Kinzinger on Hegseth Appointment: ‘Obviously, It’s Weird’ ... ‘Only One Reason Is It’s Because He’s in Fox News’

COOPER: “Congressman, let me start with you. Your reaction to Pete Hegseth, army combat veteran, Fox News host, as President-Elect Trump’s choice for defense secretary?”
KINZINGER: “I mean, it depends. Depends. Obviously, it‘s weird and there‘s only one reason he‘s doing it, because he‘s on Fox News. That‘s what Donald Trump picks based on. I know Pete. Like, I haven‘t talked to him actually much recently, but I know him and particularly prior to his life on Fox News. He‘s actually very smart when it comes to things like defense policy. I remember his last deployment to Afghanistan, he actually was putting out this kind of newsletter he would do every week or so filling folks in. But the question is, what kind of Pete Hegseth is going to show up? That one or is going to be the Pete Hegseth that‘s on Fox News that just tries to be loyal to Donald Trump? That‘s why he was picked, because of his loyalty. By the way, I want to make a quick point. The whole reason it‘s called Department of Government Efficiency and not, like, an efficiency czar is because the acronym is DOGE, D-O-G,E, which is Doge coin. That‘s why they did it. That’s how serious they are. It’s all about this signaling. It‘s kind of strange.
COOPER: “Yeah. Yes. On the Pentagon, can you just put into perspective how vast and complicated the Pentagon is and how difficult the Department of Defense is to actually run?”
KINZINGER: “I mean, it‘s massively difficult. Especially for somebody that really doesn‘t have experience in running an organization like that. My guess and my kind of prediction here is they‘re putting Pete Hegseth up to really stir the pot, to probably, as you guys were talking about prior, to fire a bunch of generals, to really bring the culture war stuff front and center. By the way, there‘s nothing wrong with changing the culture of DOD if you‘re, like, saying we need to do better at recruiting. But when you turn it into a culture war and make it more Republican versus Democrat, it‘s very dangerous for DOD. But, yeah, running an organization that‘s $850 billion with operations around the world, I mean, you better know what you‘re doing because otherwise you’re gonna get swallowed up in that bureaucracy.”