“The Daily Show” laid into Pete Hegseth and his response to the boat strike scandal by slamming him as “the Secretary of Defensiveness.”
Host Desi Lydic addressed the growing war crimes concerns over a September boat strike and the Secretary of War’s subsequent defense of the armed conflict during Tuesday’s episode of “The Daily Show.”
Namely, Lydic blasted Hegseth as “a little bitch” for seemingly throwing Admiral Mitch Bradley “under the boat” for the combat decision.
“And one thing we know, if somebody did something wrong, he’s going to man up and take responsibility as the Secretary of War,” Lydic sarcastically stated before playing Hegseth’s statement, in which he voiced his support for Admiral Bradley, who he claimed ordered the second strike on the alleged drug boat.
“What a little bitch,” she continued. “Blaming someone by pretending to praise them? ‘I stand by him and all the decisions he made on his own while I was out of the room. If you want to get to him … you’ll have to get through me, and I will let you do that.’”
Lydic joked that Hegseth was “pre-blaming Bradley” for all his decisions, quipping, “I also congratulate the admiral for cheating on my wife at the holiday party next week.”
Despite Hegseth’s decision to distance himself from the controversy, Lydic noted things were “starting to look a little dicey for the Secretary of Defensiveness.”
“Pete is fighting back the way a true warrior does, with memes,” she added, referring to Hegseth’s post of Franklin the Turtle — a children’s book character — standing on the edge of a helicopter and firing a missile at a boat.
“Well, this whole image is deeply disturbing, especially the part where the turtle is wearing a helmet,” she said. “Why does he need a helmet? His whole body is a helmet.”
Watch Lydic’s full monologue above.
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
