The Adam Mockler Show - Pete Hegseth Melts Down on Fox News

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Adam Mockler with MeidasTouch Network breaks down Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense realizing his days are numbered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, every time I listen to a stressed out Pete Hegseth, it gets me stressed out. I feel like he's currently in a manic episode trying to play damage control after Signalgate part two very likely ruined his tenure as the Secretary of Defense. So he decided to do a hard-hitting interview with his, with where he used to work, Fox News, and it really did remind me of a North Korean propaganda-level interview. We have no time to waste. So let's jump in with this clip of the Fox host, accidentally calling him former secretary, A little bit of subtle foreshadowing there.

Here to set the record straight himself, the current Secretary of State. Wait, did I hear that right? One more time. Former Secretary, the current Secretary of State, Pete Hakeseth, former host right here on Fox and Friends. Pete, great to see him, Mr. Secretary. A little bit of foreshadowing right there. That's not very important. But in this clip, Pete Hick-Seth immediately brings up cocktails and alcohol. Like, right when he starts talking.

And get along to go along and, you know, start doing meet the press and going to the council on form relations and spending time with all the new cocktail sipping crowd. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because President Trump asked me to bring war fighting back to the Pentagon every single day. Right. That is our focus. And if, and get a-

Bring war fighting back to the Pentagon. First of all, I thought he was the no new wars president. Secondly, if you want to bring fighting back to the Pentagon, please just do it behind closed doors. You're bringing war fighting back to the Pentagon in front of everybody, including your sister, your brother, and the entire nation. and very likely our enemies. Now, in this next clip, Pete Hegseth begins to say that disgruntled former employees are trying to smear him.

And thankfully, I went on a local Fox station, Fox 5, D.C., and I debunked all of Pete Hegsett's lies from yesterday. Now, I consider Fox 5DC a friend of the show. So check out this clip. You guys will really find this in treatment. Defensive statement at the White House Easter a role today. I'm curious, as you see him going out before the media, what's your read on what he has to say and how he's defensive? defending what he says is a lot of nothing? Yeah, so if you read the piece written by John Alliot, who is a Trump loyalist and a supporter of Hexeth,

and who wrote another piece a few months ago supporting Hexsac's nomination, he was just the White House, or sorry, he was the Pentagon spokesperson, and he resigned. He said that Hegset's just incompetence has now become a liability for the administration. Trump is becoming distracted by it, and again, there's a scary amount of incompetence in the Pentagon right now, Hexeth then says that disgruntled former employees are out there trying to smear him when these disgruntled former employees are, again, people that he trusted one week ago. He then claims that he just wants to protect his children, but what about the men and the women who he put at risk when he, I don't know, leaked sensitive plans to his wife and his brother? You know, and there was a lot of excuses in the early stages of that first signal controversy coming out. There were even some suggesting somehow that the journalist in question from the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg hacked his way into it, which, as we know, is a total BS statement.

But at what point, if you were the Trump administration, if you're President Trump, and here's a guy, Pete Hakeseth that you put all your trust into, you thought he looked good on TV, you thought he was a good spokesman for your political cause, at what point is enough enough? Because this is a different beast than the first Trump administration where we're seeing Michael Flynn canned after 28 days. and he Scaremucci out after 10? Trump is dealing with a lot of five alarm fires at once, all caused by himself, by the way. Whether you want to talk about the tariffs, you want to talk about Abrago Garcia, or Signalgate.

I feel like when Pete Higseth begins to weigh down on him too much, PR-wise, that's when Trump will dip. And lately, Pete Hegsett's PR has been terrible. He actually prolonged the PR disaster by originally saying, hey, there was zero sensitive information in this group chat. And then Jeffrey Goldberg cleverly releases the group chat messages about 48 hours after the original article. Now, 30-something days later, the PR cycle is prolonged.

And I feel like if we know one thing about Trump, it's that he cares a lot about PR. I mean, this whole situation is caused because he's running the government like a media company, plucking people off Fox News rather than putting experts in key positions. We'll finish that in one second, but let's check out what Pete Hexath is currently saying on Fox and Friends. I remember when this all started the first go-around because this is the second go-around, right? They peddle old stuff. They kick it back up. I said repeatedly, no one's texting war plans.

You know why I said that? Because I'm in the bowels of the Pentagon every single day. Just 10 minutes ago, I was looking at actual war plans of things that were ongoing or pending things to happen. Because that's on a regular basis, on classified systems. That's my job for the warfighters, for the President of the United States. I look at war plans every single day. He's just lying and gaslighting here. First of all, when he says that this is old news,

it's like 33 days old. They're still talking about Hillary Clinton's emails. They're still talking about Benghazi and Hunter Biden, and these stories are like seven years old, sometimes 10 years old. So the idea that a story that's 30-something days old that happened multiple times shouldn't be talked about is wild. But I also want to debunk the idea once and for all

that this was not classified material. It says info Hegseth shared with wife and brother and Jeffrey Goldberg came from top generals secure messages. Hegset has denied the information. he shared was classified, but it was given to him on a system for sensitive and classified info, sources told NBC News. Again, minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Iranian-back Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army General Michael Eric Corrilla, who leads the U.S. Central Command, used a secure government system to send

detailed information about the operation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef. One more time, he used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information. The material Kurala sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off, when they would hit their targets. Details that could, if they fell into the wrong hands, put the pilots of those fighters in grave danger. But he was doing exactly what he's supposed to, providing Hegeseth, his superior, with information he needed to know and using a system specifically designed to safely transmit sensitive and classified info. So let me clarify. Michael Eric Corrilla, the Army General, he did everything right. It was then Pete Hegset that broke all operational protocol.

But then Hexseth used his personal phone to send some of the same information Corolla had given him to at least two group texts. At least two group texts. What if there are more that we don't know about? On the signal messaging app, three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchange told NBC News, sorry, this brings us back to the clip of Pete Hexeth, the nine that he ever did this. ...going or pending things to happen because that's on a regular basis, on classified systems. That's my job for the warfighters, for the President of the United States. I look at war plans every single day. What was shared over signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified

coordinations for media coordination. Not true. None of this is true. And I just disprove this. I also like how he says, I look at war plans every day. We know, bro. We've seen your text messages. We know.

That's what I've said from the beginning. At the beginning, it was left-wing reporters from the Atlantic who got a hold of it and then wanted to create a problem for the president. This is what it's all about, trying to get it, President Trump and his administration. agenda. There's no way this is going to work. He's trying to say the media wants to create a problem for the president, but by most of the reporting I've read, like John Oliott, who I was talking about in my interview earlier,

Trump understands that the Pentagon is becoming a liability because of Pete Hegseth. Now, Trump doesn't understand a lot, but there are reports that Trump is becoming increasingly, increasingly annoyed at Hegseth, and they're actually looking for a new defense secretary. Let's check out this next clip of Pete Hegseth continuing to spiral out. based in reality. So, Mr. Secretary, I guess I can conclude this. We know some bizarre situation with Michael Waltz happened with the first time the whole thing with the signal app came out.

Some bizarre situation, wow. Am I watching North Korean propaganda? By some bizarre situation, you mean a massive leak. Bizarre situation with Michael Waltz happened with the first time the whole thing with the signal app came out. You believe this came out. They said it was called Team Huddle because one of the people who worked for you, one of the three who no longer are there,

leak this out as a way to get back at you? That's right, Brian. When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information, and again, the investigation is ongoing. He sounds sociopathic. Let me remind him for one second. He sounds sociopathic when he's like, that's right. That's right, Brian.

When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information, and again, the investigation is ongoing, and that will take time, and when the evidence produced it will go to DOJ, why would it surprise anybody, Brian, if those very same people keep leaking? No, no, no, no, here's what keeps happening. Pete Hegseth is either fired people and then they get smeared on their way out, or after three people resigned a few weeks ago, they also got smeared on their way out. It wasn't just one person who resigned and got smeared.

There is a pattern that has been reported over and over that Pete Hegseth intentionally tries to smear people as they're leaving to try to undermine their credibility so they can't tell any stories. To the very same reporters, whatever information they think they can have to try to sabotage the agenda, of the president or the secretary. You trusted these people nine days ago. Why do you think they're trying to sabotage you all of a sudden? What's more likely is that they realize this is a terrible story that I can't defend. I'm leaving.

Watch me answering this exact question on Fox 5 DC. And by the way, make sure you drop a like and drop some blue hearts in the comments. You know, and when you look at the people, as you mentioned, the people who have left the DOD, the ones who were somehow implicated or for one reason or another were asked to leave after Signalgate broke. John Oliott, as you mentioned, was going to be the spokesman, and then they brought in Sean Parnell, who was a former congressional candidate from Pennsylvania who came in and sort of filled that role out there.

That's a very quick pivot, as you pointed out, though, Adam, to say they're disgruntled former employees. You almost validate the story by saying that so quickly. Yeah, there are a lot of reports that Pete Hegseth, he smears people when they're on their way out of the Pentagon. I mean, this month alone, Hegseth fired three of his most trusted aides. two of them had worked with him for over a decade, only to then have his department smear them anonymously and falsely accused them of leaking secrets and then walk it back once their bluff

was called. So, I mean, it's scary. The Pentagon is currently leaderless at the top. I mean, the country, you could argue, was leaderless. But the Pentagon in particular is facing a lot of morale issues. Morale is reportedly plumbing. And chief of staff roles are currently vacant while Pete Hexfetz smears them on their way out. Not a good look. So look, if you want to watch the rest of this interview, it'll be on my substack, which will be in the top line of the description. I'm not going to play the rest of it here because then we change topics, but it does get interesting. Either way, Pete Hexeth needs to be held accountable. That's why we do this every single day.

And thank you guys for all that we've built. We will continue to cover this reluctantly. I'll see you all in the next video. Peace up.