Q&A: Has Pete Hegseth lost it?

James Rubin (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

Christiane Amanpour (0:04)

He thinks that showing a live streamed execution is somehow going to stop crazy people like Nidal Hasan from doing the terrible murders that he did commit. He killed 13 people on that base, and now they have floated the idea of him being publicly executed by firing squad. He has from the beginning tried to lay down this self-described mythos of testosterone and war fighting.

James Rubin (0:34)

Deterrence is not going to work here, and so the whole premise is kind of stupid.

Christiane Amanpour (0:43)

Hello everyone and welcome to the Q&A episode of The Ex Files with me Christiane Amanpour and Jamie Rubin who's in New York. This is where we answer your questions. So just before we get started, I wanted to say thank you to everybody who sent lovely messages because I was in the hospital yesterday. I didn't mean to alarm anybody.

I'm much better as you can see, and my infection is being taken care of. But yesterday we had to do intravenous antibiotics, so I had to be in the hospital for a bit. Anyway, let's get started. Jamie, you get the first question today.

James Rubin (1:16)

Right.

Jordan on Instagram asks, Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered Nidal Hasan's execution to be live streamed, but JD Vance has condemned the idea. What does this reveal about divisions within the Republican Party, particularly given its stance on the right to life?

Christiane Amanpour (1:36)

Well, I'm going to have a good old go at that. Having covered a lot of war and peace and field deployments throughout my whole career, Secretary Hegseth is going way, way off piste and way, way out of the norm of any recent Secretary of Defense, actually any anyone that I can even imagine even going back to Vietnam, knowing how bad that was.

He has from the beginning tried to lay down this self-described mythos of testosterone and war fighting and you remember he called all these generals and commanders and told them pretty much told them off and told them they were fat and lazy and they needed to do more workouts. He goes out and does these public workouts that he puts on social media. That's his ethos, as if the American fighting forces weren't one of the most lethal fighting forces in the whole world. So that wrapped up with his idea of, okay, we have to show people when things are really bad so they won't do it again. Honestly, it's like being in a classroom.

He thinks that showing a live streamed execution is somehow going to stop crazy people like Nidal Hasan from doing the terrible murders that he did commit way back then. He killed 13 people on that base and now they have floated the idea of him being publicly executed by firing squad, firing squad, which has not been employed in the United States for I think somewhere approaching 100 years, although it's legal in several states. And this has just caused a huge amount of backlash. Even the Vice President of the United States, who's not known to be really touchy, feely and cuddly, has said, I won't be watching it. And there are others in positions of authority who've said the same thing and cast doubts on it. The law courts are going to get involved. People have sort of said, but there are some people who say, sure, why not? This is today's America. Why not? We need to show these people the consequences of what they do.

James Rubin (3:43)

Look, I think you've said it all pretty well. I think Vance hasn't deposed it but said he won't be watching. Which is a sort of a way of saying that it's not necessary. Look, this is theater. It's a gimmick. It's another one of Secretary Hegseth's gimmicks. I wish he would spend more time focused on getting the war that we're actually fighting, the one in the Middle East successfully concluded rather than these gimmicks about how to best deter terrorism. Terrorists don't get deterred by firing squads. These are people who have been so indoctrinated. They're prepared, as you know, in 9-11 to fly their plane into buildings. Deterrence is not going to work here.

And so the whole premise is kind of stupid if you think it's going to be deterrence. And instead, what Hegseth has done is roiled the relationship between the military and the United States government in a very strange way. This was probably the most respected institution in the United States.

The way in which it had handled all sorts of difficult society issues was praised by many people. And I don't think it's a problem that didn't need fixing. He created a problem that was personal to him that he went through during his service period as a national guardsman or the role he played as a guard of some kind or a lawyer of some kind. And the point I'm making is that this is really about him and his idea of what's good for the military. And I think most of the generals that have been very, very successful as real warfighters have suffered under Pete Hegseth. So it's sort of ironic that he's acting like he's good for warfighting, when those warfighting generals are the ones that he's set aside, the ones that have been most successful in their careers, that have the most respect within the military, have been passed over for promotion. So I think this is another example of the damage that can be done to an institution, when gimmicks and public theater and, you know, TikTok and all of the different social media tools are the things that focus his attention rather than the real hard work of making our military the best it can be.