Fox’s Maria Bartiromo Grills Mike Waltz About Pete Hegseth and the ‘Chaotic, Weakened’ Pentagon Amid Staff Turmoil
Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo posed some tough questions to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz about the chaos at the Pentagon under embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In an interview on Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo confronted Waltz about the prospect of brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine with the Pentagon in turmoil — amid multiple scandals for Hegseth and the exit of five top officials in a matter of days.
“Can you do this in what appears to be a chaotic, weakened Defense Department?” Bartiromo asked Waltz. “Pete Hegseth, of course, our Defense Secretary, has been threatening polygraph tests. He’s been firing people who we thought were his allies. What is the state of affairs at the Defense department right now?”
“Just 100 days ago, we were more worried about DEI and climate change nonsense,” Waltz said. “Now we’re focused on lethality and winning. That’s been, in just over three months, the change.”
The NSA added, of the reported chaos inside the Defense Department, “this is a media narrative that we are going to power through.
But as Waltz tried to paint a happy picture, Bartiromo interjected with a strong follow-up.
“How’s he going to replace all of those people so fast?”
“Maria, there’s 20,000 people in the Pentagon,” Waltz said. “There is a record number amount of generals. And the other piece there is accountability. We have had several general officers that weren’t getting the job done, and admirals get fired and get replaced — including our great new [Joint Chiefs] chairman, [Dan] Raisin’ Caine, who I just talked to last night. That’s what that Pentagon needs. No one ever gets fired. There’s never a sense of accountability. And now there is. And whether it’s leaks, or not getting the job done, or failures in terms of procurement acquisition, now you have a leader that’s in charge. And I couldn’t be prouder of Pete Hegseth.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
