Pete Hegseth: My job is to restore the 'warrior ethos'

Secretary Hexer, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We all miss you on our screens all the time. How has this been? This has been a big career change, but you are serving at such an important time right now. Well, it's the honor of a lifetime. It really is. And to get a chance, I mean, I wish everybody could have an opportunity at the Cabinet level to watch how President Trump operates, how he truly puts America first in every scenario, and looks at problem sets from a totally different direction. My job is to revive the warrior ethos inside the military, get back to basics. And so what would I do in a perfect world if I could do that? That's not how Washington normally works. Usually there's, well, you've got to play this game and check this box and go through this protocol. Not under President Trump. It's, hey, how do we fix it as boldly as possible so that the warfighters have what they need and the environment they need to be successful? Thinking tactically, operationally, and strategically, and when you look at what the President's accomplished in just 150 days, he's set the tone for a whole different ballgame for America first. And it's really been an honor to be a part of it. You moved your whole family here. And what I think a lot of us in our family realize is that when you have one person who serves, it's not just that person, it's kind of the whole family. Well, and it's been a family thing from the beginning. I couldn't do this without my wife. She's been right there by my side. She's been my rock. But then also, you know, the kids don't know what to think of it, right? You know, I'm just dad to them, but they get to see some neat things. And I hope what they're exposed to inspires them. That's really what I hope. I don't want them to think it's so cool they get to see this or ride on this. I want them to see the courage and the honor and the commitment of the men and women who serve. We've seen you at so many different opportunities out working out with the troops. They're, you know, side by side with them. What kind of feedback do you get from them when you're out there doing that? That's amazing. You get honest feedback, which is exactly what I want. It wasn't that long ago that I was in their shoes, you know, feeling like someone like the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of the Army, you know, they're so detached, they can't understand. And I've tried to close that gap. So I decided to join the Secretary of Defense during one of his workouts with troops at Fort McNair in D.C. You've been absolutely killing it. And I said, I can't come here to Fort McNair without a workout with you. So we're going to do a workout. And you guys have changed the standards for the military. That was something when you came in, you talked a lot about. Tell me about that and why that was important to do. You know, we're trying to set the standard and raise the standards. Right. I mean, one of the most basic things you can do in the military is do PT in the morning. And that's what we're trying to do. Get back to basics. And that's why we do this when I travel around. I do PT with the troops all the time. If I could do it, you could do it because, you know, carrying a rucksack or carrying an artillery round or carrying your buddy across the battlefield, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. You just need to be able to meet the standard. And so I have a feeling you guys watch. Come on. She's going to meet the standard. I'm going to struggle today. That's OK. That means we have high standards. OK, so you guys are more experienced with this thing than I am. I got one more. Let's go. That was a serious workout. We have up the standards in the United States military as far as I'm concerned. That was amazing. Thank you, guys. Incredible. From the top of the Defense Department, thank you for everything you guys do. The absolute best of the country. You know this. The best America has to offer. Give up some of the best years of their life to serve our country. So I want to pass my gratitude to you from President Trump, from your commander in chief. He always wants me to tell you that he has your back all the way. Our commitment has been clear from the minute from the first minute. Restore the warrior ethos. Rebuild our military, which President Trump did in the first term and we're doing again. And then reestablishing deterrence, which I think the world saw a lot of when those B2s flew over Iran. It came out and nobody saw them. And we put an end to the Iranian nuclear program. You should be proud of that. I'm proud of that. Our country should be proud of that. And after that military success in Iran, I wanted to find out what it was really like behind the scenes. So maybe walk us through what you can of this mission. Why it was so significant symbolically and tactically overall, because it was so impressive, I think, to the entire world. Well, it shows you the skill and capabilities of the United States military. And yes, it was it was an attack on Iran's nuclear sites, which they refused to give up through negotiations. But the rest of the world paid attention to other countries noticed exactly what America can do, that we can fly halfway around the world. Nobody knows about it. And an enemy, which, you know, until recently was quite capable, didn't see it and couldn't shoot at it. And their nuclear facilities are destroyed. And our bombers had land right back in Missouri. Thirty six hours later, it is one of the most brilliant efforts in our military history. All the love and and credit goes to those in uniform who pulled it off. But again, our commander in chief set the tone and now we've got a whole different set of opportunities. You know, you got to see him in a moment that maybe none of us ever will in this critical time in the situation room. How was that? Watching President Trump make those decisions reveals yet again the core that everybody knows and loves about him, which is he puts America and Americans first. He wants to know the risk level of that mission. He wants to know how long it will take. He wants to know how many men and women it will affect. When when we thought the strike was going to happen on one of our bases, we had already done everything we could to minimize the manning on those bases to say we don't want any U.S. casualty. And he said, I want more people off that base. I want every person except the folks shooting the Patriot missiles off that base because I don't want a U.S. casualty. Once he makes that call, because he knows it's in the best interest of the country, it gives you the clarity to say, OK, let's execute. So there were so many people in the legacy media after this successful strike who seemed to try to downplay it, seemed to try to question the significance of it and whether or not it had actually even been successful. What did you make of that? With every passing day, we're seeing more and more reflections, which we can't reveal. But that that indicate with an even greater assessment that we know how devastating the attack was on Iran's nuclear capabilities. It didn't surprise me. I know it doesn't surprise you. It's like TDS is in their DNA. They are so deranged by President Trump that they have to find a way to try to undercut him. The media stared at the three holes on top of Fordow and said, well, look at those are tiny, small without understanding the devastation underneath. Which is why I said if you want an assessment, you're going to need a big shovel because you're going to need to go deep under that mountain to look at what actually happened. So a little bit of taking a little patience, assessing the actual data is what this moment should be. But President Trump's instinct at the beginning, based on his understanding of what those weapons could do and that they were delivered properly at the right place. He said those places were obliterated and he was right. The B-2 pilots and the crew. People want to know, can you tell us anything about the crew? We know one of them was a woman. Do we have any playlists? Do we have any snacks, food? What can you tell us? What I do know is it's a different breed of individuals. Right. And you have to think about how much training goes into game time. And that's why I think there's been so much excitement and appreciation for what these crews did, because they're the latest iteration of B-2 crews and others, many of which trained and trained and trained for a mission like this for years. I look at them and go, you're a special breed. I couldn't do what you do. I don't know what was in your playlist. I don't know how you slept. I don't know how you went to the bathroom. I want to know those details and we'll find out on a B-2 flight. Thirty six hours. But I respect the hell out of what you did. And I'm proud of my nation because of what you were willing to do. Since you've been in this role, we've seen recruiting numbers across the military skyrocket. I mean, it's been pretty amazing to watch in a short amount of time what you've been able to do as secretary of defense. What are your goals going forward over the next three and a half years? Keep going. Keep going. Driving change into institutions is a difficult thing to do. And the response of the American people, the immediate response of recruiting is incredibly inspires the building. But it's a big bureaucracy. There's a lot of there's still resistance to change in certain places. There's reforms that need to be made. So we get weapons systems, planes, ships, submarines, munitions into the hands of our warfighters faster. Washington, D.C., can be very good at paying too much and taking too long. And if you have a businessman, which we do as commander in chief, he has an expectation that we get it under cost and faster. So there's a ton of work left to be done to sort of truly put the America first fingerprints stamp on the Defense Department. We've just just gotten started. Well, we are wishing you great success. Good luck with everything. We're all watching. We're all so proud. And thanks for spending a little time with us today.