cover of episode Pete Hegseth Can Make The Military Win Again

Pete Hegseth Can Make The Military Win Again

2024/11/14
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Key Insights

Why is Pete Hegseth considered a bold pick for Secretary of Defense?

Hegseth represents a departure from the traditional swamp dwellers who have led the military to ruin. He is a creative thinker, not a neocon or war hawk, and his appointment signals a need for dramatic reforms within the defense establishment.

What specific reforms does Eric Prince believe Pete Hegseth needs to implement?

Prince suggests Hegseth should cull and cut the number of flag officers, currently disproportionately high compared to World War II levels. He also advocates for a reinstallation of discipline across the ranks and a focus on decisive decision-making rather than bureaucratic bloat.

Why does Charlie Kirk believe the current state of the U.S. military is unhealthy?

Kirk argues that the military is losing to adversaries like the Taliban and Houthis, has outdated weapons, and is more focused on political correctness than readiness. He sees the military as far more damaged and infected than the media portrays.

What is the media's reaction to Pete Hegseth's appointment as Secretary of Defense?

The media is losing their mind over the appointment, with some questioning whether Hegseth can navigate the Pentagon's massive bureaucracy and challenging the idea that senior military officers will roll over for him.

What does Mike Davis suggest as a solution to the politicization of the Justice Department?

Davis recommends appointing a bold Attorney General and conducting thorough investigations into the leadership of the Justice Department, FBI, and key U.S. Attorney's offices. He advocates for accountability through political, financial, and legal consequences, including potential prosecutions.

How does Mike Davis view the potential for cooperation between the Senate and President Trump's administration?

Davis believes that while the Senate staff may be risk-averse, Senator Thune and other leaders are likely to support Trump's agenda, particularly on judicial nominations. He suggests Thune needs to ensure his staff remains in touch with real Americans to avoid 'swamp brain.'

What does Charlie Kirk propose as a solution to the woke culture in the military?

Kirk advocates for a complete removal of woke policies, such as LGBTQ spoken word nights and the use of inclusive language, from the military. He believes the military should focus on crushing enemies and defending the American people, not on touchy-feely nonsense.

Chapters

Eric Prince discusses the need for dramatic reforms in the U.S. military and supports Pete Hegseth's appointment as Secretary of Defense, highlighting the military's current issues and the potential for Hegseth to bring necessary changes.
  • The U.S. military is bloated and inefficient, with too many flag officers.
  • Pete Hegseth is seen as a change agent who can reform the military.
  • Eric Prince compares Hegseth to George Marshall, emphasizing the need for drastic changes.

Shownotes Transcript

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Joining us now is a great man who I saw right before the election. And I asked him, I said, Eric, can Trump do this with all the shenanigans? And he said, maybe. And it turns out we truly did make it too big to rig. Eric Prince is the co-founder of Unplugged Technologies, an all-around great man and American patriot. Eric, welcome to the program. Eric, last evening, an American hero and talker.

terrific friend of mine, Pete Hegseth, who served his country and then became a TV host, was announced as Secretary of Defense. He is not a neocon. He's not a war hawk. He's a creative thinker. And the world is losing their mind. The media is. Eric Prince, your reaction to Pete Hegseth being announced?

I am very excited about it. It is definitely a change of pace of the normal swamp dwellers that have led us to ruin over the last 25 years. I think a historical comparison is apt. When George Marshall became chief of staff of the U.S. Army in September 1, 1939, the same day that the Nazis invaded Poland,

He set to firing lots of flag officers and even a lot of colonels, many, many, many, because they were all prepared to fight the last war. And we have now...

we have the same amount of flag officers in the United States Armed Forces as we did in World War II when we had 14 million people in the Armed Forces. Now we only have less than about 1.3 million, so 10%. So there is an enormous amount of culling and cutting and reforming that Pete Hegseth needs to do. And I and my entire network of friends

are ready to help him in any way possible because the Republic needs to be defended. And we're spending, the Pentagon consumes a trillion dollars a year of our national wealth. And yet they cannot protect even one inch of the U.S. border with Mexico. And they've managed to be defeated consistently in the Bab el-Mandab off of Yemen, one of the world's major shipping ways and choke point being defeated by the Houthis

So, yes, he steps into a very big job with enormous, enormous reforms that needs to be done. And I think he's the man for the task. And I'm also proud to know to say that I've swam across the Hudson River with him from New Jersey to the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island to Battery Park.

Multiple times. I was a SEAL. He's an Army guy, and he did it magnificently. I am extremely glad with President Trump's pick.

So I think what you're saying is really important. We have this false impression that the current state of our military is healthy. And we're not indicting the heroism of the troops or the valor of the rank and file. But our military is sick right now, and it's sick to the core. We lose to the Taliban. We lose to the Houthis. We blew five years of munitions on Ukraine. We need key parts from China. A lot of our weapons are 20 or 30 or 40 years old.

The state of the U.S. military is far more damaged and honestly infected than anything the media would tell you. Eric, do you agree with my assessment? A hundred percent. A sad comparison is to look at the bloat of the Pentagon and how overpriced the weapon systems are. It's about the same as Mark Milley's level of fitness. Look, there needs to be a reinstallation of discipline across the ranks and

Hard young people will join the military if they see hard leaders leading them saying, follow me into battle instead of go there and sit in a half-assed deployment for months at a time.

without being allowed to finish the job. This idea of managed conflicts and half measures and the forward deployment of thousands of lawyers really becoming what Zampolets were in the Soviet Union

What Eric is highlighting as we try to reestablish connection is, wait, so you would rather have Mark Milley? You'd rather have Lloyd Austin? I want to remind you who had to be secretly hospitalized because this guy is overweight with two chronic conditions. Let's just look at the media backlash here. Let's go to Joe Scarborough. I think this is the media backlash around it. Let's go to 375.

You know, the Pentagon is a massive bureaucracy. I served four terms on the Armed Services Committee, and I can tell you that even the most experienced general, admiral, CEO that went into the Pentagon got spun around in circles. It's a lot easier to say what you're going to do on a podcast than it is when you're actually over at the Pentagon. And...

People that think that generals and admirals that have given their entire life to this country are going to just roll over is a serious misreading of the Pentagon. But we'll see what happens. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Eric, this is very important. I hope I still have you here. I don't know what's going on with the connection. Do we still have Eric? Yeah. Eric, and I'm just reading the biography here. So has Mark Milley, for example, did he ever see Frontline Combat?

Because some of these guys have never seen frontline combat. Some of these, I don't know him in particular. Can you please add that distinction where, you know, Joe Scarborough says, oh, these generals put their life on the line. Some of these generals went right, again, perfectly admirable. They went through ROTC straight up to the officer corps and never had to man a brigade or a commander battalion frontline. Eric, is that an important distinction? Because Joe Scarborough's conflating Pete Hegseth lost friends and was in the front lines and took enemy fire. Eric Prince.

You have a huge disconnect between a lot of combat vets, which have seen real combat and lost friends and eaten a lot of foreign dirt in the pleasure of serving the country, while bureaucrats, senior officers may have wanted to serve in combat, but didn't. And for whatever reason, you know, for a while in Iraq, we actually had 93 flag officers on the grounds, 93 general officers, all of them there. I would say,

polluting the place because they had so many staff and so much bureaucracy with them. It prevented any kind of decisive decision making, trillions of dollars, thousands of dead Americans. And we also know how Afghanistan ended. So it's a disaster. And Pete Hegseth, I believe, is the man for the job. And a lot of people will help him get his job done.

Eric Prince, thank you so much. Please come again soon. We really appreciate your time as always. And until next time, we love Pete Hegseth's appointment. Thank you so much.

But let's play another piece of tape here. This is Pete Hegstead. By the way, we're going to get rid of all this woke stuff in the military. No more gay poems. Can you guys get the gay poem clip? I used to love to play that like a year ago. It's so extraordinary where they're talking about how on our battleships, they have lesbian poems that are being read. It's not an exaggeration. They have gay poem hour on these battleships. Let's go here to cut 376.

And this pick comes, and we should note, it comes just hours after important reporting from the Wall Street Journal that says the Trump transition team is considering a draft executive order to establish a warrior board, in their words, of retired senior military personnel with the power to review three- and four-star officers.

and recommend that they be deemed unfit for leadership, mostly over their support for DEI and woke policies. Per this reporting, this would allow Trump, who can fire anyone he wants as commander in chief, but this allows him this advisory board to give him cover to do so and potentially remake senior levels of the Pentagon. And Jackie, Pete Hicks says the appointment would be a part of that if he does indeed lead the DOD. Yeah, good. You guys haven't won a war in the last 60 years.

There is not a single person there that's won a war. And let's stop conflating the heroism of the front lines combat vets with guys that have been at the top levels of shuffling bureaucracy. I thank everybody for their service, but you got to be very careful with that, MSNBC. Very, very careful. Because Hegseth lost friends, front lines. You know, generals do not see combat anymore. They used to. That has been a tradition that has been sunsetted.

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keep drug prices high, undermine competition in health care, and hike health care costs for American people. Please go now to pharmawindfall.com to join this urgent fight. Portions of the Charlie Kirk story brought to you in part by conservatives for lower health care costs. What is Pete Hegseth going to do? He's going to end the gay story time on battleships. Not an exaggeration. This is a naval officer. By the way, this was posted on the official U.S. Navy page. The official U.S. Navy page.

What was the best time on your battleship? Oh, what best time wasn't learning the craft, reloading missiles, spending time with my fellow soldiers? Note, this officer posted by the United States Navy says the best time was gay story time. Play cut 384.

The coolest thing I did on board was to be able to participate in a LGBTQ spoken word night. And I was able to read a poem that I wrote to the whole ship. And that was probably the culmination of the whole deployment. The culmination of this individual's entire deployment was being able to read an LGBT poem on a battleship. That guy's got to get kicked out of the military immediately. You're done. That's a joke.

The military is not a place for touching and feelings, touchy feelings, nonsense. Okay. You exist to crush our enemies and defend the American people. Oh, they're really worried about Pete Hegseth, who is chiseled like a Roman centurion. Look at this guy, 388. Look at this. No wonder why. Look, put 388 up on screen. No wonder why he gets hospitalized. I've never even seen a mask set up like that. Not only does he have a mask on, he's got the full face shield. This is a joke.

This guy is in charge of drone operations, I think. 389. Obviously a dude. My pronouns are she or her. Kick this guy out of the military immediately. You are done. Go work for the Trevor Project or something. Go put 387 up on screen. I mean, this is a freak show, everybody. You got Levine and the luggage thief.

We're done with all of this. Okay. You want to go wear a dress in your private office. If you're an adult or your private room, whatever, if you're in your residence, we are talking about the United States military. We're not going to put up with this anymore. And Pete Hegseth has a mandate to cleanse it out. Would you prefer this guy? Mark Milley, who's worried about white rage, Mark Milley, who has all these metals. I'm curious. What are these metals from Mark Milley? What, what wars do you have? These decorations, or do you just get decorations for existing?

Someone should ask Mark Milley, can you tell me what all these are, actually? What is this one, the red one and the blue one? What'd you do for that one? What'd you do for the yellow one? It just looks like a bunch of hocus pocus. Play cut 391.

And it is important that we train and we understand. And I want to understand white rage. And I'm white. And I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? By the way, you missed the white rage, guys. It's like, come on, Ryan, you missed the kicker. He's just like, you got right up to the one yard line and you fumbled the ball. White rage.

By the way, getting rid of metal inflation would be good basic reform to the military. All right, here's another one. This is an official broadcast by the U.S. military. Official broadcast. Day one, Pete Hegseth is getting rid of all this stuff. Day one, this is an official broadcast of your taxpayer fund of the greatest fighting force ever to exist. Play cut 390.

Hi, my name is Johnny and I use he/him pronouns. Using the right pronouns is a really simple way to affirm someone's identity. It is a signal of acceptance and respect. If it's a signal of acceptance and respect, how do we go about creating a safe space for everybody? That's a good question. A really good way to do that is to use inclusive language. Instead of saying something like, "Hey guys," you can say, "Hey everyone." Another way that we could show that we're allies and that we accept

everybody is to maybe include our pronouns in our emails or like we just did, introduce ourselves using our pronouns. Look, we've turned our military into an after-school babysitting program. If you're trans, you get out of the military. Go figure out your problems somewhere else, okay? No place for you in the military if you're trans. I got compassion for you. You're not going to be anywhere near the military. Done.

By the way, can we put up cut 392? Look at this. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he's got like three medals. One of the most complicated wars. He's got Mark Milley. What in the fresh heck did Mark Milley get to deserve that kind of medal inflation? For existing, Pete Hegseth is going to fix it.

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Joining us now is Mike Davis. Mike, welcome to the program. Mike, you recently made some news about some comments about Tish James. Tell us all about it. Well, first, let me say to you, Charlie and Andrew and the rest of the Turning Point team,

congratulations for what you guys did on election day. You guys were a grassroots army, a turnout machine and president Trump. I mean, you guys helped put president Trump over the top. So hats off to you guys. And I would say this,

I made some pretty intentionally inflammatory remarks about Tish James after she held her jaw-dropping press conference after President Trump won in a landslide on November 5th, thanks to you guys in big part.

where she came out and said essentially election be damned. I don't care if Trump won in a landslide. We're going to continue our lawfare and election interference against her. So I came out with some pretty harsh words. I don't feel badly about them at all. We haven't heard her talk about this lawfare since I came out with those harsh words.

And I would say this to these other Democrat prosecutors and lawyers and other operatives. The American people heard all your evidence. They heard your allegations for two and a half years. And the American people rendered their verdict on President Trump on November 5th. This lawfare must go away and it must go away forever.

And so, Mike, let's walk through the current lawfare challenges. Is it fair to say that almost all the attacks against Trump are going to be dropped, including his sentencing date? And what is the status of that? It's unclear. I hope that this Democrat Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, who

who is a Democrat donor donated to Biden, whose daughter, adult daughter, Laura Michonne, is raising money off of this case, whose adult daughter is a campaign consultant for Kamala Harris. I hope he drops this case next week on the 19th, because if he thinks he's going to send President Trump to Rikers Island on November 26th, when the American people are

put Trump back in the White House, that's not going to end well for our country. And so I hope that Judge Juan Merchan, this corrupt judge, comes back from the brink. He has to dismiss this case. He has to declare a mistrial because the Supreme Court held in June that not only is the President of the United States immune from criminal prosecution for his official acts, not his personal misconduct, his official acts, courts also can't take evidence. You can go to Thune.

So let me ask, yeah, so is John Thune live? We're just going to break away just for a second here and hear from Senator Thune, Mike. So let's go to Senator Thune, please, the new Senate majority leader. The mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump's priorities. We will make sure that the president and his team have the tools and support that they need to enforce border security laws and to remove the violent criminals who are wreaking havoc in every one of our states.

We will work to make America prosperous again by streamlining the bureaucratic machine and overturning costly Biden-Harris regulations. And we will work to restore American energy dominance, not just our energy security, but energy dominance, which will lower costs and bolster our national security.

I'm excited to get to work with this team right away. And I want to thank my colleagues who placed their faith in me to serve as leader. And to those who were supporting another candidate, I promise to be a leader who serves the entire Republican conference. We'll have an ambitious agenda and we'll take each and every Republican working together to be successful. With that, I want to turn things over to Senator John Barrasso, the newly elected Republican whip.

Thank you. On election night, America saw the remaking of the Republican Party for the better. This election was about the answering to the question of are you better off now than you were four years ago? And the American people said no. Only one in four Americans thought that the country was heading in the right direction.

And you've seen the Republican Party grow in terms of hardworking middle-class families, in terms of minorities, in terms of young people, in terms of families struggling to get by. In the last three weeks before the election, I was all over the country with President Trump, with J.D. Vance, as well as a number of our Senate candidates. One of the stories that stuck with me was a woman in Michigan who talked about the fact that she was embarrassed to let her husband know that she had to go to the local food bank in order to get by.

Republicans listened to those stories. Democrats were focused on President Trump. Republicans were focused on the needs of the American people, people who wanted to get prices down, wanted to secure the border, wanted us to unleash American energy. People wanted to make America look and be strong once again around the world.

That's what the Republicans listened to. That's what we're responding to. And we are now working together to make sure we can put America back on track. The newly elected Republican conference chair is the senator from Arkansas, Senator Tom Cotton. Thank you, Senator Thune. I'm looking forward to working with Senator Thune and the rest of this leadership team. I'm very grateful for the confidence that my peers placed in me. We all remember what it was like when President Trump was in office and we had Republicans in charge of the Senate. We had low prices. We

We had high wages. We had a secure border. We had a strong military. We had a peaceful, stable world. Starting on January 3rd, that's what we'll all be working to build again with President Trump, with Mike Johnson, and the rest of the House Republicans on behalf of the American people. Thank you all. Thanks, Tom. The newly elected Republican policy chair is the senator from West Virginia, Senator Shelley Moore Capito.

Thank you and congratulations to our new leader, John Thune. He will be as strong voice as he has been in the past.

as the whip and I look forward to serving with him and with all of our leadership team. I want to thank the others that ran. We had a really strong, healthy discussion and we've all come out united and friends. And one of the people that was in our discussion is one of the people that is going to, although he didn't say anything, his presence was very much felt and that is the Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. I think the fact that he not only was a voting...

a voting member of of our conference but also in there with us every step of the way to make sure that the direction that we're going to go as united conference and with me leading the policy issues uh... and all of us working together they were going to have a united voice and i'll say one thing about the election i've said this on all my local uh... stations what i think the biggest issue was and there are big ones border and and national security and others

It is literally the American family, the mom and the dad, the grandmother, whoever it is, going to the grocery store. We do it all the time, every week.

And we could see, all of us could see, the escalating costs of something so very basic to us, just the cost of food, and hearing from the vice president in her campaign, the economy's doing great, don't worry. And so we hear those voices, we hear them loud and clear, and those are the voices that we're going to respond to along with President Trump through the next several years.

The newly elected Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair is the Senator from Oklahoma, Senator James Langford. Hey, congratulations to John Thune. We're looking forward to his great leadership there. Republicans were asked a very simple thing. Can you get us back on track? Over 70% of the country right now believes the country is on the wrong track. Our task is going to be very, very simple, to defend our values.

to be able to strengthen us as a nation and to be able to bring prosperity to people that are really struggling right now. That's a primary issue for us. And all of those things are things that we're going to get onto immediately because the American people have spoken and said, we do not like the direction that the country is going. So let's get us back on a better direction. So this leadership team, President Trump, J.D. Vance, we're headed in a direction to be able to get the country back on the track that she is looking for.

Thanks, James. And the newly elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair is the senator from South Carolina, and he is already planning on expanding our majority in 2026. So, Senator Tim Scott.

Without any question, President Trump set out to make sure that Americans felt like this country and the American dream was alive and well and there for them. From the border to fixing the economy, to solving the issue of crime and restoring confidence on the global stage, President Trump has been very clear on his agenda.

Our goal with our leader, John Thune, is to make sure that we achieve those objectives. My passion is making sure that we defend our current seats and expand the map and expand our majority so that President Trump does not have two years with the Republican majority in the Senate. He has four years in control of making sure that America's agenda comes home to each and every household.

Thanks, Tim. A couple quick questions. Do you have any concerns about President Trump's cabinet fix so far, and what advice would you give him when it comes to choosing nominees who will pass Senate confirmation? Well, as you know, the Senate has an advise and consent role under the Constitution, so we will do everything we can to process his noms quickly, get them installed in their positions so they can begin to implement his agenda. Mr. Connolly.

You said that recess appointments are on the table. That's a key demand from Donald Trump. Will you move forward with that? Well, what we're going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions so they can implement his agenda.

How that happens remains to be seen. Obviously, we want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings like they typically do and that these nominees are reported out to the floor. But I've said this, and I mean it, that we expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats.

to work with us to get these folks installed. And obviously we're going to look at, explore all options to make sure that they get moved and that they get moved quickly. Will the legislative filibuster remain unchanged under your tenure? Yes. How do you intend to balance maintaining the independence of the Senate with passing the President-elect's agenda? Well, I mean, the Senate, as you know, is by the founder's design.

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Mike Davis continues from the Article 3 project. Is that Darren Beattie? Wow, we got all the cool kids in town here. Mike, your reaction to Senator Thune's press conference? Look, I've worked with all these guys when I was in the Senate doing Trump's nominations the first time. All of them are very good on judges. I think Thune's going to be very good on judges this time around. Thune is largely with us. I think that sometimes...

The staffs in the Senate are very risk averse, particularly leadership staff. So I think Thune just needs to make his leadership staff take trips with him back to South Dakota so they can get in touch with real Americans in real America and they don't get swamp brain from being in D.C. too long. And I think Thune, you know, there was a lot of rumblings about Thune versus Rick Scott's

And Cornyn, you know, the Senate has decided, I presume the Senate would go with him just because they're a very conservative body and just in the manner in which they operate. And I think that I think he's going to pleasantly surprise us.

That's great. I have no evidence to support that. So I'll trust you, Mike, because that, you know, it sounded just like a typical politician press conference, but I will take your word for it. So that is that is great faith you have. So, Mike, let's close this. What can the what can the Trump transition do to help reform the Department of Justice?

There's a lot that the Trump transition can do. He needs to pick a bold attorney general. As I've said a thousand times for many years, it's not going to be me. I can't get confirmed to anything as the guy who ran confirmations. I would get one charity vote from Chuck Grassley and ruin his 65-year career. But Trump needs to pick a bold attorney.

Attorney General Bill McGinley is a great White House counsel who we announced yesterday. I'm friends with Bill McGinley. He's a warrior. If Trump picks a bold Attorney General to team up with Bill McGinley, they need to go in. They need to clean out the Justice Department. They need to clean out the leadership of the litigating divisions at Maine Justice. They need to clean out

the leadership of the FBI, including all the key field offices that need to clean out the key U.S. Attorney's offices like the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Southern District of New York. These people who have been focusing on lawfare and election interference need to be investigated.

And if appropriate, prosecute it for conspiracy against rights under 18 USC Section 241. There needs to be Inspector General investigations. There needs to be Office of Professional Responsibility investigations. There needs to be criminal division investigations along with investigations in Congress.

House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, Senate Judiciary Committee, incoming Chairman Chuck Grassley, my former boss, House and Senate Appropriations Committees, House and Senate Oversight Committees. This is the most important appointment, the AG, and the most important job is serious reforms to the Justice Department. So we never have a politicized agenda.

and weaponized justice system again, and this goes all the way back to crossfire hurricane in 2016. There has to be accountability. There has to be serious investigations and there must be consequences, political, financial, legal, including prosecutions. Mike Davis, excellent work as always. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Charlie. Again, I want to close. Please keep Dennis Prager in your prayers.

I don't want to share any private information, but just please pray for Dennis. It is a ongoing situation right now. And we are actually here in some radio stations on the very time slot where Dennis used to broadcast. So please say a prayer for a true patriot, true friend, someone who has fundamentally improved and changed my life dramatically on the top list of five people that have done that. So please pray for Dennis.

Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.