As President Trump reverses Joe Biden’s foreign policy failures, he needs true warrior Pete Hegseth by his side and that’s the subject of the riff. Pete Hegseth will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow as President-elect Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary.
Before anyone says another word about his nomination, they should read the hot-off-the-press story from Fox News Digital, which reports how spectacular his military evaluations were. “Incredibly talented, battle-proven leader” is one description. The much-decorated veteran and former Fox News host was described as showing “outstanding” leadership skills over the course of his military service, which includes deployments to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Here’s a lengthier quote: “Having taken charge of his platoon mere days before deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he effectively led his platoon through five months of combat. He planned and executed platoon operations ranging from air assault raids to the defense of a forward operating base.”
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The evaluation goes on to describe how his platoon remained physically and mentally ready and captured an Al-Qaeda cell leader in Iraq. It then describes his leadership skills in controlling his squads, air support, and other external combat support assets.
According to another report obtained by Fox News Digital, evaluators described him as “an absolutely outstanding officer,” who was “intelligent, mature and extremely gifted” and had become “a tremendous asset to his battalion and had contributed immensely to the battalion’s performance during the past six months.”
These evaluations should be crucially important in the coming Senate committee hearings. It’s a tremendous report from Fox News Digital and it should put to rest some of the spurious and unproven allegations leveled at him many years ago, allegations that had nothing to do with his military fitness or his overall leadership skills.
Veterans are rallying around Pete Hegseth and his nomination to be Defense Secretary. Today there was an indoor rally, spearheaded by Senator Tommy Tuberville and Congressman Keith Self. Here’s a clip from Senator Tuberville today:
TOMMY TUBERVILLE: “We don’t need a general from the Pentagon. We’ve tried that. We need a drill sergeant, somebody that’s been in two wars, somebody that understands camaraderie and team and work ethic and time, restraint and respect. // We need to get back to every day respect and loyalty and belief in this country with our military and it all starts with Pete Hegseth. Pete is somebody that believes in this country.”
Tomorrow, hundreds more veterans are expected to peacefully rally in support of Pete Hegseth at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and other Washington DC landmarks. In addition to serving as a highly decorated combat veteran in several theatres of war, Pete Hegseth was educated at Princeton and Harvard and he wrote an important book entitled “War on Warriors” — that argued the importance of ending the woke fixation on diversity, equity, and inclusion — in favor of reinvigorating the warrior culture in the Pentagon and the armed services.
Joe Biden leaves the White House with the world in an extremely dangerous place. Donald Trump intends to turn this completely around, to America’s advantage. The Senate must put true warrior Pete Hegseth at Mr. Trump’s side to help him do it. That’s the riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Jan. 13, 2025, edition of “Kudlow.”
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