Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: We've got a special edition of The Matt Gates Show
Speaker 2: this evening. Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is here
Speaker 2: and we'll bring you the full, unedited, uncut interviews with
Speaker 2: top officials at the United States Department of War, conducted
Speaker 2: by yours truly. We've been on the ground at the
Speaker 2: Pentagon all week.
Speaker 3: That's all next on The Matt Gates Show. Let's do
Speaker 3: this shaking up Washington, d C. We're breaking the fever.
Speaker 1: Do you haven't watch this guy in television.
Speaker 4: It's like a machine.
Speaker 5: He's great, Matt Gates.
Speaker 3: There's a socialist dictatorship.
Speaker 2: There's harmed Americans for far too long under unified leftist
Speaker 2: rule for many moons. I'm not talking about Venezuela. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about California. California used to be the place where
Speaker 2: the American dream put on sunglasses and said, hop in,
Speaker 2: we're going for a ride. It was sun surf startups, insanity.
Speaker 2: Now it's become a national case study for what happens
Speaker 2: when a state, let's say, single political machine run wise
Speaker 2: without adult supervision. The dream is still somewhat there under
Speaker 2: a tent behind a regulation and maybe in the lost
Speaker 2: and Found of a DMV office that hasn't updated its
Speaker 2: carpet since nineteen seventy three. Every week brings a new
Speaker 2: statistic that feels like parody of governance. People fleeing the
Speaker 2: state faster than Sacramento can invent new taxes, businesses packing
Speaker 2: up their servers, their payrolls, and their employees, putting everybody
Speaker 2: into a U haul and heading for states where regulations
Speaker 2: don't jump out from behind the Bush's families praying their
Speaker 2: kids will learn reading, writing, and an arithmetic instead of
Speaker 2: getting a crash. Courts and gender improv theater. And yet
Speaker 2: there's something heartfelt about watching Californians insist they can fix it.
Speaker 2: It's like watching a friend stay in a toxic relationship.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you want.
Speaker 2: To hug them, maybe grab them by the shoulders and say, honey,
Speaker 2: you deserve better. After Gavin Newsom's election theft of five
Speaker 2: at Republican congressional seats, Congressman darryl Isa of San Diego
Speaker 2: was asked to potentially run for a seat in Texas,
Speaker 2: where there would be more open Republican chances. Ia ultimately declined, instead,
Speaker 2: saying he'd stay in California and fight it out, even
Speaker 2: against the terribly long odds. There's something deeply charismatic about that.
Speaker 2: But there is so much to do.
Speaker 3: Just look at crime.
Speaker 2: The official position seems to be it's not a problem
Speaker 2: unless someone makes the mistake of reporting it homelessness. California
Speaker 2: spends billions, builds communities, commissions reports, and produces exactly one
Speaker 2: thing more homelessness. The nonprofits get richer, the streets get
Speaker 2: messier and dirtier. And at the heart of all of
Speaker 2: it is this border disaster, a situation so out of
Speaker 2: control that California could qualify as an honorary border country.
Speaker 2: Cartels fent at all, traffickers, criminals slipping through an open door,
Speaker 2: while state leadership works over time to block cooperation with
Speaker 2: federal enforcement. But that's where the story turns, because this
Speaker 2: year something is shift in Californians who never voted, read
Speaker 2: in their lives are looking around and thinking.
Speaker 3: This blue paint isn't just peeling, It's toxic.
Speaker 2: You feel it in the polls, the conversations, the special
Speaker 2: elections that maybe are producing different results than we expected.
Speaker 2: When one party rule collapses, it always happens in the
Speaker 2: same way, slow at first, and all at once, and
Speaker 2: into this moment walks Steve Hilton. Now here's a guy
Speaker 2: who spent years calling out the nonsense. Not as a
Speaker 2: political performer, not as a consultant whispering in the back row,
Speaker 2: but someone who actually understands how policy works. He's seen
Speaker 2: what made California great. He's watched the political elite break
Speaker 2: it piece by piece, and he stepped forward.
Speaker 3: Saying something radical, let's fix it.
Speaker 2: He talks like someone who believes the state can be restored,
Speaker 2: not managed, not rearranged, not wallpapered, but genuinely saved. He
Speaker 2: talks to immigrants, small business owners, entrepreneurs, families who just
Speaker 2: want their neighborhoods back. And they listened because he's making
Speaker 2: a case that California doesn't belong to the bureaucrats, but
Speaker 2: the people who wake up up every morning and make
Speaker 2: the place run. And here's what it means for this
Speaker 2: moment and for our audience. He's not pitching some soft, polite,
Speaker 2: Sacramento approved makeover. He's talking about bringing California back into
Speaker 2: alignment with the movement that is reshaping the rest of
Speaker 2: the country, the MAGA movement, the movement that says we
Speaker 2: deserve safety opportunity borders, schools that teach something, leadership that
Speaker 2: wakes up every day thinking about citizens, not special interests.
Speaker 2: So to night we dig in the collapse of California's
Speaker 2: old model, the rise of a new coalition, the energy
Speaker 2: of a state that's finally reaching its breaking point, and
Speaker 2: now someone like Steve Hilton might just turn the blue
Speaker 2: estate in the nation into the biggest political plot twist
Speaker 2: in a decade. Joining us now is Republican candidate for
Speaker 2: California Governor, Steve Hilton. So, Steve, I want to start
Speaker 2: with this decision that we got from Congressman Darryl Isia
Speaker 2: to stay in California to fight it out and not
Speaker 2: to head to greener pastures in a congressional district new
Speaker 2: drawn in Texas more easily winnable for a Republican. What's
Speaker 2: your reaction to Congressman IS's decision and what does it
Speaker 2: say for your campaign that Republicans want to stay and
Speaker 2: turn this state around.
Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, that it's great news.
Speaker 6: It's a little bit surprised to hear that Daryl was
Speaker 6: heading to Texas.
Speaker 4: That didn't ring true.
Speaker 6: He's a fighter and I'm very pleased to see that
Speaker 6: that was a rumor because we've got a fight for California.
Speaker 4: We've got to save California. We cannot allow.
Speaker 6: The biggest, the most beautiful state in America to continue
Speaker 6: to slide into stagnation and decline under this one party rule.
Speaker 6: And that means everyone's got to get into the fight.
Speaker 6: I've always seen it in that way. It's a team
Speaker 6: effort here. Of course, I'm running for governor. I'm leading
Speaker 6: in the polls. It's looking good, but there's a long
Speaker 6: way to go, and it's not just that one race.
Speaker 6: We've got to get Republicans elected at every level in California,
Speaker 6: and we've got to stand on a simple platform of
Speaker 6: saying we've got to restore common sense and Santa and
Speaker 6: kick out these useless ideologues who've just run this state
Speaker 6: into the ground. So it's good news that Dar's going
Speaker 6: to be here as part of that fight.
Speaker 2: I think it could go one of two ways, Steve.
Speaker 2: I think that people could be so angry that Gavin
Speaker 2: Usom spent all this money on this crazy special election
Speaker 2: and angry at the lack of disaster response and the
Speaker 2: other crumbling conditions in the Golden State.
Speaker 3: Or the risk is that with fewer.
Speaker 2: Republicans in Congress from California, Republicans could become increasingly demoralized.
Speaker 2: What do you say to keep people's spirits up after
Speaker 2: the results in the Prop fifty election.
Speaker 6: No, that's exactly right, Matt, And that's why we've got
Speaker 6: to there's no real shortcut to that other than to
Speaker 6: be honest doing what I'm doing, which is fighting even
Speaker 6: harder and saying we're not going to let them get
Speaker 6: away with this. The way that this corrupt system that
Speaker 6: they've built has been crushing and silencing Republican voices, they've
Speaker 6: already been doing it.
Speaker 4: The system we had even.
Speaker 6: Before Newsom's election rigging, was already massively gerry mannered in
Speaker 6: favor of Democrats already.
Speaker 4: Now it's much worse. But there's only one response, which
Speaker 4: is we got a.
Speaker 6: Fight back, and that means being out there with a strong,
Speaker 6: energetic campaign. I'm up and down the state all the time,
Speaker 6: and I'm telling you, people are really sick of what's
Speaker 6: going on. And next year, when it's the elections for
Speaker 6: the future of California, the governor and the other statewide
Speaker 6: offices and in the state legislature, it's going to be
Speaker 6: the real issues that affect everyone, the fact that we've
Speaker 6: got the highest gas prices in the country, the highest
Speaker 6: electric bills.
Speaker 4: It's impossible to do anything, build anything.
Speaker 6: I'm right here in the Palisades right now, where basically
Speaker 6: nothing's happening. Despite Gaven Newsom's promises of a Marshall plan
Speaker 6: to rebuild LA.
Speaker 4: Everywhere you look, it's a disaster.
Speaker 6: And I think when we get out there with a
Speaker 6: real strong, positive, common sense conservative alternative, I really believe
Speaker 6: we can pull this off.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying it's going to be easy. It's not.
Speaker 6: It's going to be difficult, but that means it's worth
Speaker 6: fighting for, and that's what I'm planning to do.
Speaker 3: We're glad you're out in the Palisades.
Speaker 2: We covered closely the terrible fires there and it seemed
Speaker 2: as though things were a lot worse because there wasn't
Speaker 2: effective disaster response and emergency response. One would hope that
Speaker 2: this would be the type of thing that would bring
Speaker 2: Republicans and Democrats together to act to demand something more
Speaker 2: responsive to their needs. Have you found converts, people who
Speaker 2: maybe were prior supporters of Newsom who've seen the way
Speaker 2: he's dealt with these disasters, and are now open minded
Speaker 2: about your candidacy.
Speaker 6: One hundred percent. And I'm going to be seeing a
Speaker 6: lot of them tonight. We've got an event here in
Speaker 6: Los Angeles, and I know that many of the people
Speaker 6: coming people who were once Democrats, and we're thinking that
Speaker 6: that's the only way to vote in California.
Speaker 4: That's just the way it is.
Speaker 6: And they've just seen firsthand the kind of pain and
Speaker 6: suffering that's actually been inflicted on regular working people right
Speaker 6: across the state for many years now, small business owners
Speaker 6: and so on. I used to be a small business owner,
Speaker 6: used to run restaurants back in the day. The struggle
Speaker 6: of just doing anything in California. That's now come home
Speaker 6: to people right here. And what many people would have
Speaker 6: thought is the kind of heartland of the Democrat elite
Speaker 6: in Los Angeles, and they are seeing it too now
Speaker 6: and you're definitely getting people coming over. We need more
Speaker 6: and that's what I'm fighting for.
Speaker 2: Matt Van Epps just won a congressional race in Tennessee,
Speaker 2: and his message was that you can't run away from Trump,
Speaker 2: that Democrats are already motivated in their hatred of President Trump,
Speaker 2: and the only way to match that enthusiasm is with
Speaker 2: a full embrace of the direction he's trying to take
Speaker 2: the country. I know that's challenging in a place like California,
Speaker 2: where President Trump didn't win the electoral votes. When you
Speaker 2: meet people who say, Gosh, Steve, you know I like you,
Speaker 2: but I don't like President Trump. How do you get
Speaker 2: their vote while also maintaining the important enthusiasm from that
Speaker 2: core magabase.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's a great question. I think there's
Speaker 4: a couple of aspects to it.
Speaker 6: You've got the Trump policies, of course, which are the
Speaker 6: core of the appeal that I think we need to
Speaker 6: make in California, fighting for working class Californias. Remember what
Speaker 6: President Trump did both in twenty sixteen and then even
Speaker 6: more so twenty twenty four, a multi racial, working class coalition.
Speaker 6: So that's why my simple message is three dollars gas,
Speaker 6: cut your electric bills in half, your first one hundred grand,
Speaker 6: no state income tax, a home you can afford to buy.
Speaker 6: It's that kind of message, the Trump attitude lifting up
Speaker 6: working people.
Speaker 4: That's part of it.
Speaker 6: But the other thing I'd want to say is that actually,
Speaker 6: as for example, last night in East Los Angeles, heavily
Speaker 6: Latino area as a toy drive for Christmas in partnership
Speaker 6: with local churches.
Speaker 4: There were people there in Maga hats.
Speaker 6: I talked to people and ask them directly about the
Speaker 6: immigration raids, eyes, deportations and so on.
Speaker 4: They say, no, we are American citizens.
Speaker 6: Yes we have Latino family backgrounds, but we're American.
Speaker 4: We work hard. We don't want our money going.
Speaker 6: To people who shouldn't even be here at all, who
Speaker 6: are here illegally. So I think there's actually, despite some
Speaker 6: of the media narratives, a lot of support for the
Speaker 6: president's agenda, even in the most heavily Latino part of
Speaker 6: the state.
Speaker 4: And that's what I saw for myself last night.
Speaker 2: We've been watching very closely what's been happening among the
Speaker 2: Republicans running for governor of California, but they are also
Speaker 2: Democrats running. Katie Porter appears to be the current leader.
Speaker 2: She is someone that's had her rage issues exposed in
Speaker 2: some viral video clips. Are you expecting that you'll be
Speaker 2: running against Katie Porter after the runoff election?
Speaker 3: And where do you.
Speaker 2: Think she would take the state of California?
Speaker 4: Well, more of the same.
Speaker 6: Any of these Democrats in the terrible direction we've already
Speaker 6: been going now. I always say, how can the people
Speaker 6: who made the mess be the ones to clean it up?
Speaker 6: Right now, I think we've got a really fluid situation
Speaker 6: on the Democrat side because just in the last couple
Speaker 6: of weeks you've had two new candidates jump in the race,
Speaker 6: Eric Swoalwell and Tom stye So with Swoalwell, I don't
Speaker 6: know which I'd rather have. Kate Porter with the endless
Speaker 6: opportunity for mashed potato jokes and rage jokes, or Swollwell
Speaker 6: with the endless chance for fang fang jokes.
Speaker 4: I mean, you've spoiled for choice.
Speaker 6: You've also got Tom Steyer, who's a billionaire climate fanatic
Speaker 6: whose agenda is the main reason everything is so expensive
Speaker 6: in California. He's got unlimited money to spend on this.
Speaker 6: We're also hearing that the state Attorney General, Rob Bonter,
Speaker 6: who's mired in a corruption scandal of his own involving
Speaker 6: the disgraced mayor of Oakland and some dodgy waste removal company,
Speaker 6: he's thinking about running for governor and he would be
Speaker 6: the choice of the Sacramento political machine.
Speaker 4: So it's still unclear to me who we're going to
Speaker 4: end up with.
Speaker 6: But I think what I always say is it doesn't
Speaker 6: really matter who the Democrats send in the end. It's
Speaker 6: time for change in California. We cannot have another Democrat.
Speaker 6: We've got to go in a new direction.
Speaker 3: I've said it before, I'll say it again.
Speaker 2: The last time California elected a Republican governor, he was
Speaker 2: an immigrant with a funny accent. So maybe this is
Speaker 2: the magic elections. Steve Hilton, my good friend, a Republican
Speaker 2: candidate for governor at Stay Safe on the campaign.
Speaker 4: Trail, Thank you Matt se Soon.
Speaker 3: And coming up.
Speaker 2: There needs to be accountability at the Pentagon, and the
Speaker 2: Trump administration is working to bring it. Ste Sheller is
Speaker 2: someone who the Biden administration punished. Now he's in a
Speaker 2: senior position in the Trump administration and he wants to
Speaker 2: see things happen. We've got my exclusive discussion with Lieutenant
Speaker 2: Colonel Sheller next.
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Speaker 2: We go now to the Pentagon to explore how the
Speaker 2: United States military is rapidly changing under President Trump and
Speaker 2: Secretary Hegseeth. No person embodies that change more than Lieutenant
Speaker 2: Colonel Stu Sheller. Sheller became a personal hero of mine
Speaker 2: when he released this video calling for accountability for military
Speaker 2: leaders who had failed the nation.
Speaker 8: I have a growing discontent and contempt for my perceived
Speaker 8: ineptitude at the foreign policy level, and I want to
Speaker 8: specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders.
Speaker 8: Did any of you throw your rank on the table
Speaker 8: and say, hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate Bogram Airfield,
Speaker 8: the strategic airberriers before we evacuate everyone, did anyone do that?
Speaker 8: And when you didn't think to do that, did anyone
Speaker 8: raise their hand and say we completely mess this up.
Speaker 4: I have been.
Speaker 8: Fighting for seventeen years. I am willing to throw it
Speaker 8: all away to say to my senior leaders I demand accountability.
Speaker 2: I caught up with Stu Scheller in his new role
Speaker 2: holding those very leaders accountable. Now as a senior official
Speaker 2: in President Trump's Department of War. We're back with Stu
Speaker 2: Sheller's senior advisor at the Department of War on personnel
Speaker 2: and Readiness. He's also got a very special role in
Speaker 2: bringing accountability to some of the really bad decisions that
Speaker 2: were made in the Afghanistan withdrawal in the Afghanistan Wars too.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining me. I want to start
Speaker 3: with this.
Speaker 2: You were almost vilified by this department in the last administration.
Speaker 2: Now you're a senior member of the leadership team here
Speaker 2: at the Department of War. Just that transit before we
Speaker 2: get into any of the substance. What's that transition been
Speaker 2: like for you. It's been gratifying.
Speaker 9: You know, it's probably terrifying to some of the people,
Speaker 9: knowing what they did to me.
Speaker 10: I mean, you're exactly right.
Speaker 9: Not only was I fired the next day, I was
Speaker 9: sent to a mental health hospital to try to be admitted.
Speaker 9: I was court martialed. I was in prison for nine days.
Speaker 9: I was kicked out with a less than honorable discharge.
Speaker 10: But at the end of the day. I kept my
Speaker 10: head up.
Speaker 9: When you try to do something that's right, it fills
Speaker 9: you with the sense of courage to keep moving forward.
Speaker 9: And Secretary of War when he was nominated, I had
Speaker 9: a relationship with him and I wanted to follow him anywhere.
Speaker 10: And so, by the grace of God God here.
Speaker 2: What have you been proud to be working on here
Speaker 2: on the personal and readiness issues? And how's the department
Speaker 2: changed in that regard?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Absolutely, I'm like right where I want to be the
Speaker 9: deputy for the Afghan Task Force, which we'll talk about,
Speaker 9: but I'm also a senior advisor in personal and readiness,
Speaker 9: which anyone that knows anything about the Pentagon policy is
Speaker 9: like fighting the fight p and r's trained men and
Speaker 9: equip and that's what I'm passionate about people, people or policies.
Speaker 10: See Wars said that.
Speaker 9: And how we can refocus the war fighting mentality which
Speaker 9: I think we got away from, and making sure we're
Speaker 9: a meritocracy.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 10: Sek War put out a video.
Speaker 9: Of allowing me to look at how we evaluate and
Speaker 9: how we evaluate leadership directly impacts the leaders that we have.
Speaker 9: You wonder why in these big moments we have senior
Speaker 9: leaders that could have maybe made different decisions, and so
Speaker 9: it's just been really exciting. Matt, honestly, right where I
Speaker 9: need to be.
Speaker 2: When your video went out about Afghanistan, there were so
Speaker 2: many Americans who felt like, finally they were hearing the truth.
Speaker 2: We'd been lied to by Republicans and Democrats and the media,
Speaker 2: and you were a clarion voice through all of that
Speaker 2: to the country. Knowing what you know now, looking back
Speaker 2: to that moment and your experience in Afghanistan, what do
Speaker 2: you see as the major flaws of that conflict and
Speaker 2: what are you hoping to ensure we don't mistakenly do again.
Speaker 9: I'll start with the second question. I'm trying to make
Speaker 9: sure that this never happens again. You know, a member
Speaker 9: of the House, when we took the House two years ago,
Speaker 9: the House Foreign Affairs Committee went back and looked at this,
Speaker 9: but they kind of singularly came to the conclusion President
Speaker 9: Biden made mistakes. What we're looking at is senior military leaders.
Speaker 9: A lot of people have a hard time criticizing senior
Speaker 9: military leaders because thank you for your service, Lion as
Speaker 9: a general, but the only way you can learn is
Speaker 9: to pour the truth out there, and just like you said,
Speaker 9: when I made those comments, you know, all the headlines
Speaker 9: read Lieutenant Colonel Scheller criticized the President Biden.
Speaker 10: I never once used his name.
Speaker 9: What I said in that video was we have senior
Speaker 9: military leaders that made bad decision evacuated Bogram. I demand accountability,
Speaker 9: and they did vilify me for that. What the Second
Speaker 9: War has charged us with is just to go back
Speaker 9: and look at the facts, lay out the facts. Don't
Speaker 9: get emotional. We had an IPR with him last week.
Speaker 9: He said, don't get emotional again. He looked right at me.
Speaker 9: So I'm trying to, you know, keep it cool. But
Speaker 9: they also have me run on the floor here. And
Speaker 9: when you look at the facts, there are multiple decision points.
Speaker 9: You know, President Biden made the decision to withdrawal. We
Speaker 9: can criticize that all day, but he made that decision
Speaker 9: with the assumption that he had senior military leaders capable
Speaker 9: enough of executing a solid military plan from start to finish.
Speaker 9: And the facts just don't show that that.
Speaker 10: Played out that way.
Speaker 9: And anyone that was watching the final scene, they don't
Speaker 9: have to be a military expert to realize that we
Speaker 9: could have done that better.
Speaker 2: No question, about it in a number of these questions,
Speaker 2: whether it's Afghanistan, the pursuit of the DEI agenda which
Speaker 2: has now been abandoned, or the vaccine mandate. There are
Speaker 2: some people who work for the military who will say, well, sure,
Speaker 2: I participated in that decision making process, but I was
Speaker 2: following orders. I shouldn't be held accountable for pressuring and
Speaker 2: coercing people to take the vaccine. I shouldn't be held
Speaker 2: accountable for telling people that they had to make evaluations
Speaker 2: based on race. As you look at this as a
Speaker 2: senior advisor, where do you draw that line? And what
Speaker 2: would you tell our viewers who are real anxious for
Speaker 2: the accountability of the type you called for in uniform.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's a really tough question.
Speaker 9: So in the three years between me getting out and
Speaker 9: coming here, I did a lot of speaking tours, and
Speaker 9: this question always comes up. When I was watching the
Speaker 9: Secretary of War give a brief to all the general officers,
Speaker 9: and he talked about who he's fired and who he hasn't,
Speaker 9: and he talked about, you know, were you just following
Speaker 9: orders or do you really believe in the DEI and
Speaker 9: the agenda of the past administration? And what he said,
Speaker 9: was it's an art and not a science. And that
Speaker 9: resonated with me because he's exactly right.
Speaker 10: When you make these.
Speaker 9: Decisions, whether you're just following orders or you stick your
Speaker 9: head out and say this is wrong, that comes at
Speaker 9: a cost.
Speaker 10: And when you do it, it's judgment based and it's an art.
Speaker 9: But I'll tell you what, if you just keep your
Speaker 9: head down and follow orders till the end where you
Speaker 9: finally get to that place where you can make change,
Speaker 9: you become the very thing that you were trying to change.
Speaker 10: You know, you're a great example of this.
Speaker 9: You know, you could say, when do you stand up
Speaker 9: and make make a hard charge that you put yourself
Speaker 9: out there, you alienate yourself on an island, But you'll
Speaker 9: also make a very important point, and it's maybe the
Speaker 9: start of the change that we're all hoping for.
Speaker 2: You were unfairly criticized for telling the truth to the
Speaker 2: country while you were wearing uniform. Now everyone is very
Speaker 2: concerned about the seditious six. Department of War Press Secretary
Speaker 2: Kingsley Wilson said their conduct was traitorous, seditious. How do
Speaker 2: you evaluate that through the lens of caring for the
Speaker 2: personnel who still need to follow orders and still need
Speaker 2: to be part of a unified team.
Speaker 9: Well, I was put in jail for nine days, so
Speaker 9: we'll see if any of those individuals are put in
Speaker 9: solitary confinement. You know, I did violate the u CMJ,
Speaker 9: I was I violated the social media policy, and I
Speaker 9: was conduct on becoming a gentleman. Those two things are true,
Speaker 9: you know, So maybe.
Speaker 10: I should have been relieved.
Speaker 9: But if I was the commentand of the Marine Corps,
Speaker 9: knowing the magnitude of Afghanistan and how it fell apart
Speaker 9: and me just asking for accountability, I would have slapped
Speaker 9: me on the wrist, fired me, but put my arm
Speaker 9: around me and walked around the force and had a
Speaker 9: town hall where we could have all healed together. That
Speaker 9: would have been leadership. That would have been tough for
Speaker 9: him to do. But he didn't do that. And that's
Speaker 9: just kind of the situation where it's like where do
Speaker 9: you keep your head down and where do you assume risk?
Speaker 9: And my whole indictment of the system is we just
Speaker 9: don't have enough risk takers.
Speaker 2: I may need to ask you this question a few
Speaker 2: years from now, but we are about a year into
Speaker 2: this Trump administration. And I'm curious how durable do you
Speaker 2: think these changes are? I mean, were you are an
Speaker 2: example of how far the change has come. And I'm
Speaker 2: wondering if you think this is something that could easily
Speaker 2: snap back, or if you really think you're getting buy
Speaker 2: in in this building around the vision of President Trump
Speaker 2: and Secretary of Hesea.
Speaker 10: It's very hard to just offer intent to people.
Speaker 9: People in leadership can change and if they're all just
Speaker 9: going to follow orders, they'll just listen.
Speaker 10: To the new intent.
Speaker 9: But if you can change the system, get enough buy
Speaker 9: in to change how the promotion systems work, to change
Speaker 9: how the incentive structure works, then I think you can
Speaker 9: have lasting change. So it's a combination. You got to
Speaker 9: get by and you got to get people to believe,
Speaker 9: but then you have to change the system of incentives.
Speaker 9: And we're not there yet. So when you ask me
Speaker 9: in three years, that is when I got hired for
Speaker 9: this job. I'm on Afghan task Force, I'm helping with
Speaker 9: COVID nineteen reinstatement. I'm all over the place. But my
Speaker 9: goal when I got hired was we have to change
Speaker 9: the incentive system. Just pleasing a boss solely, which is
Speaker 9: what we do in the military is not enough. You
Speaker 9: have to be able to demonstrate you can do your
Speaker 9: trade craft, which is war fighting, and right now we
Speaker 9: just don't have a good evaluation system for that.
Speaker 3: And what's your plan to fix it?
Speaker 9: Well, I don't want to get ahead of the Secretary
Speaker 9: on this one, so I'm still briefing, but I'm at
Speaker 9: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Secretary SECT war level,
Speaker 9: and so I think Afghanistan Review there's a lot in
Speaker 9: there that can be tied to why we need to
Speaker 9: make some of these changes.
Speaker 10: So more to follow.
Speaker 2: Well, we very much look forward to that and the
Speaker 2: changes to the force. I do want to get to
Speaker 2: a more positive note. The best thing I ever got
Speaker 2: to do as a member of Congress was nominate young
Speaker 2: women and men for our service academies.
Speaker 3: And as we've.
Speaker 2: Seen this administration succeed and rebranding this department as one
Speaker 2: for the war fighter, what have you seen on the
Speaker 2: recruitment side and what do you think that portends for
Speaker 2: the future of the fighting.
Speaker 9: Force recruitments through the roof. You know, leadership is everything.
Speaker 9: So when you have strong leadership in POTUS and SEC war,
Speaker 9: you can just see how it's gone through the roof.
Speaker 9: Now the middle management is still, you know, a holdover
Speaker 9: to trying to influence long term change with them. I
Speaker 9: think we have a lot of shortfalls in some of
Speaker 9: those areas.
Speaker 10: And it just takes time. So I think given this administration,
Speaker 10: I think we can make.
Speaker 3: A lot of good.
Speaker 10: I'm just happy to be a part of it.
Speaker 2: You mentioned earlier the system of promotion and the decisions
Speaker 2: on promotions. I found it really bizarre when Secretary of
Speaker 2: Austin would demand that people's photos be taken off of
Speaker 2: promotion packets. He was alleging some sort of racial bias.
Speaker 2: When that had when photos were taken off, it actually
Speaker 2: turned out that we had a less diverse officer class,
Speaker 2: not a more diverse officer class.
Speaker 3: By ray, right now, when.
Speaker 2: People are being reviewed for promotion, is there a photo
Speaker 2: attached and are you guys thinking about that question in
Speaker 2: the same way Secretary Austin did.
Speaker 9: I believe the pictures are still missing, but we actually
Speaker 9: were having this conversation right now.
Speaker 2: I certainly don't believe that at the Department of War
Speaker 2: we have a systemically racist institution that would block someone
Speaker 2: of merit based on how they looked on a picture do.
Speaker 9: We That's crazy, honestly, Like imagine in politics if you're
Speaker 9: running and you just can't ever show your face. It's
Speaker 9: just positions, Like the person is part of the picture
Speaker 9: for a leader, So I think a picture is very important.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Stu Scheller one of my personal heroes. So
Speaker 2: glad to see you here doing great work for the country.
Speaker 3: Thanks for your service, appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Our coverage of the Pentagon will continue. I'll bring you
Speaker 2: a discussion I had with Tim PALLATOORI. He's an interesting
Speaker 2: guy who went from President Trump's legal team to one
Speaker 2: of the senior legal advisors at the Department of War.
Speaker 2: And right now there are a lot of major legal
Speaker 2: questions the department is dealing with, from the Seditious six
Speaker 2: to the strikes in Venezuela.
Speaker 3: We'll cover all of it. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: It's next on One American News.
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Speaker 12: Jack Smith has taken a pretty careless approach, you know,
Speaker 12: from my dealings with that office, you know, for over
Speaker 12: a year. But before he came in and after, they're
Speaker 12: really trying to pursue charges here as opposed to actually
Speaker 12: pursuing justice, which is what the ethical obligations of prosecutors
Speaker 12: really are. In this case, they brought an indictment before
Speaker 12: they even finished their investigation, and he went perusing through
Speaker 12: the law books to try and find something that he
Speaker 12: could try to shoehorn this into. I was really stunned
Speaker 12: by what I saw in the grand jury room, by
Speaker 12: the conduct of the prosecutors. They made many attempts to
Speaker 12: try to get at privileged communications. They would ask me
Speaker 12: about conversations with Mike Client. They would make improper references
Speaker 12: to the jury, trying to mislead them about that. At
Speaker 12: one point it got to the level where you know,
Speaker 12: they're asking me this again, and then they turned to
Speaker 12: the grand jury. So you're refusing to provide this information. No,
Speaker 12: I'm not refusing to provide the ethical rules prohibit me.
Speaker 2: That was Tim Parlatoria, one of President Trump's attorneys. While
Speaker 2: Trump was victimized by a horrible lawfair Poleatoria is now
Speaker 2: a senior official at the Department of War, advising on
Speaker 2: legal issues. The Department is dealing with a lot of
Speaker 2: legal issues right now. Trump is using anti terrorism legal
Speaker 2: authorities in the Caribbean, and the administration is having to
Speaker 2: grapple with the legal consequences of the Seditious Six, a
Speaker 2: group of lawmakers who actively.
Speaker 3: Called for the disobeyance of the chain of command.
Speaker 2: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly is among the Seditious Six. Here's
Speaker 2: how Kingsley Wilson, the Press Secretary of the Department of War,
Speaker 2: talked about him.
Speaker 13: This despicable video that Mark Kelly parked anticipated in with
Speaker 13: the Siditious Six was a politically motivated influence operation that
Speaker 13: was an attempt to undermine the chain of command to
Speaker 13: so distrust and division in our armed forces. That is
Speaker 13: absolutely ridiculous and it puts our warfighters at risk. And
Speaker 13: again he doubled down on the Sunday shows. I don't
Speaker 13: know if you all saw him on the Sunday shows,
Speaker 13: but he basically insinuated that service members who do not
Speaker 13: defy President Trump's orders could face potential prosecution in the
Speaker 13: future when Democrats are back in power. He even called
Speaker 13: our troops and likened them to those of the Russian military.
Speaker 13: This is totally disgraceful from an elected official.
Speaker 2: Calling us sitting US senator disgraceful, seditious, traitorous is quite
Speaker 2: a moment. In this discussion, mister Pallatori discusses some of
Speaker 2: the complex legal intricacies that would append to any effort
Speaker 2: to hold Senator Kelly accountable under military justice. This is
Speaker 2: a very weighty, revealing legal analysis.
Speaker 3: Pike listen.
Speaker 2: Another major legal matter facing the Department is this seditious
Speaker 2: sixth video A lot of discussion with Press Secretary Kingsley
Speaker 2: Wilson yesterday, she called Senator Kelly's conduct traitoress seditious. We
Speaker 2: understand that there's a legal review underway right now at
Speaker 2: the Department of the Navy.
Speaker 3: One lawyer to another, what.
Speaker 2: Are some of the legal factors or legal tests that
Speaker 2: you would want reviewed in any type of allegation like this?
Speaker 12: Sure, and I'm not part of that review, but you
Speaker 12: know my personal opinion, I look at it. You have
Speaker 12: to go beyond just the video itself. Okay, the video
Speaker 12: itself has two major problems with it. One is it
Speaker 12: misstates the law. Yeah, they keep saying, Oh, we're just
Speaker 12: saying what the UCMJ says. Under the UCMJ, orders are
Speaker 12: presumed to be lawful, and you only have an obligation
Speaker 12: to disobey manifestly unlawful orders. Manifestly meaning it's obvious to
Speaker 12: anybody that this is an unlawful Well.
Speaker 2: They were obviously calling for every service member to impose
Speaker 2: their own moral judgment on every political question exactly.
Speaker 12: And so I'll give you an example, because you start
Speaker 12: with that video, and then because they haven't defined the
Speaker 12: unlawful order, you look at their other rhetoric and where
Speaker 12: they talk about we think that the National Guard deployments
Speaker 12: are unlawful. We think the Venezuela strikes are unlawful. Okay,
Speaker 12: So let's take the National Guard. If a soldier gets
Speaker 12: orders to deploy to Chicago with the National Guard, some
Speaker 12: politicians say it's unlawful, some don't.
Speaker 14: There's a debate over it.
Speaker 12: It is presumed under the UCMJ to be a lawful order,
Speaker 12: they have to follow it.
Speaker 14: If a soldier to refuse to go to Chicago, they're
Speaker 14: getting court martials.
Speaker 12: They're going to jail once they get to Chicago. If
Speaker 12: they're out there on patrol, then the platune commander says, hey,
Speaker 12: shoot that protester in the head.
Speaker 14: Okay, time out.
Speaker 12: That one is a manifestly unlawful order.
Speaker 14: That one.
Speaker 12: Everybody on every side of the issue agrees. Everybody knows
Speaker 12: that's unlawful. That's the manifestly unlawful.
Speaker 14: Order that you are required to disobey.
Speaker 12: And so that's the problem is that they lowered the video,
Speaker 12: lowers the standard of what type of order you're supposed
Speaker 12: to disobey, leaves it open to interpretation, and then gets
Speaker 12: filled in through other rhetoric.
Speaker 14: So I think that the review is going to.
Speaker 12: Kind of look at the totality of the circumstances there,
Speaker 12: but then it's also going to look at the different
Speaker 12: options available and the feasibility of those options, because recalling
Speaker 12: a sitting senator to active duty it has major implications
Speaker 12: separation of powers implications. Under the Constitution, you're not allowed
Speaker 12: to hold office in two branches at the same time.
Speaker 12: So if you are both an active duty military officer
Speaker 12: and in sitting US senator, you're required to resign one
Speaker 12: of those positions. And in this case, the military would
Speaker 12: take precedence, so he'd be forced to resign from Congress
Speaker 12: or from the Senate. So I think that that causes
Speaker 12: a major separation of powers issue. And I'm sure that
Speaker 12: the people in the Navy that are looking at this,
Speaker 12: General BLI, the judge effacate General of the Navy, is
Speaker 12: a very very intelligent guy.
Speaker 14: Guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it almost reads like an immunity tim because
Speaker 2: because if the same conduct were to occurred for someone
Speaker 2: who didn't have that protection but was subject to recall
Speaker 2: and military justice, it might be a different analysis.
Speaker 12: And I think that's one of the concerns, is that
Speaker 12: if you tried it this way, and if he were
Speaker 12: to litigate it in the district court, you would end
Speaker 12: up potentially with an order saying that members of Congress Ermia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and I think you understand this well. You
Speaker 2: and I got to know each other because when just
Speaker 2: about every lawyer in America was running away from President Trump,
Speaker 2: you were brave enough to defend him. You were part
Speaker 2: of President Trump's legal team, and at that time there's
Speaker 2: this view on the left that charges against President Trump
Speaker 2: would derail his politics, and it had like just the
Speaker 2: opposite effect. You had the front row seat to it
Speaker 2: as one of those lawyers. Do you worry that if
Speaker 2: Senator Kelly were court martialed recalled without the type of
Speaker 2: thoughtful analysis you've laid out, that it could have the
Speaker 2: boomerang effect of lionizing someone whose core conduct was was
Speaker 2: certainly bad but may not be subject to a criminal
Speaker 2: or military justice review.
Speaker 12: That is a political consideration that I'm sure that the
Speaker 12: Secretary will consider. You know, Being in my capacity as
Speaker 12: a uniformed service member here, I would say that that
Speaker 12: is not something the General Bligh and the Navy will
Speaker 12: take into consideration.
Speaker 14: They're going to look at.
Speaker 12: The individual facts and look, it's quite likely that they're
Speaker 12: going to come out of this and they're going to
Speaker 12: say there's administrative avenues to go here instead of a
Speaker 12: court mark. So there's a range of options they have.
Speaker 12: They could do a retirement grade determination on Navy. They
Speaker 12: could say, look, in this video, you said I was
Speaker 12: a captain in the United States Navy.
Speaker 14: Well, okay, you.
Speaker 12: Did not serve as a captain honorably because of this,
Speaker 12: and so therefore we're going to reduce you one rank
Speaker 12: and now you're a retired commander.
Speaker 14: You know that's a possibility.
Speaker 12: There's any number of different things, but ultimately they're going
Speaker 12: to make a determination based on the facts and the law.
Speaker 12: And politics will come into it when the Secretary looks
Speaker 12: at it and the President looks at it, But when
Speaker 12: the Navy does their analysis, the politics is not going
Speaker 12: to be part of this. It is not a political retribution.
Speaker 12: It's a facts and the law analysis.
Speaker 2: Tim Palazer, thanks so much for your time with One
Speaker 2: American News, and thanks for your service to the country.
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Speaker 2: Today and coming up, we will have major discussions about
Speaker 2: the strategic choices facing the Department of War with senior
Speaker 2: strategy advisor Erica Garrison.
Speaker 3: Don't go anywhere, We'll be right back.
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Speaker 15: Strategicy strategy, It's pretty important.
Speaker 2: We talked to Eric Garrisi at the Pentagon this week.
Speaker 2: He's one of Secretary Hegseth's top advisors on strategy. We
Speaker 2: pressed him on some of the hotspots throughout the World's
Speaker 2: to take a listen, it's been a year about the
Speaker 2: Trump administration's been here at the Department.
Speaker 3: How would you assess it's going.
Speaker 1: It's definitely fast paced.
Speaker 16: We've done a lot of things, you know, refocusing the
Speaker 16: military on war fighting. At some point, we had gotten
Speaker 16: I think a little off track, a lot of too
Speaker 16: many non war fighting task put on the military dose.
Speaker 16: They only have so much time to be prepared to
Speaker 16: fight our next wars. And with Secretary of hext and
Speaker 16: under President Trump, you know, we were allowed to, you know,
Speaker 16: push the military back to his course function of fighting
Speaker 16: and winning our nation's wars.
Speaker 2: You did inherit a world that was ablaze with conflict
Speaker 2: in different places. I want to ask you about some
Speaker 2: of the strategic decisions the Department has to make. Let's
Speaker 2: start in Latin America. What do you think is the
Speaker 2: prognosis for the Maduro regime. What choices do you think
Speaker 2: they're facing now in light of this major military built
Speaker 2: up in the Caribbean.
Speaker 16: So I think under President Trump and Secretary Headseth, you know,
Speaker 16: we're streending. What the Department of War does is we
Speaker 16: create options for the president.
Speaker 1: Right now, you have the largest amount. I worked at
Speaker 1: the United.
Speaker 16: States Southern Command for about fifteen years, and this is
Speaker 16: the most grayholes that we've had. US Navy ships in
Speaker 16: the southcom Aoar are responsibility Western Hemisphere than the entire
Speaker 16: time I worked at. HAD is sending a clear message
Speaker 16: to our adversaries and those that are trying to bring drugs.
Speaker 16: It's not just shrugs. It's human trafficking. It's human smuggling.
Speaker 16: You have firearms trafficking. It's send us strong messages. This
Speaker 16: isn't going to be tolerated.
Speaker 2: Not everyone's receiving that message. Despite the United States putting
Speaker 2: a lot of money into Planned Columbia, Gustavo Petro has
Speaker 2: clearly sided with Maduro Mexico a G twenty economy we
Speaker 2: would consider Mexico an ally. Typically Claudia Shinbaum, the president,
Speaker 2: they are saying she does not stand with the United
Speaker 2: States against Venezuela. Why do you think these traditional allies
Speaker 2: aren't getting the message?
Speaker 16: Thank you for that question, great question. I think it's
Speaker 16: just going to take time. I don't think a lot
Speaker 16: of this stuff has been There's been so many years
Speaker 16: where we've just accepted and that this stuff's going to
Speaker 16: come into our country, that this stuff is going to
Speaker 16: go from South America and the Central America with the
Speaker 16: arrival into the US. It's not just a Latin America issue.
Speaker 16: It's also a US issue. You know, we've accepted that
Speaker 16: a certain amount of drugs can get into the country.
Speaker 16: We have to deal with what are we doing with
Speaker 16: the drug deals here in the US. It's stuff you
Speaker 16: know we've allowed to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but at the Department of War you don't do
Speaker 2: and on narcotics within the US, You're you're doing it
Speaker 2: right now with this very important mission in Latin America. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, you say it's going to take some time
Speaker 2: for our allies to get the message. We have a
Speaker 2: number of train and equip missions that we do with Mexico.
Speaker 2: Now that mech is siding with Maduro in this conflict
Speaker 2: with Venezuela, should the United States continue training equip missions
Speaker 2: with the Mexican military.
Speaker 16: Should we anything we could do to help improve the
Speaker 16: capacity for our partner nations is less things US forces
Speaker 16: need to be doing.
Speaker 2: I agree, But are they really a partner if they're
Speaker 2: saying Maduro's right and Trump's wrong?
Speaker 1: Me personally, I think they're a partner.
Speaker 2: Yes, Mexico, even in light of the Mexican president's statements today.
Speaker 16: I've spent a lot of time working with Mexican security
Speaker 16: forces and I can only speak for the mill to
Speaker 16: mill They are a solid partner.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, hopefully the political dynamic there catches up to it.
Speaker 2: Do you feel the same way about Colombia where the
Speaker 2: president has been very antagonistic toward the United States?
Speaker 16: Once again, I'll speak for the mill to mill. Colombia
Speaker 16: has been a great partner. I've worked with them for
Speaker 16: many years, the mill to mill exchange, the interrupt ability
Speaker 16: with US forces.
Speaker 1: They're a very good and capable partner.
Speaker 2: So what do you think it does to those mill
Speaker 2: to mill relationships when the presidents of these countries speak
Speaker 2: out against the United States mission that's currently underway in
Speaker 2: the Caribbean.
Speaker 16: It definitely, I want to say strain it, but it
Speaker 16: definitely it's it makes it just a little more tough
Speaker 16: to do what we need to do working with our partners.
Speaker 2: Let's travel to another area of the world. What right
Speaker 2: now from a strategic planning standpoint, is the department preparing
Speaker 2: for for the department's role in Gaza in the coming months.
Speaker 16: Once again, like what we do in Department of War
Speaker 16: is give the President options. I can't too much about
Speaker 16: Gaza really not my part of the stuff that I
Speaker 16: work on.
Speaker 2: So, okay, that's not in the Gaza's not in the
Speaker 2: strategy portfolio at this time.
Speaker 16: It's just not something that I'm there's other I'm not
Speaker 16: the only advisor in there. That's just not something I'm
Speaker 16: not going to give you like a screwed up answer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2: The warrior culture is something Secretary head Seth has really
Speaker 2: been focused on during his time here. How would you
Speaker 2: assess the adoption of that ethos among the fighting force.
Speaker 16: One of the great parts of my job is I
Speaker 16: get to go out and spend time with a lot
Speaker 16: of the units, got to visit all different units from
Speaker 16: all the different branches of service. I could tell you
Speaker 16: that the troops absolutely love the focus on the military
Speaker 16: and it's what they're joined to do. People don't want
Speaker 16: to be part of a losing team. They want to
Speaker 16: be part of a winning team, and us giving them
Speaker 16: all the assets, giving them all the resources, giving them
Speaker 16: the focus on. Hey, this is what we want you
Speaker 16: to be focused on is war fighting tasks.
Speaker 1: They're all about it.
Speaker 2: The final question for you, with that motivation to be
Speaker 2: on the winning team, what are you seeing and recruit
Speaker 2: and how does some of the decisions you make at
Speaker 2: the strategic level impact the message that you're sending to
Speaker 2: America's young people that military service is a great way
Speaker 2: to spend a life.
Speaker 16: Well, I could tell you first and like recruiting is
Speaker 16: the numbers are through the roof since President Trump got
Speaker 16: elected Secretary highsett that is capitalizing on that.
Speaker 1: You know, I enlisted.
Speaker 16: I was from New York at seventeen years old with
Speaker 16: a ged you know, off the street, and I was
Speaker 16: able to make a full career at them for myself.
Speaker 16: You can see where I'm where I'm sitting now, so
Speaker 16: I'm only in America. I was able to you know,
Speaker 16: I came out of the military.
Speaker 1: Win masses agree. So it's it is that you can
Speaker 1: have a great life serving your country.
Speaker 16: You know it's they're they're called the you know, the
Speaker 16: great there always are country's next greatest generation, as though
Speaker 16: that's a servant.
Speaker 3: So thank you so much for your service to the country.
Speaker 3: You appreciate you. Spend some time with One American News
Speaker 3: and we'll be right back with more from Pentagon. Don't
Speaker 3: go anywhere.
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Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We care deeply about military families on this program. They
Speaker 2: inspire the best within us because they are the best
Speaker 2: among us. I spoke recently with Anthony Tata, who oversees
Speaker 2: all of the policies that impact health and well being
Speaker 2: for our military families.
Speaker 3: Take a listen to that full discussion.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate you being here with one American News. We've
Speaker 2: got so much interest in the personnel the fighting force.
Speaker 2: How do you think that's changed under Secretary hegxt.
Speaker 14: Well, it's all changed.
Speaker 11: He's focused on the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, re
Speaker 11: established into terms consistent with President Trump's focus on the
Speaker 11: entire piece through strength portfolio. You take a look at
Speaker 11: the presidential priorities of Golden Dough, the Southwest Border, all
Speaker 11: the other things that we're doing, like shipbuilding. My job
Speaker 11: is to reorient the personnel priorities to support the presidential
Speaker 11: priorities and the Secretary's priorities, and we're.
Speaker 1: Doing that through We have nine hundred and fifty.
Speaker 11: Hospitals and clinics that I'm in charge of with nine
Speaker 11: and a half million beneficiaries. We have the whole readiness
Speaker 11: of the entire fleet aircraft, ships, all platforms, tanks, personnel readiness,
Speaker 11: the entire three million strong force that we've got. It's
Speaker 11: a big portfolio. I have over one thousand child development
Speaker 11: centers K through twelve schools, youth activity centers with three
Speaker 11: hundred thousand military connected children. So it's a massive enterprise,
Speaker 11: all the service academies, all the military colleges, the senior
Speaker 11: service colleges, education, training, readiness. That all comes up under
Speaker 11: a very lean team, Matt that we've got.
Speaker 2: We've hit almost all of the hot button issues that
Speaker 2: drove our Military Personnel and Readiness Committee when I was
Speaker 2: in Congress, we were so frustrated when we saw a.
Speaker 3: Critical race theory, promotion of socialism.
Speaker 14: All that's gone.
Speaker 11: We've had task forces that have leached all that out
Speaker 11: of our curriculum and all the K through twelve schools,
Speaker 11: through all the service academies, through all the senior service colleges,
Speaker 11: and we're focused on those things that unify us, not
Speaker 11: divide us. We're focused on lethality and war fighting and
Speaker 11: working together as a team instead of someone's individual identity
Speaker 11: and separating and showing how distinct and different people are.
Speaker 11: We're focused on America. We're focused on defending this nation.
Speaker 2: Recruiting has been a big hobgoblin for the Department for
Speaker 2: quite some time. A lot of it comes from the
Speaker 2: fact that high schoolers are not as physically fit to
Speaker 2: be able to meet military standards.
Speaker 3: What are you seeing in recruiting in this.
Speaker 2: First year of the Trump administration in charge of the department,
Speaker 2: and what do you think is the challenge I had.
Speaker 11: I know you were on the House Armed Services Committee, Matt,
Speaker 11: and so you know that recruiting wasn't so great on
Speaker 11: the previous administration. But since November of last year to now,
Speaker 11: we've exceeded the numbers in every category in active duty,
Speaker 11: we're just crushing the numbers Navy, Air Force, Army, Space Force,
Speaker 11: Marine Corps in every category. So the focus, it was
Speaker 11: a great segue, the focus on those things that unify
Speaker 11: us as opposed to those things that divide us. People
Speaker 11: are come in and say, I want to be a
Speaker 11: member of this team. I want to be part of
Speaker 11: this leadership. I want to work for President Trump. I
Speaker 11: want to work for Secretary heads because they have the
Speaker 11: focus on war fighting. Parents are now have the confidence
Speaker 11: that my young seventeen, eighteen, nineteen year old is going
Speaker 11: to be signing up for a team instead of something
Speaker 11: that's going to teach you something that you might want
Speaker 11: not want them to know.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the President's priorities and the health, infrastructure, serving
Speaker 2: our fighting Force. I want to talk to you about IVF,
Speaker 2: the House incentive. Both past of version of the National
Speaker 2: Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision to allow service
Speaker 2: members to access IVF for family formation. President Trump supports IVF.
Speaker 2: Do you think that should be in the bill that
Speaker 2: goes to his death?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I think that's a great thing, you know, building families,
Speaker 11: having great families of military families. You know, I know
Speaker 11: that many military families want to grow their families, and
Speaker 11: encouraging them to do that. I think that's a fantastic thing.
Speaker 2: We were also deeply concerned when so many people in
Speaker 2: the military had to leave as a result of the
Speaker 2: vaccine mandate. While our discussion with the Secretary this morning
Speaker 2: was off the record, I left with the sense that
Speaker 2: he wanted to see more done on boarding people and
Speaker 2: clearing those backlogs.
Speaker 3: What update can you give.
Speaker 11: Us on Yeah, so not a day goes by that
Speaker 11: I don't work on this issue, the COVID reintegration as
Speaker 11: we call it. And so there's three works trains. At
Speaker 11: noon today, I had a call for thirty minutes with
Speaker 11: a member of that community that I've made a special
Speaker 11: government employee, Casey Dixon's. She was an Air Force jag
Speaker 11: major who got out because of the shots. She was
Speaker 11: not she elected to leave the service. She's now on
Speaker 11: my team and she's connected with that community. We have
Speaker 11: three workstreams. We have the reintegration piece where we've got
Speaker 11: white glove service. We've got sharpas carrying people through from
Speaker 11: start to finish for each of the military departments.
Speaker 1: We're also taking a look.
Speaker 2: Do you have a specific goal for how many of
Speaker 2: these folks to re onboard or how to clear the back.
Speaker 11: One thing that we're fine is, you know, not everybody
Speaker 11: wants to come in.
Speaker 1: They moved on with.
Speaker 11: Their life, they got jobs, they moved and we have
Speaker 11: contacted all eighty seven hundred involuntaries separated folks twice and
Speaker 11: encouraged them. And I think you know, we've done two
Speaker 11: reinstatements now a.
Speaker 1: Very high level, high profile.
Speaker 11: We did Kevin Bourne, the senior adjunt general from the Army, Colonel.
Speaker 11: The Secretary reinstated him and he's now the Army lead
Speaker 11: for COVID reinstatement. And then we did Mark Bashaw who
Speaker 11: was court martialed by Vinman who was the prosecutor, and
Speaker 11: pardoned by President Trump. I personally reinstated him and he's
Speaker 11: on the Army team now and that's given confidence to
Speaker 11: people that we're serious about this. On the reintegration piece,
Speaker 11: we're also looking at the people that don't want to
Speaker 11: come back in. They might have gotten a bad you know,
Speaker 11: other than honorable discharge or general discharge on their own.
Speaker 2: So you're going to perfect those departures were proactive.
Speaker 11: We're looking at proactively just taking a look at all
Speaker 11: eighty seven hundred records and if they did the jagpile
Speaker 11: on with about five different charges all related to COVID.
Speaker 10: We'll upgrade that.
Speaker 11: And that's what we want to do. And because then
Speaker 11: they can get their GI bill. They can't get their
Speaker 11: GI bill now, they can't get educated, they can't use
Speaker 11: the benefit they earn. And some of them had their
Speaker 11: bonus recouped. So if they enlisted for three years, they
Speaker 11: were in for two. You know, the previously admitted SATs
Speaker 11: stole that money back from.
Speaker 2: That's horrendous to hear. I'm so glad you're working on it.
Speaker 2: Final issue I want to discuss with you. This issue
Speaker 2: roared like a lion, like I would have never believed
Speaker 2: in my final year in Congress. It's the issue of
Speaker 2: the child development centers for our military families. Almost everyone
Speaker 2: I know who represented a military district was fighting for
Speaker 2: a child development center at their base. This has become
Speaker 2: an expectation from the fighting force. Do you feel like
Speaker 2: we're behind and what's your agenda on the child development center?
Speaker 11: Our families are growing and our child development center need grows,
Speaker 11: you know, and so we're trying to keep pace with
Speaker 11: the growth of the families within our militaries. And we're
Speaker 11: happy that the families are growing. So we've got hundreds
Speaker 11: of child development centers and thousands of employees and that's
Speaker 11: part of this K through twelve portfolio of one hundred
Speaker 11: and sixty schools and then you know several hundred child
Speaker 11: development centers and several hundred youth activity centers and it's
Speaker 11: about a thousand when you wrap it all together. So
Speaker 11: for military connected children, there's about three hundred thousand of them,
Speaker 11: and we're laser focused on providing that education, ripping out
Speaker 11: the CRT and DEI, making sure that we're taking care
Speaker 11: of the children and the military the military connected children,
Speaker 11: and then giving them either youth activity or the child
Speaker 11: development center if they're if they're not in the K
Speaker 11: through twelve system yet.
Speaker 2: You will fix the child child development issue or you
Speaker 2: will hear about it NonStop because these these moms and
Speaker 2: dads in the military connected to military service, they're really
Speaker 2: relying on they.
Speaker 1: Should yea as they should.
Speaker 11: You know, I was in the military. I had two kids,
Speaker 11: and you know I needed that service and they deserve.
Speaker 11: That's a benefit that we provide, and we have to
Speaker 11: deliver on that benefit, and we have to take it
Speaker 11: very seriously.
Speaker 2: Mistreunder Secretary, you've been more than generous with your time.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your service to the country and for
Speaker 2: all the work you're doing on behalf of our military families.
Speaker 11: Thank you, Matt, I appreciate, thank you service and comment.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 2: That's all the time we have. We'll be back Monday,
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Speaker 3: Let's go get him