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President-elect Donald Trump's decision to select Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to be his defense secretary drew immediate controversy given his long history of incendiary comments and his past lobbying on behalf of convicted war criminals.

Analyzing the pick of Hegseth on CNN, Democratic strategist Karen Finney argued that it's a foreboding signal about how Trump intends to govern in his second term.

The acumen of Donald Trump’s eyebrow-raising selection of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to head the Defense Department led to a tense moment between two CNN panelists Tuesday, which provoked one to compare the president-elect's pick to “The Twilight Zone.”

“I think he is making good on all of his promises,” CNN contributor Cari Champion said Tuesday on CNN’s “NewsNight” with host Abby Phillip. “One thing about Donald Trump that I find very interesting is, and you may disagree, which is fine, but I don't know if acumen is top of mind when picking these people.”

A panel of CNN guests clashed on Tuesday night over the definition of "woke" and how it relates to America's military in light of reporting from The Wall Street Journal that Trump's first executive order could be a military purge.

GOP strategist Scott Jennings went toe-to-toe with fellow guest and TV host Cari Champion as well as New York Times staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, with Jennings asserting that the military has taken on "all of the worst properties of corporate America" gotten away from its core mission: fighting and winning wars. When host Abby Phillip asked what properties, Jennings pointed to "all of the [human resources] properties that have divided this country the past several years."

Former Trump administration White House attorney Ty Cobb tore into the former president on CNN over his repeated pledges to pardon rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 when he retakes office next year.

Trump notoriously wielded pardon power in his last administration to free friends and allies, often people who directly went to jail for lying on his behalf in the Russia investigation. Jan. 6 insurrectionists are not alone in hoping for Trump to spring them; also vying for attention are politicians in prison for public corruption, most notably former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.

A New York lawmaker who served as lead attorney for House Democrats during the first impeachment of President-elect Donald Trump said he was "shocked" by Trump's selection of a Fox News host to head the Pentagon.

"I'm shocked, truly," Rep. Dan Goldman told CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday night, moments after Trump's pick of Pete Hegseth was announced. "It's exactly what we worried about and we warned about Donald Trump."

President-elect Donald Trump’s draft executive order that would allow him to purge military leaders stunned a retired Air Force colonel, who sounded the alarm during an interview Tuesday on the devastating effects the action could have on the U.S. military.

“It is stunning,” retired Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during an appearance on his show, “The Situation Room.” Leighton, a CNN military analyst, began his remarks after Blitzer noted that the draft order coming out of Trump’s presidential transition team “is raising fresh concerns about the politicization of the U.S. military in the new Trump administration.”

A former deputy press secretary for Donald Trump jabbed Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) over her lack of experience in Homeland Security, the department she will take over for the Trump administration.

Noem — who has been plagued by scandals in South Dakota for years — is headed to Washington as she takes over a key piece of the federal government. Her selection has faced scrutiny, with the government watchdog group Accountable.us blasting her as "extreme and untrustworthy with zero national security credentials."

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy flummoxed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre by suggesting that President Joe Biden's Tuesday meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris would be an "awkward" situation.

Doocy made the remark during Tuesday's White House briefing.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said "a lot of election fraud" was to blame after Republicans failed to secure a sizable majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

During a Tuesday interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Greene noted that control of the House had not been determined at that time.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump could become a U.S. senator if Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) takes the advice of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).

After Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was named President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Secretary of State nominee, Luna told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that the RNC co-chair should replace him in the Senate.

The co-hosts of "The View" are shocked to see what they think are reasonably rational appointees to Donald Trump's Cabinet — but they warn it won't continue.

Ana Navarro, who was once a Republican strategist, said that she came up in Florida GOP politics with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and they still share many of the same opinions about foreign policy.

President-elect Donald Trump's incoming "border czar," Tom Homan, revealed that the U.S. military would be involved in a plan to conduct mass deportations in the new administration.

During a Tuesday interview on Fox Business, host Maria Bartiromo asked Homan how he would deal with sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with Trump's deportation scheme.