The Daily Signal - Hegseth’s Exoneration, Blinken Under Fire, UK Bans Puberty Blockers | Dec. 11

Starting point is 00:00:00 Former colleagues of Pete Hegseth shed light on smears against Trump's Defense Secretary Pick. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell. This is the Daily Signal Top News in 10 for Wednesday, December 11th. Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary, has been hard at work on Capitol Hill, seeking to persuade Republican senators to support his confirmation. Hegseth is a former Fox News Channel host and a veterans advocate. His fellow soldiers, veterans who worked with Heggseth at Concerned Veterans for America have his back. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Signals Bradley Devlin, several of Hegset's former colleagues at CVA are refuting allegations that stem from his time at the head of the Veterans Advocacy

Starting point is 00:00:52 Organization. A series of allegations ranging from workplace misconduct to sexual assault has sidetracked the Senate confirmation process. Hegset was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America. Bradley, what did Hegset's former colleagues? say about the allegations? Yeah, the allegations are threefold. One, that there was workplace misconduct. Two, that he mismanaged CVA's funds, and three, that a combination of those factors led to CVA in Hegseff parting ways.

Starting point is 00:01:22 These folks said that every single part of the allegations made in the corporate media by anonymous sources was false. We spoke to Mark Lucas. Mark Lucas was the CEO who followed HegSeth at CVA. He said that he and, he said that he and, inherited a, quote, world-class organization, end quote, and that it was a very financially healthy organization, poised to do great work in Washington, D.C. As for the other accusations, workplace misconduct ranged from drunk on the job to a toxic workplace environment. Hegseff

Starting point is 00:01:55 fostering a toxic workplace environment. Well, we found Timunez. Timunez was the event manager for 100 events, nearly 100 events that CVA put on over Hegset's tenure. That means that they were doing an event nearly once every two weeks. Tim was the guy backstage, micing up Pete Hegseh, making sure that he was ready to go on stage. If Heg Seth was anywhere close to inebriated, Tim would have known. And not only did Tim not see any sort of misbehavior from Hegseff at those events, he also did not see any sort of misbehavior at the hotels, which they shared as CVA and the production crew over the course of his travel with Hegsef. Same testimony came from other sources.

Starting point is 00:02:39 Some of those sources were named. Some of those sources decided not to give their names. And these sources spent day in and day out with Heg-Seth. Sean Parnell, a former colleague of Pete Hegseths at CVA, told the Daily Signal that the allegations were ridiculous and that if there was any sort of misbehavior, he would have heard about it. Others said that they attended hundreds of meetings with Heg-Seth on Capitol Hill and attended dozens of events, and they did not once see. Hegset behave inappropriately towards other staff members or towards members of the public. Sounds like a real smear campaign. What about the allegation that Hegseh mismanaged CVA's finances that you mentioned?

Starting point is 00:03:18 Yeah, CBS News went through the tax documents and said, look at all these expenditures that Pete racked up during his time as CEO of CVA. And right after Hegsef left in fiscal year 2017, those expenditures dropped dramatically. Well, that's because it was part of a larger restructuring of the Coke nonprofit network. CVA was put under Americans for Prosperity. And they also had accomplished a lot of core missions that Hegseth had laid out, right? They got two bills signed into law by President Donald Trump that completely changed the way that we do health care for veterans. And that completely changed the way that we care for our veterans in this country. And so with that, they moved on to different missions.

Starting point is 00:04:00 And it didn't mean that you needed large expenditures for medias or funds. freedom tours or whatever. It meant that the organization could restructure within the Koch nonprofit network and take on new challenges and new roles. As for Hegset's expenditures, Hegsef didn't have the authority as CEO of CVA because it was part of this nonprofit network to spend recklessly even if he wanted to. Okay. And what did the replacement director of CVA say of his predecessors work? Yeah, again, that's Mark Lucas. He said that he inherited a work. world-class organization, that it was a financially healthy organization, and that when he went to the White House to meet with President Trump, when he told President Trump that he was Hegset's successor,

Starting point is 00:04:44 President Trump's eyes lit up, and he took Lucas's comments very, very seriously. Those conversations resulted in two different pieces of legislation that ultimately changed the way that we care for our veterans in this country on the backs of a massive scandal during the Obama administration, the VA scandal, which, exposed secret wait lists. The VA was failing to give veterans health care. The VA was putting these veterans on wait lists, and many of those veterans died. And Pete Hegseth was in the media, beating the drum, working at CVA to lay the groundwork for Mark Lucas and his team and other members of CVA to eventually reap the benefits.

Starting point is 00:05:25 And that was through major changes in legislation. Sounds like he set things up well. Thanks so much for joining. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee heard from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Wednesday about the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. During the withdrawal, 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans died in a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate entrance of Hamad Karzai International Airport. Incoming Republican Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast called out Blinken for refusing to take responsibility for Afghanistan's collapse. Sometimes we speak about decorum in here, and I would say that it doesn't take a four-letter word to violate decorum. We insult every single person that served when we come in here and we say words like,

Starting point is 00:06:14 we're sorry that the Afghanistan withdrawal was not exactly perfect, you know, but, you know, maybe we could have done a few things. That is a violation of decorum against every person that put on a uniform. And this place absolutely lives up to being a swamp. when we try to cover up the fact that 26 of your diplomats told you directly that if you continued down the path that you were going, that it was going to be a disaster. And we should not be covering that up.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Blinken's testimony follows years of the State Department and the Foreign Affairs Committee being at odds over documents, interviews, and other aspects of Congress members' investigation into the withdrawal. In September, the committee voted along party lines, to find the secretary in contempt for failure to testify on the withdrawal. Blinken offered an apology to the families who lost loved ones at Abbey Gate. As I said, our thoughts are with all of the Gold Star families.

Starting point is 00:07:14 They're with the State Department and USAID employees who lost their lives over the course of 20 years of our military involvement in Afghanistan. And I think today, especially, of the 13 heroes that we lost at Abbey Gate, and I deeply regret that we did not. do more and could not do more to protect them. And to those families who are here with us today, you're in my thoughts. Outside the hearing, anti-Israel protesters lined up in the Capitol with blood painted on their hands as they accused Blinken of being a war criminal. The United Kingdom banned puberty blockers for minors indefinitely. UK Health Secretary West Streeting said he would make

Starting point is 00:07:58 existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty blockers indefinite, following advice from medical experts. There was currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children, according to independent expert advice from the Commission on Human Medicines. Puberty blockers prescribe to children who say they are transgender

Starting point is 00:08:16 to prevent their bodies from developing in line with their biological sex, have numerous side effects, including reductions in bone density and infertility. They have been known to cause menopausal-like side effects like hot flashes in young girls. Streting said the commission had recommended indefinite restrictions on puberty blockers to protect kids.

Starting point is 00:08:35 In March, the National Health Service announced that children could no longer be prescribed puberty blockers. In May, the government introduced a ban on puberty blockers through emergency legislation. A challenge to that ruling failed in July. The High Court of Justice determined that the ban was lawful. Puberty blockers do not actually improve children's mental health outcomes, according to an unreleased study by Dr. Joanna Olson Kennedy, a physician at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles. The study involved putting 95 children struggling with gender dysphoria on puberty blockers. However, the data from the $10 million National Institutes of Health Study won't be released

Starting point is 00:09:11 because of Olson Kennedy's concerns the findings might fuel political attacks leading to the banning of transgender procedures for minors. In 2022, the UK shut down its only child gender clinic called Tavistock after it was criticized in an independent review. The review determined that the model of care at Tavistock was leaving young kids. people at considerable risk of poor mental health and distress, and having one clinic was not a safe or viable long-term option. Now to our quick hits, FBI director Christopher Ray announced he will resign at the end of the Biden administration. President-elect Donald Trump has

Starting point is 00:09:47 tapped former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice Cash Patel as Ray's replacement. The House of Representatives will vote this afternoon to approve the annual defense policy bill. This year's National Defense Authorization Act will give junior enlisted service members a 14.5% pay raise next year. This NDAA also protects the children of members of the military from irreversible transgender medical interventions. The NDAA included a prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds for gender transition surgeries for children who get their medical care through the military's health care program. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told Congress that the nation's capital is ready for federal employees to return to in-person work. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy, who will head Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency, have said they will slash work-from-home days for federal employees.

Starting point is 00:10:41 And that's all for this episode of The Daily Signal, Top News, N10. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have a wonderful evening.

The Daily Signal - Hegseth’s Exoneration, Blinken Under Fire, UK Bans Puberty Blockers | Dec. 11

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.