Republican Chair of Armed Services Blasts Pete Hegseth’s ‘Rookie Mistake’ Giving ‘Tucker Carlson’-Style Speech On Ukraine

Senate Armed Services Chair Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “rookie mistake” for publicly saying a return for Ukraine to pre-2014 borders with Russia was “unrealistic.”

Speaking at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels on Wednesday, during his first visit to NATO headquarters, Hegseth underlined the administration’s commitment to peace between Ukraine and Russia as a “top priority” but laid out its opposition to the country’s NATO membership and the “illusionary goal” that the country could return to pre-war borders, pivoting from what is considered by analysts as a major point of leverage for future negotiations.

At the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Wicker said he was “surprised” by the secretary’s speech in a comment to Politico, which he called “the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written.”

Having just shepherded the secretary’s nomination last month, Wicker said: “Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job. But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels, and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line.”

He continued: “I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool,” referencing the MAGA commentator who has visited Moscow twice in the past year.

He added: “I prefer we didn’t give away negotiating positions before we actually get started talking about the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Wicker agreed that it was not “practical” for Ukraine to join NATO but pushed back against President Donald Trump’s thoughts on Thursday that Russia might be readmitted to the G7, branding Russian President Vladimir Putin as “war criminal who needs to be in prison for the rest of his life.”

As the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Wicker led the hearings culminating in the former Fox & Friends co-host’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense.