Why ‘The View’ Cohosts Thought Pete Hegseth Speech Was ‘SNL’

The cohosts of The View — minus both Whoopi Goldberg (who’s filming a movie) and Joy Behar (out with a shoulder injury) — spent the top of the hour on Friday’s (October 2) show reacting to the latest inflammatory remarks from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And they quite literally could not believe what they heard him say.

Substitute moderator Sara Haines introduced a clip of Hegseth delivering a so-called “State of the Force” speech to troops this week in which he said of the military’s mission, including an anti-LGBTQ term, “We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. No fatties, no tr***nies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.”

Haines reacted first to say it’s “not exactly a recruitment video” before inviting the other panelists to weigh in.

Alyssa Farah Griffin then shared her initial disbelief over the soundbite, saying, “I literally thought that last quote was a parody. I saw it circulating on social media. I was like, ‘That’s not real. This is SNL. This is not real life.'” Griffin, who worked for the Department of Defense under Donald Trump in his first administration, then argued, “[Hegseth] did serve our country, but it would have been like if I showed up at this table and was like, ‘Barbara Walters, I’m going to tell you how it’s done.'”

Griffin then continued, “He is taking on people that are four-star generals, the admirals who have decades of experience both in combat and in working with the civilian workforce, and he’s denigrating their service to our country, but he also talks about a military that I don’t recognize. It’s not what I saw when I worked there. We’re the greatest fighting force in the history of mankind. We’re not weak. We’re not incapable. And I don’t know where he’s hearing this from.”

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Ana Navarro was the next to speak up and called Hegseth “deeply unserious” and “infantile” and argued the timing was inappropriate considering “we are in the middle of a war” in Iran. She then listed out what she did want to hear from Hegseth and others in the Trump administration, including, “I would like him to tell us how much this Iran war is costing us because there’s been no transparency on that. I would like the secretary of Defense to sound less like a teenage boy and more like a military leader who is trying to win or end a war.”

Guest cohost Debbie Matenopoulos said she thought Hegseth had a point when he said that journalism shouldn’t be partisan, but argued, “His message is lost because of the fact that he has tried to ban the press from the Pentagon [and] because he is bullying these people who have voluntarily put themselves in the military and put themselves in harm’s way to protect our freedoms and protect our country.” Her message to Hegseth directly was, “You need to act like a leader.”

Sunny Hostin agreed with Griffin that it sounded like satire when she first heard Hegseth’s quotes. “I was like, ‘This can’t really be accurate,’ and it’s totally accurate.” She then went on to address his comments specifically, noting, “This guy is saying, ‘No wimps.’ He works for a guy [Trump] who had five deferments for bone spurs. What’s wimpier than that? It’s obscene and absurd.” She also condemned Hegseth for “mixing church and state” with his announcement of an Office of Religious Affairs. “He’s weaving this religious language and Christian themes throughout his address. There are Muslims that serve in our army. There are Jews that serve in our army. How dare he place his religious beliefs upon other people as a leader?”

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC