Reacting to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seeming to care more what the U.S. military looks like than preparing them to fight in future wars, former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and ex-Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) got in his own shot at the former Fox News weekend host.
During a panel discussion on CNN's "Table for Five," host Abby Phillip noted new grooming standards the Donald Trump appointee wants to implement which led to showing a clip of Hegseth making his case in February.
"It starts with the basic stuff, right?" Hegseth told the crowd. "It's grooming standards and uniform standards and training standards, fitness standards, all of that matters."
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"It's almost like the broken windows theory of policing: when you ignore the small stuff from criminals, and I'm not I'm not saying if you violate grooming standards, you're a criminal, the analogy is incomplete, but if you violate the small stuff and you allow it to happen, the big stuff, it creates a culture where big stuff you're not held accountable for. I think the same thing exists inside our services," he insisted.
That led Kinzinger, the recipient of six Air Medals earned while flying missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, to roll his eyes.
"This is what every terrible commander says," he began as host Phillip and co-panelist and conservative S.E. Cupp burst into laughter.
"Honest to god, they're like, you know, we'd wear like little pin patches on our flight suit and people would go, ''You can't wear that, 'and they're like, 'Because if I can't trust you to wear your uniform, right, how can I trust you to fly a gajillion-dollar plane?'"
"Well, you trained me to," he added.
You can watch below or at the link.