Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Scott Jennings Reminds CNN Panel America ‘Just Voted Against The Expected Washington Pick’ While Defending Hegseth

Screenshot/Rumble/CNN

Republican strategist Scott Jennings called out panelists who questioned President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to nominate Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, reminding them that Americans “voted against” Washington insiders.

Hegseth, a “Fox and Friends” weekend co-host who served in the National Guard for 20 years and made multiple combat deployments, was announced Tuesday night as Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon. Jennings said that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the attempt to deploy a mobile pier in Gaza called the insiders’ competence into question.

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“Does anybody have confidence in the current leadership of the Pentagon and the way the defense situation has been operating for the last several years?” Jennings asked the panel. “I mean, from the Afghanistan pullout, which was an extreme debacle for which no one was held accountable, we’ve had spy balloons flying over the United States, we built the $300 million pier as a public relations stunt which wound up killing an American service member.”

“I would say I’ve had just about enough of the so-called ‘insiders’ running the Defense Department, I think we ought to give Pete Hegseth a chance.” Jennings continued, prompting journalist Carl Bernstein to ask, “You think that’s about insiders?”

Jennings referenced the thirteen service members who were killed in an Aug. 26, 2021 bombing as American forces were evacuating from Kabul, as well as a pier built to deliver relief supplies to Gaza, which cost taxpayers over $230 million and was operational for just a few weeks, during which one soldier died of injuries sustained while operating the pier.

“All the criticism of him is that he is not the expected Washington pick and I am just saying to you that the American people just voted against the expected Washington pick,” Jennings responded. “He has 20 years in service, Afghanistan, Iraq, two Bronze Stars, Princeton, Harvard. Yeah, he is on TV, but so are the rest of us. I think he ought to be given a chance.”

Trump previously announced that former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe would be nominated as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and that Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, a former Green Beret, would serve as national security advisor.