks like soon he will be. And when
Speaker 1: he becomes the most powerful defense minister in the world,
Speaker 1: it is right that you should feel a cold chill
Speaker 1: down your spine because you have been left unprotected by
Speaker 1: America's political leaders, who would dare vote yes for this buffoon.
Speaker 1: They have a responsibility to America's fighting men and women,
Speaker 1: and the utterly, completely absolutely abandon it for politics. Pete
Speaker 1: Hag said is unfit. He is a moral and ethical chernobyl.
Speaker 1: He would be carried off of the bridge of a
Speaker 1: ballistic missile submarine if he were the captain in a
Speaker 1: straight jacket. His drinking is disqualifying, His conduct is disqualifying.
Speaker 1: His judgment is disqualifying, His recklessness is disqualifying. His abject
Speaker 1: imbecility is disqualifying. His white nationalist tattoos are disqualifying. He's
Speaker 1: the most unfit and unqualified person ever to be nominated
Speaker 1: for a position of power in the United States Defense
Speaker 1: establishment since its reorganization and establishment in nineteen forty seven. Appalling, disgraceful, dishonorable.
Speaker 1: There are no words. This is the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt.
Speaker 1: This is the warning, and I invite you to join.
Speaker 1: Subscribe on our substack, on our YouTube channel, follow us.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the community.