About a week ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued an unprecedented order: The former Fox News host directed the military’s top commanders — roughly 800 generals and admirals — who are spread out around the world, to come to Virginia. The beleaguered Pentagon chief gave the flag officers little notice and didn’t explain why he was summoning them.
The White House characterized the move as routine, but reality told a very different story: MSNBC research could find no other instance in American history in which every general and admiral, stationed around the planet, had been summoned to a joint meeting.
In the days that followed, as military leaders scrambled to make plans to travel thousands of miles on short notice, multiple news organizations reported that Hegseth didn’t have a good reason for the get-together: He simply wanted to deliver a “rally the troops” message.
I believed those reports were accurate, but part of me assumed that they must’ve been incomplete. It just seemed implausible that Hegseth, as absurd as his leadership has been, would engage in such pointless and potentially dangerous self-indulgence.
But having heard the secretary’s remarks, he proved to be even worse than expected. Reuters reported:
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed ‘fat generals’ and diversity initiatives that he said led to decades of decay in the military and told a rare gathering of commanders on Tuesday they should resign if they don’t support his agenda. ‘Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading and we lost our way. We became the “Woke Department,”’ Hegseth said as he kicked off the event in Quantico, Virginia. ‘But not anymore,’ he said.
Choosing the worst moment from Hegseth’s bizarre and unnecessary speech is admittedly challenging. Was it his boasts about firing qualified military leaders? Or maybe his condemnation of diversity initiatives and climate change as “s—” that the military will no longer care about?
Was it his whining about things he considers “woke”? Or maybe his defense of bullying? Or his eagerness to plug his own book? Or his apparent preoccupation with people’s weight, facial hair and appearance? Or his suggestion that only warriors are entitled to peace?
Maybe the lowest of the low points was Hegseth’s comment that seemed to open the door to a new attitude toward war crimes. “We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country,” he declared. “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.” Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement." In other words, Hegseth spent millions of taxpayer dollars to bring generals and admirals in from around the world so that he could treat them like a CPAC audience. As for those in attendance who might’ve been uncomfortable with the secretary’s absurdities, he extended some advice to them, too. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth said.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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