‘Clearly a Sycophant!’ House Democrat Blasts Trump’s Pick of ‘Pawn’ Fox News Host for Defense Secretary

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) said he was “shocked” and “very disturbed” by the news that President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be his Secretary of Defense.

Trump announced Tuesday evening his plans to make the Fox & Friends Weekend co-host a member of his Cabinet and sixth in the presidential line of succession, complimenting Hegseth’s eight years on Fox News, New York Times bestselling book, and military service. Trump’s statement describes Hegseth as “an Army Combat Veteran who did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” who “was decorated with two Bronze Stars, as well as a Combat Infantryman’s Badge.”

CNN anchor Erin Burnett interviewed Goldman for his reaction to Trump’s Cabinet picks so far Tuesday evening. She originally intended to discuss the nomination of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for Homeland Security — Goldman serves on that House committee — before the Hegseth news broke.

Burnett joked that “ten minutes have passed, so the world has changed,” and played a video of “long-time staunch Trump defender” Hegseth effusively praising Trump as “a president who has said I wanna make America great again, and he’s up against the forces of the left who believe America was never great.” She mentioned a report by The Wall Street Journal that the Trump transition team was also considering an executive order that would create a “warrior board” that would have the power to remove three- and four-star military officers whom they deem “unfit for leadership.”

“What do you think?” she asked Goldman about Hegseth’s nomination.

His reply:

I’m shocked, truly. And this is exactly what we worried about and we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom, and get revenge on generals and put essentially really unqualified people — I appreciate Mr. Hegseth’s service in our armed forces, but being a serviceman does not make you qualified to lead the Department of Defense and to have access to our nuclear weapons.

I’m very disturbed by this, and I’m very concerned about what it demonstrates about Donald Trump’s priorities, which now seem to be coming true as many of us warned.

Burnett played a clip of Hegseth in 2019 talking about how “God has used imperfect people” like Trump, but “what [Trump] had withstood is unlike what any other mortal could.”

“Look, he’s a television host, there’s going to be thousands more of those sorts of things, but what do you hear when you hear that?” she asked.

Goldman commented that clip was “before January 6th,” “before Donald Trump tried to overturn an election,” and “before Donald Trump hid classified information in his bathroom and refused to give it back while he was having phone conversations with Vladimir Putin.”

“This guy is clearly a sycophant for Donald Trump,” the congressman continued, “and has been his biggest cheerleader on Fox News, the biggest cheerleading network. And that is not what makes one qualified to be a cabinet secretary and secretary of defense. And the fact that Donald Trump thinks that is appropriate is very dangerous for our national security.”

It was “bad enough” to have Noem, a governor who “has zero experience with the border” at Homeland Security, Goldman said, but to “have a Fox News host who has got his finger on the nuclear weapons” was “very dangerous.”

Burnett then turned to the WSJ report about Trump’s intention to create a “warrior board.”

Goldman replied that he believed Hegseth “is clearly going to do whatever Donald Trump wants him to do,” and what Trump wanted was “to politicize the entire executive branch, the entire federal government.” He added that he still needed to look into the draft executive order “a little more,” but he was concerned this would result in Trump and Hegseth acting to “target” the generals who have criticized Trump like John Kelly and Mark Milley.

“These are people who have stood up as patriots for our country and confronted and opposed Donald Trump, and this is what Donald Trump will do to get revenge and retribution against them,” said Goldman. “And Pete Hegseth is clearly the pawn in Trump’s scheme to do that.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.