Fox’s Hegseth Rips ‘Pathetic’ Jake Tapper for Calling Out GOP Rep’s Defense of Trump Over Capitol Insurrection

Fox News’ Pete Hegseth tore into CNN’s Jake Tapper for questioning Rep. Brian Mast’s (R-FL) “commitment to democracy” because of his opposition to impeaching President Donald Trump.

Mast, a veteran who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan, announced on Wednesday that he was against impeaching the president for his incitement of the violent mob who invaded the U.S. Capitol last week. During his remarks on the House floor, Mast rhetorically asked “Has any one of those individuals who brought violence on this Capitol been brought here to answer whether they did that because of our president?”

The question was met with silence, and Mast proceeded to vote against impeachment.

During CNN’s coverage on the proceedings, Dana Bash was taken aback by Mast’s speech. She reminded viewers that there were “reams of evidence” that the insurrection happened because Trump and his allies called on them to march on the Capitol to rail against the certification of his 2020 election defeat.

Tapper also took note of Mast, describing him as “a Republican from Florida — who lost his legs, by the way, fighting for democracy abroad — although I don’t know about his commitment to it here in the United States.” Mast was alerted to Tapper’s comments, which led to this exchange between the two:

You’re a hero for your service and I’m grateful, as I’ve said before. And yes i question the commitment to democracy of anyone who spread election lies, signed onto that deranged TX AG lawsuit, and voted to commit sedition. You were not just asking questions.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 14, 2021

Tapper’s question about Mast’s commitment to democracy was met with outrage from conservative circles, though it should be noted that the CNN anchor’s work on behalf of veterans is well-documented.

For years, Tapper has worked with the nonprofit organization Homes For Our Troops, which raised $400,000 with their holiday season celebrity auction to support injured veterans. Tapper’s insight to the struggles of America’s troops is further exemplified by The Outpost, the book he wrote about the 53 U.S. soldiers who were attacked by hundreds of Taliban combatants at Combat Outpost Keating in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Mast responded to Tapper again on Fox & Friends Thursday, saying his impeachment objections were rooted in his questions for the expedited process since Trump will soon be out of office. Later, on America’s Newsroom, Trace Gallagher brought Hegseth on to discuss, and it didn’t take long for the National Guard combat veteran to bash the CNN host as a “Democratic operative.”

“Jake Tapper is an emotional bowl of soup with a serious inferiority complex for vets in the military,” Hegseth said. “I know exactly who Jake Tapper is. I have no personal animus for him, neither does Brian Mast. But to pretend like his ‘I recognize he gave his legs on the battlefield, but he doesn’t care about democracy here’ is the kind of cheap shot you’d expect from a partisan posing as a journalist.”

During the segment, Hegseth knocked Tapper by saying he was “obsessive” with public recognition of his support for veterans. He went on by seeming to suggest that this was little more than a PR scheme for Tapper, which Hegseth denounced as “pathetic.”

There it is, in the tweet, he starts out with the fawning language a lot of us have gotten over direct message from Jake Tapper. He’s, like, obsessive about his image and relationship with vets. It’s actually quite pathetic. And then he goes into his partisan nature of the attack, which, you can’t even question at any level what happened during the election.

Hegseth has continued giving air to the same baseless voter fraud conspiracy theories Trump pushed for months about the 2020 election, which culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol just last week. Hegseth has been a major media booster for Trump’s administration, and he frequently used his sway with the president to encourage him into intervening with several veterans who were accused of war crimes.

Watch above, via Fox News.