The Keith Edwards Show - Pete Hegseth Appears Wasted as Trump Prepares to Cut Him Loose

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Keith Edwards discusses the escalating controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who faces bipartisan criticism after reportedly sharing classified Yemen strike plans in private Signal chats with his wife, brother, and lawyer. Amid calls for his resignation and internal Pentagon turmoil, President Trump has publicly backed Hegseth, though reports suggest the White House is quietly seeking a replacement.​

Pete Heggseg is in a lot of trouble. And what happens when someone who has a problem with alcohol gets into a lot of trouble? Well, they get into a lot of drinking. And it looks as though Pete Hegseth has done just that. Because there are reports that have come out that say that Donald Trump is looking to replace his defense secretary. And this just comes yesterday as one of Pete Hegsexed. allies in the Pentagon came out against him, saying that President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it's hard to see defense secretary Pete

Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer. This is an op-ed written by someone who literally worked with Pete Hegseth. John Uliart is former Chief Pentagon spokesman and lead communications at the National Security Council, the Department of Veterer Affairs, and President Donald Trump's first term. He resigned from the Pentagon last week. He was a senior communications advisor on Trump's 2016 campaign. So this is not just like some random person from the government. This is a Trump acolyte saying Pete Hexath has to go.

And he also said, now this is an op-ed. This is all his voice. They are very likely more shoes to drop in short order with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week. key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately. Well, as I'm sure you know, that turned out to be true, because as we learned yesterday, Pete Heggseth decided to share war plans in Signal in a second chant with his family.

The chat was set up during Hegst's tumultuous confirmation hearing process as a way for his closest allies to strategize to other people familiar with the matter said. But Hexeth continued using the chat, which had more than a dozen people in it, to communicate after he was confirmed. And then quote here, it's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon from leaks of sensitive operational plans and mass firings. The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president,

who deserves better from his senior leadership, and that is from that person who we just read earlier. So this is all kind of shaping up to the fact that what this report says is that Pete Hexeth is about to get replaced. But before we get to that, I just want someone who actually knows what it means to work and guard the military secrets, guard our nation's secrets, to talk about what it means when someone who worked with you says that you need to get taken, that you need to be fired. And this is Jake Sullivan on Midas Touch commenting on that. As your supporter, is someone who actually came into work.

Well, it's really amazing when someone who describes themselves as your friend, as your supporter, as someone who actually came into work for you, leaves and writes within a hundred days of you taking office, an op-ed in which he describes, as you said, a total meltdown, utter chaos, and frankly, basically says President Trump should fire you. Now, I'm one who believed, as I think you are, that Secretary Heggseth should never have been nominated and should never have been confirmed in the first place. So all of this in a way wasn't just predictable. It was predicted by a lot of people who said that putting a person like this into this role

would result in disastrous leadership at the Pentagon. And that's exactly what we've seen across the board. And we've seen other extraordinary statements from his former senior aides, basically saying we were fired for no good reason. We don't get what's going on. And if Secretary Hegsef can't even run his front office, how can he possibly run the entire Pentagon? That's a great question.

If he can't even run his staff, there is absolutely no way he is running the Pentagon well. And we have seen that already play out with the way that he's handling our nation's secrets and putting them into group chats with his family, with his family. And let's get into this for Portville Fesman NPR that says that the White House is looking to replace Pete Heggs as Defense Secretary. This comes as the White House has begun the process of looking for a new Secretary of Defense, according to a U.S. official who has not authorized to speak publicly. I've got the White House comment on that at the end. This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth continues to find himself mired in controversy.

NPR has also confirmed the same official that Hagseth shared details ahead of last month. Yemen strikes with his wife and brother in a signal chat on his personal phone. Minutes after being updated by a senior U.S. military official, the news of the second signal group chat about the mission was first reported by the New York Times. In March, Hegsef showed details about an action against Huthi Chargis. We all know about that. But in the last few weeks, four senior advisors to Hexeth have left abruptly, some accused of leaking.

They have all released public statements suggesting infighting with the Department of Defense. And here's what Caroline Levitt from the White House says, that President Trump stands strongly behind him. That is, if nothing else, that is a death notice when Donald Trump is saying that. Now, as for Pete Heggseth and his drinking problem, let's just watch this, and I want to see if you can notice it. Oh, let's put some sound on. You know, what a big surprise that a bunch of a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hopes.

Won't get back their Pulitzer. They got Pulitzer's for a bunch of lies. Pulitzer's for a bunch of lies. and on hoaxes time and time and time again. And as they peddle those lies, no one ever calls them on it. See, this is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.

Not going to work with me, because we're changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters, and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn't matter. So I'm happy to be here at the Easter egg roll with my dad and my kids. That kid's face is like all of us.

My dad and my kids. Because this is what we're doing it for. Oh man. All right, I'm going to show you a little bit more. But first, this is not an anonymous source. This is not an anonymous source. The name is right there, Pete. Their name's right there.

Maybe don't talk after you've had a couple of drinks. Can you smell them? alcohol in his breath, I feel like I can smell it through the screen. These kids right here. This is why we're fighting the fake news media. This is why we're fighting slash and burn Democrats. This is where we're fighting hoaxers, hoaxers. This group, no, no, this group right here, full of hoaxers that peddle anonymous sources

from leakers with axes to grind and then you put it all together as if it's some news story. And when we know it, we know exactly what it is. So I'm really proud of what we're doing for the... All right, well, here it is. I don't know if you caught it, but there you go. This is not someone operating at full capacity. Look at the sideburn on the right side of his head. And it disappeared on the left side.

My brother, he shaved one sideburn and left the other. He shaved one signbird and left the other. If you cannot maintain your facial hair, I don't think you can make. maintain the largest department in the world. You can't maintain the largest military in the world. If you can't maintain your goddamn sideburns, Pete Heggseth, I want to go take another shot.