Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's rant last month about his policies is still sending MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace into a fit of laughter.
She kicked off her show Friday by playing a clip of Hegseth giving his State of the Force address from the end of last month.
"The War Department, as you know, is colorblind, gender-neutral, and merit-based," said Hegseth. "Or as the president likes to say to me, Pete, central casting, I want central casting. The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top."
"I still can't believe that's real," Wallace laughed. "That Pete Hegseth can say 'ideological clowns' without any awareness of the irony of that smear says so much about him and this moment, and the fact that Trump picked him for arguably the most important job in our government."
The fact is, she continued, that since taking office, Hegseth "has purged the military ranks of top generals, top talent, particularly women and people of color, but not just women and people of color. He has threatened to court-martial a sitting senator for telling the active-duty military men and women of the military to ignore illegal orders." It was also his announcement to livestream a military execution, which President Donald Trump vetoed after backlash.
"Now his straight out of the hell side of the manosphere plan to monitor the testosterone levels of all soldiers is raising health concerns from former military doctors, and the troops themselves," said Wallace. Per new MS NOW reporting, she quoted, "some veterans fear the new mandatory screening could threaten troops' fertility and their careers, tying some of them to lifelong injections. The Department of Veterans Affairs is not guaranteed to continue covering under a program Pete Hegseth announced in July."
Hegseth's plan, she noted, calls for screening for all service members 30 years and older, with testosterone replacement therapy for those who test under a certain threshold. "Treatment will be voluntary, though the Pentagon has not said whether troops who refuse recommended treatment would face consequences."