'Really bad in every way': Expert paints portrait of Pete Hegseth providing crisis advice

During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday morning, former Naval War College professor, and current columnist for the Atlantic, Tom Nichols implored Republicans to look elsewhere for a replacement for Donald Trump's choice to be the next secretary of defense.

Speaking with host Ali Velshi, Nichols made the case that Fox News personality Pete Hegseth is fooling himself and everyone else by claiming he can handle the the job because he lacks the experience and character to make sound decisions and advise the president.

"Yes, he was a major in the Army," Nichols conceded. "I taught at the Naval War College. I taught dozens and dozens of young majors and they are fine men and women, but that doesn't make him qualified to be advising the president in the middle of a crisis or potentially even a nuclear crisis."

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"The secretary of defense is a job that that is always reserved for someone who can meet both the intellectual experience and character standards that's required to be at the top of the Pentagon," he continued before later adding, "There's a real threat of real bad things happening in the world for which we need the people who have the best and most sober judgment and the most sober temperament –– and I don't mean that as a pun on the allegations of drinking."

"I mean a level and steady temperament," he elaborated. "And I don't think there's any evidence of that with Pete Hegseth who, again, other than having served in the military and been a morning talk show host and has no business being secretary of defense."

He then predicted, "I'm uncomfortable with the civilian/military relationship where the president calls the Pentagon and the secretary of defense says, ''We're not going to do that,' or in this case the secretary of defense says, 'Sure, whatever you want to do, Mr. President."

"This is really bad in every way, and I hope that some somehow sanity prevails here," he added.

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