‘Is That Really His Job?’ Anderson Cooper Clashes With Scott Jennings Over Hegseth Testimony

CNN host Anderson Cooper clashed with Scott Jennings on Thursday over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Congressional testimony about the Iran war.

Jennings joined AC360 to discuss Hegseth’s testimony to both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees over the last two days. The secretary told both groups that the “biggest adversary” facing the U.S. was the Democrats due to their lack of support for the war. 

“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.

Cooper asked Jennings, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, about the remark, pressing him on whether the comment was “weird” considering the country was actively at war with a foreign power:

COOPER: Obviously, he’s also speaking to President Trump and wants to stay in President Trump’s good graces. Is that the biggest adversary of the United States faces right now? Democratic lawmakers and some Republican lawmakers?

JENNINGS: Well, the biggest adversary is the adversary, the people that we’re fighting. And that would be Iran. But here at home–

COOPER: But that’s not what he’s saying.

JENNINGS: But you do get the idea. And you do hear some Democrats say things like, well, Iran has been strengthened or–

COOPER: But I understand that you said that. But is it weird that the Secretary of Defense, whose job is to talk about military matters, that this is his shtick, that this is his line? I get it plays with Donald Trump and the base, but does– is that really his job?

JENNINGS: Well, I mean, it’s his point of view, and I don’t think it’s good for Democrats to go on TV and say, after a several week campaign of the U.S. military, somehow Iran’s military or their position is strengthened or in better shape. And honestly, too, Hegseth here, he gets banged on a lot. I saw Seth Moulton, a Democrat member of Congress, on our air last night, suggesting that he needed to be executed for war crimes. And so, there is a lot of rhetorical volleying going on here. And so I give him a little latitude on that because he’s taken a fair amount of incoming, but he’s there also to defend the military. He runs the military. He’s there to defend the military. And I don’t think you could argue with a straight face anything other than they have performed brilliantly. But some of the Democrats have suggested otherwise. And I think that’s what he’s getting at.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!