Don Lemon identified the irony of Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration’s efforts to get rid of range, fairness and inclusion applications inside the navy, calling Hegseth a “DEI hire.”
“In his definition and the Trump administration’s definition of diversity, equity and inclusion, Pete Hegseth is a DEI hire,” Lemon stated on “The Dan Abrams Present” Tuesday. “Pete Hegseth is not qualified for that position, and he shouldn’t be in that position.”
The previous CNN host added: “So, therefore, it’s very tough for me — and many people in America — to take him seriously about anything.”
Lemon’s feedback got here after host Abrams performed footage from Hegseth’s speech to prime U.S. navy officers assembled on the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday.
Whereas outlining the Trump administration’s expectations of the U.S. navy alongside President Donald Trump himself, Hegseth proclaimed the tip of “woke” tradition and “politically correct and toxic ideological garbage” within the armed forces whereas criticizing the insurance policies of former administrations.
“This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics,” Hegseth stated. “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses.”
Hegseth added: “No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that shit.”
Hegseth’s speech was broadly criticized. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling known as his and Trump’s remarks throughout the assembly “insulting” and “offensive.”
Lemon advised Abrams that Hegseth’s remark to navy leaders “kind of proves my point.”
“If we were done with that, I don’t think he would be secretary of defense,” Lemon stated after the clip.
Hegseth, a former Fox Information host and adorned Military Nationwide Guard veteran, was a extremely controversial decide for protection secretary, given his lack of senior navy or nationwide safety expertise.
Lemon alluded to this, citing a “Republican friend of mine who is a lawmaker and also served” saying that Hegseth “couldn’t even make it to a certain rank level that he would even qualify to be a leader in the military or leader in the Defense Department.”
Elsewhere throughout the episode, Lemon stated he didn’t “understand why [Hegseth is] there.”
“I just don’t get it. I really don’t get it, Dan. I don’t get where we are right now, especially with these people who are not qualified, who are put in these positions [of power] because they’re compromised in some way and Donald Trump elevated them because they’ll do anything that he says,” Lemon added.
Watch the trade on “The Dan Abrams Show,” starting on the 9:43 mark under.
