The Daily Signal - Pete Hegseth’s Hearing, Jack Smith’s Report, Women’s Sports Protections | Jan. 14, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's an honor to come before this committee today as President Donald Trump's nominee for the Office of Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth delivered a knockout performance at today's confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. I'm your host, Rob Lewy, and this is the Daily Signal's top news in 10 for Tuesday, January 14th, 2025. Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host and veterans advocates, spent more than four hours before the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing Tuesday. The fireworks began during Hegseth's. opening statement when three hecklers yelled insults at him before being removed from the room. To no one surprise, Republican senators praised President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, while Democrats questioned him on controversies from his past.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Hegseth wasted little time to refute the allegations lodged against him. We undertook this responsibility with an obligation to the troops to do right by them for our warfighters. And what became very evident to us from the beginning. beginning, there was a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us. That was clear from moment one. And what we knew is that it wasn't about me. Most of it was about President Donald Trump, who's had to endure the very same thing for much longer amounts of time, and he endured it in incredibly strong ways. So we, in some ways, knew it was coming. We didn't

Starting point is 00:01:33 understand the depth of the dishonesty that would come with it. So from story after story in the media, left-wing media, we saw anonymous source after anonymous source based on second or third-hand accounts. Some moments drew laughter like this exchange with Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. You're quite sure that every general who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years. You're not willing to make that same pledge? I'm not a general, Senator. You'll be the one.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Let us just be clear, in charge of the generals. One of the most viral moments happened during Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen's questioning. He took aim at Democrats who say Hegg Seth isn't qualified for the job. The senator from Virginia starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job? How many senators have showed up? drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign for their job?

Starting point is 00:02:40 And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No. But it's for show. You guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake. The Armed Services Committee will now need to vote on HECS up before, before he proceeds to the Senate floor for final confirmation. Joining me now in studio is Ryan Walker, Executive Vice President of Heritage Action for America. Ryan, welcome. Thanks for having me on.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Hegseth certainly had a memorable hearing for many respects, including his own performance. He was the first of Trump's cabinet nominees to face questions on Capitol Hill. How did you think it went today? I think it went fantastic for Mr. Hegseth. I don't think that he could have done himself better justice in defending his record. his resume, his skill set that he brings to the DOD, and ultimately what he wants to do in the role as Secretary of the Department. I think that he put that on display. And I think that the Democrat senators who were asking questions and levying these claims against Pete went above and beyond what they should have done.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And I think that the American people will see that for what it is, that they're overreaching and getting in front of themselves. trying to label this guy, trying to sully his past and all of those sorts of things. They certainly went personal rather than focusing on the policy. They did. You know, Tammy Duckworth, Senator Duckworth in particular, was trying to trip Mr. Heggseth up on some of these questions around our Pacific allies in that region and who we should be working with and what some of our important defensive relationships are. So yeah, they were trying to embarrass him.

Starting point is 00:04:32 They were trying to throw him curveball questions that he didn't have answers to. And then, of course, they continued this line of questioning on his past that has been repeated and reported on by liberal media outlets across the country. Well, you have taken the position at Heritage Action that they need to be confirmed quickly. In fact, you've announced a $1 million ad campaign to support President Trump's nominees. What is Heritage Action doing over these next critical few weeks as he takes office? Yeah, great question. So to your point, we are committing to spending a million dollars in support of these cabinet nominees. Again, getting them across the line quickly since Ronald Reagan, the average time to confirm a nominee has doubled.

Starting point is 00:05:15 There is no excuse for that, and the Senate needs to be able to get to work. Now, we're encouraged by Senator Thune in the work schedule that he has announced for the Senate. They'll be working 180 days this year. But Heritage Action wants to put a little encouragement to those Republican senators to get this done in a quick manner. So we have digital advertisements up. We'll have some ads on TV that go up on inauguration day. And we're continuing to engage grassroots activists. So during the month of December, we garnered over 100,000 signatures on a petition,

Starting point is 00:05:45 urging Republican senators to get this done in a timely manner. So we'll deliver those petition signatures to the senators and continue to press forward on getting these folks confirmed very quickly. Well, Ryan Walker, thanks for all that you're doing. We'll continue to watch this closely. Of course, you can track more of the developments on these nominees either at Heritage Actions website or by visiting DailySignal.com or following our X account at DailySignal. Special Counsel Jack Smith's final report asserted federal prosecutors lacked grounds to charge

Starting point is 00:06:20 Donald Trump with incitement for the January 6, 2021 protests on Capitol Hill. The Smith report said, the office determined that there were reasonable arguments to be made that Mr. Trump's ellipse speech incited the violence. at the Capitol on January 6th, but the office did not develop direct evidence, such as an explicit admission or communication with co-conspirators of Mr. Trump's subjective intent to cause the full scope of the violence that occurred on January 6th, they concluded. In a truth social post, Trump blasted Smith as a lame brain prosecutor. The 174 page volume one of Smith's report, which was released after midnight Tuesday, ultimately

Starting point is 00:07:03 offers little new information and focuses on Trump's challenge to the 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. After Trump's November election, the Justice Department announced it was dropping both cases. Smith resigned from his post this past weekend. The United States House of Representatives is voting on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which is expected to pass with Democrat votes. Republican Congressman Greg Stuby of Florida sponsored the legislation, which prohibition. commits any school that receives federal funding from allowing men to compete in women's sports. Here is Stuby on the House floor Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Sad day in our country when radical leftists are willing to erase the rights that women have fought decades to obtain, all to elevate biological males to the top of women's platforms. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that men don't belong in women's sports and that we must allow common sense to prevail. This bill will deliver upon the mandate the American people gave Congress to restore the integrity of women's sports, just as Title IX intended. Now is our time to act. If my liberal colleagues truly believe in supporting women's right, as they often tout, they will vote in favor of this bill. I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand for women's free and fair

Starting point is 00:08:18 opportunities and athletics and to stand for truth, not lies. In a post on X, Stubi's daily signal reporter Elizabeth Mitchell's reporting on the issue. According to an RMG research poll commissioned by the Napolitan Institute last year, nearly three-quarters of Americans think men should not be allowed to participate in women's and girls' sports. We'll hit our newsflash for today right after this. Four years of constant crisis. Wide open borders, deadly sentinel, violent crime, crippling inflation, war in Israel, war in Ukraine, China rising. There's no time to waste on Washington games.

Starting point is 00:08:59 We must. Fight. Americans elected President Donald J. Trump to stand in the breach. He's already hard at work. If we're going to fight and win, we've got work to do. Confirm Trump's cabinet now. The Biden administration is considering commuting the sentence of the convicted felon who stole and leaked incoming President Donald Trump's tax records,

Starting point is 00:09:23 along with those of thousands of other taxpayers. It was the biggest tax data heist in U.S. history. Paul Speary from Real Clear Investigations reports that a search of the Justice Department's pardon database reveals Charles Edward Littlejohn, who just began his five-year sentence in May, has been assigned a clemency case number. It says a petition for commutation of sentence was recently sought and is, quote, pending. A number of liberal watchdog groups, including revolving door project and patriotic millionaires, have been lobbying President Biden to free little John from prison, because they believe his leaks provided a public service. Los Angeles resident James Breslo nearly lost his home in the Palisades Fire last week. Now he's speaking out and pinpointing the blame on the city's homeless population. Breslo says the Los Angeles Fire Department reported that 54% of fires in 2023 were started by the homeless. They responded to almost 14,000 fires that year alone related to homelessness.

Starting point is 00:10:32 The City Council passed a budget providing $1.3 billion for homeless-related expenses while at the same time cutting spending on the fire department by $17 million. You can read Breslow's first-hand account at DailySignal.com. First she missed former President Jimmy Carter's funeral. Now she's skipping Donald Trump's inauguration. That's right. Former First Lady Michelle Obama won't attend the festivities on January 20th in Washington, D.C. but her husband Barack Obama, along with former presidents, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, will be there.

Starting point is 00:11:13 And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to Top News & Ten. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new episodes of Top News & Ten or our weekend deep dive interview edition. Today's episode was edited by Brian Gottstein and produced by John Pop. Thanks again for listening and have a great night.

The Daily Signal - Pete Hegseth’s Hearing, Jack Smith’s Report, Women’s Sports Protections | Jan. 14, 2025

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