MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” called out Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for walking back his previous, documented comments about military members being commanded to follow illegal orders and dryly noted that he has “changed his tune” since joining the Trump administration.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski teed up several clips of Hegseth on Fox News in March 2016 criticizing President Trump for his campaign trail remarks that military men and women would follow his orders, whether they were illegal or not.
“The military is not going to follow illegal orders,” Hegseth said in one clip. In a separate video, Hegseth called Trump an “armchair tough guy” and ridiculed him for insisting that he would change the law to fit his orders.
“What happens when people follow those orders or don’t follow them?” Hegseth questioned at the time. “It’s not clear that Donald Trump will have their back. Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump.”
Hegseth’s past comments prompted “Morning Joe” co-anchor Willie Geist to observe that Hegseth clearly understands “the rules of engagement, despite what he’s saying.”
“He’s changed his tune now to say, ‘We’re going to get rid of stupid rules of engagement.’ I guess, permitting boat strikes on those fishing boats,” Geist observed. “But in March 2016, it still maybe felt safe to criticize Donald Trump in the Republican party. To say what you actually believe. Now, of course, he’s brought everyone under his thumb.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment in the video below.
Brzezinski noted the hypocrisy of Hegseth’s past comments compared to his actions now, especially in the wake of the Caribbean boat strikes that have led many to question whether the Secretary of War knowingly ordered and committed war crimes.
“The families of some of the victims here have begun filing human rights complaints,” Brzezinski said. “Instead of taking responsibility, Hegseth is sloughing it off on someone else and still acting like a tough guy.”
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei joined “Morning Joe” Tuesday to report on the growing fractures within the Republican Party over Hegseth’s actions. However, VandeHei also said he does not expect any Republicans to actually break rank and come out against Hegseth and Trump.
“What Republicans think and what Republicans do are two totally different things,” VandeHei explained.”This one is problematic because there are serious senators who have deep, deep reservations about this entire military operation. We keep going back to this one shooting of this one ship. You’re talking about dispatching the U.S. military to the shores of South America to wage war, at least on these ships, potentially on a nation without any authorization and without really any explanation.”
