Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Michael Cohen Show on our continued
journey to two hundred and fifty thousand subscribers. Now's not
the time to unsubscribe. It's the time to join communities
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get my raw and unfiltered commentary on important daily issues.
And I want to start by talking about some of
the cabinet picks. And we're going to concentrate right now
on Pete Hegseth. And why Pete Well, because after Matt
Gates stepped down because he was look, let's be clear,
he was unqualified to be the Attorney General, he had
other sorts of issues. Everybody now again is focusing on
Pete Heggseth. So first I want to show you an article.
All right, The article says Trump encounters Senate GOP limits
with failed Gates ag push. Then it goes on to
say that President like Trump's ill fated nomination of former
Representative Matt Gates to run the Justice Department, it marked
an early sign of hisotential limits in moving his nominees
and dealing with Senate Republicans, giving him less wiggle room
to get his cabinet in place. Riding high off his
electoral win. Earlier this month, Trump tap Gates to become
Attorney General in what emerged as a quick test for
Senate Republicans, with Trump expecting them to capitulate to him
as they have numerous times over the years. Now, I
want to go on to show you what Leslie Marshall
had to say on Fox News about Matt Gates's withdrawal.
Play the clip.
Speaker 2: Look, there's only one man on Fox News, and I've
been here seventeen years that shushed me on national television
and told me he'd tell me when he could let
me finish.
Speaker 3: And that was Matt Gates.
Speaker 2: So wanted to answer your question, though, Howie, it's a trifecta, hear.
I think there was, you know, a sit down by
the guy who you know nominated him the president elect.
I think there was a phone call because fifteen minutes
after that phone call from CNN, Hello, second allegation and
then third you just got to look at the numbers.
You don't have the votes, it.
Speaker 1: Was, Yeah. So I want you to stay to the
very end on this one because I think you're going
to understand the twist that comes at the very end
as it relates to Pete. But I also want you
to remember that Pete heg Seth said that, for example,
and this is what makes him so controversial, that women
shouldn't be in combat. Play this clip.
Speaker 3: I'm straight up just saying we should not have women
in combat roles hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made
us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We've all
served with women, and they're great. It just our institutions
don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not
traditionally over human history, men in those positions are more capable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, again, probably not the way to express yourself. There
are plenty of women who are incredible that I don't
even know how to describe that sort of statement other
than just being the anti woke kind of guy that
Pete Hegseth wants to be. And then again, that's even
if you acknowledge the term woke. But I wanted as
to show you because I think she says it much better.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs in combat. Here's
what she had to say about this comment. Play the clip.
Speaker 4: America's daughters are just as capable of defending liberty and
freedom as her sons.
Speaker 5: Having served in combat yourself, what do you think of
the idea that women make fighting more complicated?
Speaker 6: That was specifically what he focused on.
Speaker 4: Well, it just shows his lack of understanding of where
our military is. You know, he was a pretty low
ranking guy in the military, and he never had a
command position. He was a platoon leader, I think once
or twice commanded a company. And so this is a
man who is in orderly unqualified for the position. Remember
that the Pentagon is three million servicemen and women and civilians.
It is an over nine hundred billion dollar budget. He's
never you know, run anything anywhere near to that size.
And frankly, women actually make our military more effective. And
I've personally found that I brought many insights to my
job when I was a company commander, when I was
a logistics officer that came from my own personal background
that made things better. I took better care of my
men for a.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me also be clear, when when you have
three million people in total, as Sendator Duckworth was saying,
what percentage of them thirty percent a third three of
one million are women? What are you going to do?
Send them letters and say thank you for your service
to the country, but you're no longer needed because women
aren't as confident and capable and they're not able to
fight the way that men are able to fight. Again,
technology has changed war, thank god a million times. But
you're talking from a Senator Duckworth, Tommy Duckworth, who lost
her legs in combat. Could you imagine the disrespect that
this brings. I'm blown away that for a guy who
is super intelligent, by the way, very educated all Ivy League,
would make such a ridiculous comment like that. It's so
offensive on so many levels. But I want to also
show you as an example, he really can't make this up.
I want to show you what Senator Eric Schmidt had
to say about hag Seth. Play the clip, Millie.
Speaker 6: This is a decision that President Trump made to bring
in another disruptor, and I think if you look at
this election, it was disruptor versus establishment. He ran on
this and their needs needs to be reforming the Pentagon,
whether it's procurement, whether it's getting rid of divisive DEI
that's dividing our military by race. There's no place in
our military. I think he's talked about eliminating that and
then also making sure a focus is on our chief adversary, China.
Speaker 7: Let me ask you, I guess big picture, Senator, You're
on the Armed Services Committee and there's a known sexual
assault problem in the military. Do you believe that Pete
Hegseth is the right person to lead the military given
all of that at this very moment.
Speaker 6: Well, he's not in charge with anything, Chris. I think
that's important. And so you read from a police report.
I've not seen the police report, but again I'd like to.
There's probably more documentation around this that would be interesting
to see.
Speaker 7: So I think that's what this compulation question.
Speaker 6: Well, of course I'm going to have questions, but that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, again this is punting. Why not just come out
with a statement and say, as I mean, I understand
that he's a Republican from Missouri and so on, and
he wants to stay in Trump's good graces. I get it,
I really do. I get it better than anybody. But
how could you not turn it? It's not one, it's
not two. I believe that there are three three charges,
and yes he has not been held criminally accountable or
payoffs and whatever it might be. But is he really
the right guy to run a Department of Defense? Really,
it's only he got the job simply because he was
the trumpiest trumper on Fox News on the weekend, and
he showed his fealty and loyalty. So put him someplace else.
But how do you put him in charge of a
nine hundred billion dollar budget with three million plus people
on the payroll when he's never had a payroll in
his entire life. Now, I want to go on and
show you what Senator Mark Wayne Mullin had to say
with Dana Bash on CNN about Pete Hegseth. Play that
clip and.
Speaker 8: You argue that a police report that came out this
week showed they were just two people flirting with each other.
But I want to just make sure viewers know what
that report said that The woman said that when she
tried to leave Hegseth's hotel room, he blocked the door,
ended up on top of her, and performed a sexual act.
She also said that she don't remembered saying no to
a lot.
Speaker 5: Yeah, God, Dana, if we're going to get into that,
let's talk about the whole police report.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 5: I know if you read it, and I have definitely
read it. First of all, the police report, if you
look at it, it's very clear that what Pete was
saying was his attorney was saying was accurate. There was
no case here. He was falsely accused. If you go
back and you read the report, there was two eyewitnesses
said that she was being the aggressor. Pete wasn't even
flirting with her. He was flirting with a different girl
and the other girl was trying to flirt with Pete.
The Jane Doe here that is unmentioned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh boy. Nothing again to respond to that one,
I get sticking up and trying to protect the President
elect's choice. But seriously, seriously, finally, I want to show
you what Senator Dan Sullivan had to say.
Speaker 9: Play that clip, and you know, in my discussions with
Pete Heggset, one of the things that I really like.
And by the way, it's this national security team, not
just Pete Hegset, but Marco Rubio as Secretary of State,
Mike Waltz's national security advisor. This is a strong trio
that the president has put forward. But here's the key
thing from my perspective, trade we need to get back
to the core mission of the Department of Defense. That's lethality,
that's winning wars, that's peace through strength. You know, I
just retired this year from the Marine Corps. I've been
in for thirty years, so I saw firsthand some of
the woke stuff that was happening. With regards to the
Biden administration. You know, you had a Secretary of the Navy.
It is more focused on climate change than shipbuilding. One
of the President Biden's first executive orders that one or
two days after his inauguration wasn't focused on lethality winning wars,
was focus on transgender surgery for active duty troops. So, look,
we need to get back to the mission of the Pentagon,
which is to win our nation's wars and to create
the most lethal force in the world to deter wars.
And I think Pete Hegseth is very focused on that,
and that is a refreshing change, a critical change that
the American people want and we need in the Department
of Defense.
Speaker 1: Thank you. First of all, I wasn't aware that right
now the United States is at war with anybody. I
understand that we're assisting Ukraine in its war with Russia,
and the United States is assisting with Israel our partner
in terms of the Israel ramas War. I get that,
but I wasn't aware suffice it to say, here's the
part when at the beginning I explained to you the
end is going to be somewhat different than what you think.
President elect has every right to choose his cabinet. He
is every right. I certainly am not going to be
choosing it. You're certainly not going to be choosing it.
The Biden administration certainly isn't Kamala Harris or the DNC.
Donald Trump gets to pick and choose his own cabinet.
The hope, the hope is that there were enough senators
like there were with Matt Gates within which to say,
with all due respect, mister President, Pete Hegseth is not
the guy that we have confidence in to run the
Department of Defense, or they capitulate, and then that is
going to be who the secretary is who. It's just
going to be plain and simple. You see, our superpower
our the citizens is our ability to vote, and the
plurality of Americans voted for Donald Trump. So of course
he's gonna pick and choose who he wants. I just personally,
I would like to see somebody who actually has the
experience necessary in order to not screw up the DoD
because that is what we rely upon for our national security.
Who knows We all just need to take the temperature down.
We need to sit there and just try try to
make our voices heard, like through communities like this, which
is why I say now is not the time to unsubscribe,
to subscribe and share, because we need to build up
a community large enough to ensure that if the Senate
doesn't do what they should do, what makes perfect sense,
that's where we step in and we make sure that
our voices get heard. And as always, thanks for listening.
Hey everyone, First of all, thanks for watching. I mean,
we're going to be posting daily episodes with reactions and
talking about politics. We'll be talking about everything in fact,
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