'Military heroes!' CNN conservative sparks clash by defending Pete Hegesth move

A conservative commentator clashed with CNN's John Berman and another panelist over defense secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to remove the name of gay rights activist Harvey Milk from a U.S. Navy ship.

The defense secretary is expected to announce the ship's renaming June 13 aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship, and the service branch is also reportedly considering renaming of other John Lewis-class oiler, a group of ships that are to be named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists, such as the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman.

"I think that the defense secretary should spend his time doing things to keep Americans safe," former White House aide Meghan Hays told "CNN News Central." "I don't know why we would be spending money or time and his energy to rename battleships. It just doesn't seem right, I don't think that's what the American people want. I don't think that's what the American people want taxpayer dollars spent on."

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"He needs to focus on what is important in keeping America safe and keeping our troops safe," added Hays, a former communications staffer for Joe Biden. "But, again, he is wholly unqualified for this job, so this just goes to point that he is his his energy is not placed in the right direction."

Conservative activist David Urban disagreed, saying Hays had misidentified the class of ships that Hegseth was renaming.

"Listen, Meghan's got it wrong," Urban said. "Battleships, Meghan, by the way, are named after states, if you know anything about this stuff. So look, the Navy and the military should be focused on war fighting and focused on lethality, and, you know, ships are named after people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is a construct of recent the recent left. Listen, I'm all for heroes, for people who are inspiring soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, people who fought. That's who ships should be named after. There are lots and lots of heroic people. If you want to look at, you know, African Americans, Hispanics or other folks who served in the Navy, served in the military, let's do that."

Milk served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War but resigned at the rank of lieutenant rather than be court-martialed due to his homosexuality, and he was assassinated in 1978 after becoming the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

"I think that we can we can examine this and have a discussion about it and come to a better place than some of these ships are currently named," Urban said. "So I agree with Hegseth on this one."

Berman pushed back, pointing out that these civil rights icons were widely considered to be American heroes and no doubt inspired many military service members.

"I will say, if you're talking about heroes, some of these people on that list are heroes to a lot of people," Berman said.

Urban kept talking right into the commercial break.

"I'm saying military heroes, John," Urban said. "Military heroes."

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