Burn That Place Down’: House Republican Says Pete Hegseth Will Lay Waste to Pentagon Leadership

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) said Pete Hegseth should be confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense because the former Fox News host will “burn that place down” once he is in charge.

Hegseth appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, where several Democrats peppered him with questions about salacious reports about his behavior. Democrats asked Hegseth about a 2017 rape allegation against him and reports that he reeked of alcohol while on the job. He has denied the charges. Additionally, Hegseth was questioned about his marital infidelities.

Appearing on Newsmax hours later, Jackson took exception to the Democrats’ questions.

“I’m embarrassed for them,” he said. “They’re dangerous, progressive idiots, and they don’t care about the national security of this country. They don’t care about, you know, anything pro-American.”

Jackson, who served as physician to the president under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, went on to say Senate Democrats oppose Hegseth because he will go scorched earth on the Department of Defense, which the nominee has said is too “woke”:

Pete Hegseth is a is a wonderful candidate for this job. They fear him because he is going to go in there and burn that place down. He’s going to find these people that have been responsible for the horrible things that they’ve done to our country – from the Department of Defense over the last four years focusing on… the transgender issues, the climate issues.

You know, the DEI woke agenda that they’ve had. All the stuff that they’ve done, all the money that they’ve wasted, the stuff that is not focused on making America strong and fighting the next war, but rather directed at their social agenda things that have made this country weak.

Jackson went on to say he is “embarrassed for our country” before noting his own ill-fated nomination as Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018