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Pete Hegseth: “Donald Trump took [the Veterans Accountability Act and the…”

Featuring: Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense | National

Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military

Published December 4, 2024 | Video Starts at 43:16

We started that movement, built a whole report on it, drove it up on Capitol Hill, and ultimately led to its passing by working with Democrats and Republicans. And then Donald Trump took [the Veterans Accountability Act and the Choice Act] and ran with it. You know how hard it is to get reforms passed in this town. It's really, really hard, especially the ability to fire employees, cut through the SES system and the … (43:16–43:19)

CLAIM

Asserts that Donald Trump supported and advanced the Veterans Accountability Act and the Choice Act.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Pete Hegseth

“I was. You were the by far, always the most reliable member of our team. For every moment I was there, you were there every morning on time…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 04:25-33:54
“If you wanted another general or another admiral or an executive or a CEO or a politician or a lawyer to run the Defense Department, we've…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 06:00-06:10
“I want lethality, lethality, lethality. I want readiness, accountability standards, war fighting.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 06:10-06:20
“Clean house of the woke crap. All that stuff, all the, the climate stuff and the CRT and the DEI and the genderism and the get rid of it.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 06:21-06:35
“Let's bring the Pentagon back to the people, the people's Pentagon for war fighters.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 06:35-06:40
“The advise and consent process is a real thing.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 06:57-07:00
“Fox... identified it as anonymous and salacious and ridiculous at the time.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 07:15-47:28
“That's their playbook. Get ready for more. And they're going to make it up just like they have so far.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 09:25-09:31
“All anonymous, all innuendo, all rumor, nothing sourced, no verification.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 09:30-09:38
“You're a threat to their system. You're a threat to all the things in Washington, D.C. the swamp.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 09:41-09:49
“What you're seeing right now with me is the art of the smear.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 10:13-10:18
“They never asked the people who were involved directly.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 10:50-10:53
“Usually from disgruntled people who were fired for cause, who are jealous or want a little bit of retribution.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 11:14-11:22
“I've never had a drinking problem.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 12:10-12:12
“We’ve got an epidemic of [depression and suicide] in our country.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 12:40-12:43
“I'm also the right guy to be in the Pentagon to understand what our young water fighters are going through.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 13:18-13:27
“Are we wiping away the garbage of political correct social justice nonsense and focusing just on lethality and meritocracy?”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 16:25-16:34
“Men and women like that are going to fight future wars, that Donald Trump's going to have to make a decision about whether we enter or not.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 16:34-16:41
“I've been honest about that encounter, starting with law enforcement.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 19:08-19:14
“They looked into it and said, no way. We're not charging on this at all.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 20:02-20:08
“The military hasn't been sufficiently addressed, what some women in the military go through.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 22:29-22:34
“All of those allegations are anonymous. All of them are unsubstantiated.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 30:45-30:50
“The idea that it was constantly being carried up anywhere is patently false.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 32:05-32:09
“NBC is going to do is make up anonymous sources, none of which are close to me, none of which know me, claiming that I had a drinking…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 33:19-33:28
“I'm not going to have a drink at all [while serving as Secretary of Defense].”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 35:43-35:49
“It's not true [that Vets for Freedom wound up in enormous debt and couldn't pay its creditors].”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 39:39-39:50
“We paid it all off and we squared it away [regarding the debt of Vets for Freedom].”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 40:10-40:13
“There was zero impropriety [in the financial management of Vets for Freedom].”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 40:25-40:28
“There's not a single vets group in the country that accomplished more in a smaller amount of time than [Concerned Veterans for America] did.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 42:54-42:54
“The Veterans Accountability act and the Choice act for vets, we were the intellectual Harbin. We started that movement.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 43:02-43:10
“I was not fired. I was not pushed out. There were no allegations of impropriety.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 44:32-44:38
“The word whistleblower gets used... What that means is a disgruntled email to someone saying, I don't like this person.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 46:03-46:17
“The email was forwarded to every single executive and host at Fox News Channel.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 46:44-46:50
“Jane Mayer and all these Gabe Sherman and all these trash artists, they're not members of the media. They're leftists with keyboards.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 49:32-49:41
“They're agenda drivers whose whole job is to try to destroy anyone who supports Donald Trump.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 49:40-49:51
“If you're this young nominee for the secretary of defense who's going to try to do big things on behalf of the war fighter and take on an…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 49:51-50:01
“It's not reporting, it's not real, it's fake.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 50:04-50:08
“For far too long, conservatives, Republicans, Trump supporters... have to learn to fight through, like, the chaos and the violence of the…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 50:09-50:27
“It is an arsenal of lies they mobilize to destroy.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 53:27-53:33
“I've had senators look me in the eye, friends. Great. Said they're trying to kill you.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 53:32-53:38
“I pray that he gives me the opportunity to serve my country as the Secretary of Defense.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 54:04-54:09
“Women are already in common Combat female engagement teams, fighter pilots, you know, eod, military police.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 57:48-57:56
“The military has been distracted from its core mission, which is lethality.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 59:22-59:28
“Systemic racism is not a problem in our military today.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 59:56-1:00:00
“The percentage of racism and extremism in our military is a fraction of what it is in the general public.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 59:59-1:00:06
“Ultimately, we live in one of the most dangerous times since the end of the Cold War.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 1:02:39-1:02:43
“You would have to be a fool to look at the outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan and think that what we got out of them was beneficial to…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 1:02:52-1:03:03
“The Communist Chinese are rapidly trying to build a military that outpaces ours.”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 1:03:31-1:03:51
“We live in a dangerous world, which means if you're going to have peace through strength, you need to have the perception and the reality of…”
Pete Hegseth Speaks Out, On Media Smears, Responding to Accusations, and How He'd Reform Military | Uploaded December 4, 2024 | 1:04:07-1:04:18