Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Hegseth thinks job is fighting 'culture wars' while troops lose their lives in Iran war Dem Rep

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Hegseth thinks job is fighting 'culture wars' while troops lose their lives in Iran war Dem Rep · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Back, you're watching State of Play, a new wide-ranging and,
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  Speaker 1: quite frankly, I think you'll agree, an alarming interview with
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  Speaker 1: President Trump is fueling concerns about his potential plans for
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  Speaker 1: the upcoming November 3rd midterms. The president spoke with Time
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  Speaker 1: magazine on Monday at the White House about the limits
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  Speaker 1: of presidential power refusing to rule out armed federal agents
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  Speaker 1: at midterm polling sites. First, he said he has not
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  Speaker 1: thought of it, but When pressed, asked point blank to
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  Speaker 1: say on the record that he would not declare a
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  Speaker 1: state of emergency, which would dispatch armed agents. The president refused,
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  Speaker 1: even suggested that he could invoke the Insurrection Act, something
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  Speaker 1: he's floated in the past, an extreme trigger that has
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  Speaker 1: not been used in more than three decades. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: I want to bring in the Democratic congressman, James Walkinshaw.
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  Speaker 2: Of Virginia.
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  Speaker 1: He also serves on the House Oversight and Homeland Security
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  Speaker 1: Committee's congressman. Nice to see you. I appreciate your being here.
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  Speaker 1: Just your reaction to the president's comments, his refusal to
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  Speaker 1: rule out potentially having armed federal agents showing up at
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  Speaker 1: polling places.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's an effort to sow fear and confusion
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  Speaker 2: in advance of an election. He knows he's on track
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  Speaker 2: to lose. The good news is that Democrats in Congress
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  Speaker 2: and across the country have been preparing for this. We've
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  Speaker 2: had tabletop exercises. I have a field hearing in my
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  Speaker 2: district today. We're talking about how we will protect.
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  Speaker 1: If it happens, how will you protect every American?
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  Speaker 2: Well, in each each situation is different.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: We are prepared to fight it out in the courts
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  Speaker 2: before Election Day and on Election Day. We're prepared to
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  Speaker 2: work with. state and local officials, secretaries of state, attorneys general, governors,
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  Speaker 2: where we can to protect every American's right to vote.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, the right to vote of every American, Democrats, Independents,
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  Speaker 2: and Republicans, everyone should have the opportunity to vote.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you about another topic that as a
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  Speaker 1: member of Oversight, I think you keep a close eye
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  Speaker 1: on right now. That's the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, after
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  Speaker 1: what I think is a 53-day break. The House You
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  Speaker 1: will finally be back in session. Mike Johnson sent everybody
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  Speaker 1: home early after the Republican Thomas Massey basically filed eight
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  Speaker 1: separate articles of impeachment against Hegseth. We heard Hegseth yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: His speech included a transphobic slur, a heavy focus on religion,
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  Speaker 1: accusing journalists of treason. Here's part of what he said.
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  Speaker 4: Listen. No beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.
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  Speaker 2: Just warriors.
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  Speaker 4: Our department, therefore, has a sacred duty. First class religious
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  Speaker 4: support wherever we send our warriors. A free press is,
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  Speaker 4: of course, important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the
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  Speaker 4: troops and the historic mission that they're undertaking is fundamentally anti-American.
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  Speaker 4: It's sick. It's a national betrayal. It's treason.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of that language, Congressman? Should Hegseth
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  Speaker 1: be impeached?
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  Speaker 2: He should be impeached, and I wish we had the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to vote to him. Will you vote in support
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  Speaker 2: of him? 100%, absolutely. Look, Donald Trump likes Pete Hegseth
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  Speaker 2: because I guess he thinks he looks and talks like
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  Speaker 2: a warrior. The problem is Pete Hegseth is a culture warrior.
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  Speaker 2: He thinks his job as Secretary of Defense is to
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  Speaker 2: fight culture wars while our service members are losing their
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  Speaker 2: lives and being injured by the hundreds, a war he's
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  Speaker 2: losing in Iran. He needs to go.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you about Elon Musk right now, because
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  Speaker 1: Hegseth is bringing him back into the fold to help
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  Speaker 1: lead the military's autonomous weapons program. They call this Project Meridian.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you know a lot about this. Newt Gingrich,
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  Speaker 1: I think, would be a part of this as well
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  Speaker 1: right now. Obviously, Musk has all sorts of contracts with
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  Speaker 1: the federal government. So he sort of benefits on both
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  Speaker 1: sides here. What do you make of that? And why
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  Speaker 1: is that so problematic? How do you investigate?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I was in elementary school when Newt Gingrich was speaker.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm chuckling that he's going to tell us what's
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  Speaker 2: going to happen in the future. But with respect to
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk, he led a government project. It was called Doge.
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  Speaker 2: He said he was going to save $ 2 trillion. We
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  Speaker 2: now have two reports. Yeah, he had the chainsaw. He failed.
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  Speaker 2: And then he lied about it. GAO documented his claimed
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  Speaker 2: savings didn't exist. So before he's put in charge of
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  Speaker 2: another government project, he should explain to the Congress and
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  Speaker 2: the American people why he failed with his previous government project, Doge.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you about these ads right now. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: million dollars, it's reported, being spent from DHS is budget
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  Speaker 1: right now. Obviously, we know the need to keep orders. secure.
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  Speaker 1: There are disagreements about what ICE's role should be in
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  Speaker 1: all of this. But this is obviously money that's not
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  Speaker 1: intended to be ads paid for by the U.S. government
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  Speaker 1: promoting Donald Trump's handling of this. Trump obviously defends it. Others, Democrats,
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  Speaker 1: have said this is illegal. What do you make of it?
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  Speaker 1: What can you do about it? Obviously, Todd Blanch isn't
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  Speaker 1: going to do anything about it.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's flat out illegal. There's a number of
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  Speaker 2: federal statutes it violates. We're calling on the GAO and
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  Speaker 2: special counsel to investigate that. But look, here's what's happened
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  Speaker 2: at DHS. They put billions and billions and billions of
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  Speaker 2: dollars into their mass deportation scheme. They're spending taxpayer dollars
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  Speaker 2: on these political ads. while they've taken investigators off of
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  Speaker 2: sex trafficking, off of drug trafficking, off of child trafficking,
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  Speaker 2: off of gun trafficking, it doesn't make the American people safer.
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  Speaker 1: Let me pull up one other thing that the president
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  Speaker 1: said in this Time magazine article that we're still reading through.
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  Speaker 1: He said a lot, as you can imagine. He expects
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  Speaker 1: Democrats to go after him if they take the House,
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  Speaker 1: but added an ominous, and I'll go after them. What
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  Speaker 1: do you make of that language?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, we've seen this administration, this president weaponize the
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  Speaker 2: Department of Justice, attempt to prosecute their perceived political enemies.
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  Speaker 2: The good news is they have failed in every instance.
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  Speaker 2: The courts have rejected the politicization of the Department of Justice.
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  Speaker 2: But I think he will ratchet it up before the
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  Speaker 2: election and after the election that he's set to lose.
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  Speaker 1: Congressman James Walkinshaw of Virginia, appreciate you. Be safe on
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  Speaker 1: the trail.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Hey, it's Rachel.
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  Speaker 3: I am so glad to see you at the end
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  Speaker 1: Thanks.