‘Do You Want to Answer My Question?’ Pro-MAGA and Anti-MAGA CNN Panelists Spar Over Whether Dems Have ‘Hegseth Derangement Syndrome’

The recent coverage of U.S. military strikes on suspected Latin American drug boats shows the mainstream media and Democrats are suffering from “Hegseth Derangement Syndrome,” not just “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” one pro-MAGA panelist said on CNN on Saturday.

That claim from Hal Lambert, the CEO of Point Bridge Capital, was met with swift pushback from Adam Mockler, a commentator with the anti-Trump MeidasTouch Network, when both appeared on CNN’s Table for Five.

Lambert said it is clear the media hates Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth based on the criticism of strikes against what Hegseth and President Donald Trump have called “narco-terrorists.”

The Trump Administration has conducted more than 20 of those strikes on suspected drug boats since early September. Lambert said it is hypocritical that the media is ripping Hegseth for those attacks, but had nothing to say when former President Barack Obama conducted bomb and drone strikes.

“Look, we’re taking out drug boats, right? They’ve done — I think they’ve killed 87 people doing this,” Lambert said. “Obama did hundreds, if not thousands of bomb attacks all around the world in different countries on land, killing civilians at the at the time. Now, again, he was going after terrorists, which is what we’re doing there. It’s Tren de Aragua is who we’re going after.”

“Is it?” host Abby Phillip shot back.

“Yes, those are the Venezuelan gangs” Lambert told her.

“Are you sure about that?” She asked again.

Lambert said he was.

Mockler then jumped in a moment later to argue his HDS claim:

First of all, it’s not Hegseth Derangement Syndrome to say that a former Fox News host shouldn’t be leading the most powerful military in the world. Secondly, Obama had an authorized use of military force over a lot of these post 9/11 air spaces. He could do these strikes Pakistan. But thirdly, finally, the the Coast Guard has admitted they interdicted 212 boats since 2024 with no violence, nothing happening. And basically 1 in 4 of those boats, 25% of those boats had no drugs on them. So I want to ask you, would you be okay striking boats if there is a 1 in 4 chance that there’s no drugs on the boat?

Lambert started to reply by saying there are “60,000 Americans dying—” before Mockler cut him off and asked, “Do you want to answer my question?”

“No, I’m going to give you some facts,” Lambert told him.

“No, you should answer my question,” Mockler said.

Lambert then said 5,000 Americans are dying a month from drugs, but the media is fixated on 87 drug dealers being killed.

“Why are you upset about it?” he asked Mockler.

“I’m not upset,” he said. “I’m upset that Donald Trump claims to care about drugs, yet he pardoned the former Honduran president.”

He then asked Lambert again, if there’s a 25% chance there are no drugs on the boats, is he still okay with the military strikes?

“You’re not the host, I don’t have to answer to you, but go ahead,” Lambert told him. He then contested Mockler’s claim, saying “we don’t have the Coast Guard off the coast of Venezuela” and therefore the 25% figure is likely not accurate.

Watch above via CNN.

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