‘Pete Is Wrong’: GOP Senator Adamantly Disagrees With Hegseth Wanting to Fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

CNN anchor Dana Bash spoke with Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) this week about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, particularly his embattled nominee to run the Pentagon – former Fox News host Pete Hegseth.

“I do want to ask about the president-elect’s pick for the Department of Defense, for defense secretary, because you’re on the Armed Services Committee. What makes him qualified to lead a department that employs millions of military and civilian employees?” Bash asked.

“Well, first of all, the beauty of our system is that the only requirement is, is that he gets appointed by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate, just like our only qualification for these jobs is to get more votes than the other person,” Kramer replied, adding:

That’s why when Winston Churchill said that the worst thing that could happen to the government of states is for it to fall into the hands of the experts because expert knowledge is limited knowledge. What Pete brings is a warrior’s heart. He’s a warrior’s warrior.

And I think for a long time, and I’ve heard this from lots of troops, they get a little bit tired of the politicians in the Pentagon not really worrying about them. And Pete brings that advantage. And I think Donald Trump, it fits right into his mind right now. That said, the Pentagon is a big place and has lots of leaders, some of the more uniform. Some of them do not. And I am confident and I’ll be visiting with Pete about this, that he’ll surround himself with good operational people who can do a lot of the listening of the day-to-day important stuff that needs to be done while he remains the face of that great face, by the way, of a nation that believes in peace through strength.

Pete exudes that, avoid war by preventing war. And so I just think Pete’s a really good face of the of the Pentagon.

“Before I let you go, I want you to respond to something that Pete Hegseth said about the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Bash said before rolling a clip of Hegseth on Shawn Ryan’s popular podcast.

“So there’s a chance to course correct it. But it would take the new Trump administration going after it really hard. How would they correct it? Well, first of all, you got to fire. You got to fire the chairman Joint Chiefs and you got to fire this– I mean, obviously, you’re bringing a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit. It’s got to go,” Hegseth said in the clip.

“You, along with 82 senators, voted to confirm the current chair of the Joint Chiefs, who is only the second Black man to ever serve in that position. Do you agree? Should he be fired?” Bash pressed.

“I do not agree, Dana, that he should be fired. I know CQ Brown pretty well. I’ve had plenty of disagreements with CQ Brown, but I’ve never seen him as promoting DEI in any way, shape or form,” Kramer replied, adding:

He is, as you said, a Black general, and he does occasionally and I appreciate express his his experience as a young black officer. And I think it’s rich and I think it adds value. But he has never been anything but a great warrior.

I mean, he has an incredible record as a combatant commander. He’s soft spoken, but he does carry a big stick, to quote, my favorite president from North Dakota. So you just I just think Pete is wrong on this on that particular point. No, I don’t. That doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some generals that are fired. But what I don’t think is that we ought to go out, you know, and talk about a commission to go after all the ‘woke’ generals, generals, even with four stars, salute to a political leader. That’s a really important part of our Constitution as well, that our military, even George Washington, had to surrender his commission.

Right. So that’s a rich part of our leadership. I would encourage Pete and the president to visit with CQ Brown and judge for yourself, ask him tough questions if you want. But I want our troops to look at our generals and our political leadership. I would like to be one of those guys. I want to aspire to that.

Watch the clip above via CNN.