Pete Hegseth Slams Identity Politics in Speech | The View

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]We're coming off Memorial Day weekend.

[00:00:02]Hold on. Which is supposed to be a time to honor the service and sacrifice of our military, but politics was not put aside on both sides of the aisle. You know who slammed the Democrats for his Memorial Day with his Memorial Day message. and the DNC had to remove a post blaming him for troops killed in the Iran war after Democratic Senator and veteran Tammy Duckworth called it incredibly distasteful. And then there was Defense Secretary Pete Hexath's message to the West Point graduates.

[00:00:39]Take a look.

[00:00:40]>> You are not an army of one and you are certainly not an army of woke. We saw woke and weak leaders trying to make West Point look like woke Princeton, which happens to be my longlost and lost alma mater.

[00:00:58]They embraced the DEI craze and tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies and they hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls.

[00:01:11]But no more. The battlefield does not grade on a curve and you can't throw your pronouns at the enemy.

[00:01:20]Combat is the ultimate test and our best Americans must ace it.

[00:01:26]>> Okay. Well, I just want to remind everyone that the military, as you saw, is diverse. Okay. Uh women currently make up more than 21% of active duty force. Latest data shows. Yes.

[00:01:40]That's it.

[00:01:43]that the military is roughly about 20% black, 19% Hispanic, 7% Asian. And I'm not sure what his message was. He's looking at >> He's looking at a diverse milit. He's looking at a diverse military. Does he not know his history? Does he not know that there was a time when women couldn't get into that school?

[00:02:07]>> Yeah. Mhm.

[00:02:07]>> Does he remember a time when they maybe had one black student >> in 50 years? Does he not know this? Can it be he doesn't know his history?

[00:02:18]>> What is the problem?

[00:02:19]>> He's not stupid.

[00:02:20]>> Well, how is he just >> dumb?

[00:02:24]Will willfully ignorant probably combined with a little just regular ignorance.

[00:02:29]>> He seems to be at war with pronouns instead of Iran.

[00:02:32]>> Yeah. But but so to have a speech like this in front of the military on Memorial Day weekend is losing sight of the actual first Memorial Day. It was celebrated because Union soldiers, black soldiers that were put in mass graves. A lot of the uh black community came out and said, "We're going to honor these soldiers by giving them a proper burial, for giving their life for a country that did not treat them as equals."

[00:02:57]>> Memorial Day was started by black people >> by black by black people. And then a year later, a year later it was women. It was women who laid flowers on the graves of these people. Yeah. Thank you. So I think losing sight of the fact that anybody who ever laid their life on the line for this country, >> the only response is to loud them.

[00:03:23]Anyone that wants to serve, anyone that wants to do that, we should be cheering them on. I don't think it should be politicized. But let's also remember how it started and what it was about. And I just I that's deep deeply dis uh alarming that he would speak to these future military leaders with that message. So in uninformed.

[00:03:43]>> Well, I suspect that he didn't know the history and does know the history of Memorial Day >> and he shouldn't be he shouldn't be leading the group >> and and we know that he should he's deeply unqualified to be the Secretary of Defense.

[00:03:56]>> Not in this administration. disqualified in this administration, >> but deeply unqualified globally. I mean, he he just he just is >> qualified means qualified in this administration.

[00:04:05]>> Yeah, correct. Correct, Joy.

[00:04:07]>> That's my point. Um and and I think what what's sad is you know for someone to say basically that they are against equity, they are against diversity, they are against inclusion is now considered a good quality when for years that was considered a bigoted >> racist quality and for him to embrace it in that way in front of these graduates.

[00:04:34]Let's not forget Pete Hexath's history.

[00:04:37]Let's not forget that he ordered a 20% reduction of four star officers, majority of them black and women. He fired the black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, calling him a DEI hire.

[00:04:51]One of the most beloved men in the world, >> one of the most beloved and qualified, more qualified than Pete Hex. His name is General Charles the DEI hire.

[00:05:00]>> Well, of course it's the DEI hire.

[00:05:02]>> And by the way, it is. so important that as a country we remember Memorial Day is not about grilling out and riding around on a boat or whatever. It is the one day that is solemn to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our >> wife Tammy Duckworth.

[00:05:14]>> And Tammy Duckworth, I'd remind you who aren't familiar with her, she's a injured veteran. She she's lost ability to walk because of her service for our country.

[00:05:22]>> Double ampute. And I just think that >> Heg Seth I don't expect anything from when I hear him speak. It feels like chat GBT. He threw in like woke military fat generals and it's some kind of it's the same SPEECH LIKE >> NOT FAT GENERALS.

[00:05:35]>> And by the way, >> he quotes Pulp Fiction as as as the Bible. Um, I've worked with a lot of senior leadership in the military and I imagine that they were sitting there for this speech and others and they're biting their tongues and they're buying their time because they know he's a political appointee who is not going to be around forever and that their job, their virtues and their values and what they do in service of this country will go on beyond him. I do think and I want to say this, I don't love this race to the bottom. Listen, Republicans are owning being at the bottom right now. I fully take account for that. But this tweet by the DNC was not it. I appreciate Tammy Duck calling it out because I don't understand >> because soldiers sign up to serve their military regardless of who's president, regardless of if they support they don't get choose the mission.

[00:06:15]>> So in the same way we wouldn't tweet out it's Biden's fault that these soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. You're not tweeting that. It's about the service and sacrifice of the individuals, not to be politicized.

[00:06:24]>> Which is why which is why they but but President Trump himself calls them Democrats and he just goes after I mean he has hit bottom beyond that >> because then we're all just racing to the bottom and we're taking the honor away from these people and that's what they want. But I do want to point out there are some very specific things we all have to remember. The reason women, gay folks, uh, folks who are who are differently abled, all the reasons that these folks no longer have barriers is because we fought to tear them down. We fought to tear them down. And the problem the problem that I that is really here is because they have no idea of our history. our history, not just black history, not just white, our history.

[00:07:17]They have no idea of it. So they don't know that without these fights, without these laws, none of this would have happened. We could not have overcome until we broke down the ceiling.

[00:07:31]Keep that in