'Can't do that': Hegseth gets warning of possible military revolt after speech demands

According to retired United States Army Lt. General Mark Hertling, there is a strong possibility that members of the military leadership who listened to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial speech in Quantico, Virginia, walked away planning ways to ignore some of his demands.

Speaking with the co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Hertling, who earlier claimed Donald Trump was “rattled” by the cool response from the military professionals in attendance, said what Hegseth was ordering them to do would violate the oath they took in the service of their country.

“But truthfully, those individuals will leave that room or left that room yesterday and they'll start discussing and analyzing how they can implement some of the lawful orders that they got,” he said to the hosts. "You know, okay, great, we can buck up the standards. We can take a look at the kinds of things to get some soldiers, not all, certainly not even the majority, back in better shape. Take a look at what our ranks look like.

“But there were also soldiers and, well, all ranks of services, in that audience that said, wait a minute. When they were writing down the same kind of checklist that I was writing down, saying, wait a minute, we can't do that, or we shouldn't do that, or this is a true violation of what we are as professionals or, hey, I've got women in my ranks who are performing admirably. Why should I kind of lump them all together like the secretary did? Or I'm certainly now going to debate with myself, what am I going to say if I'm asked to go on the street and conduct illegal actions?”

“And I guarantee you that the people in that audience will not execute illegal orders,” he insisted. “We have been saying that for a long time.”

“But at the same time, all of them, not only were they personally embarrassed, but they were embarrassed for their services that had, you know, sit in that audience and listen to this kind of stuff,” he continued.

“That's the worst part of all this. You know, there's a saying in the military that's a great leadership dictum: ‘You praise in public and you discipline in private.’ This was a disciplinary approach in public with cameras, so the whole nation could see. And it was an attempt at separating the military institution from the people that they defend.”

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