Transcript: MAGA rages as GOPers quietly try to sink Pete Hegseth

Sargent: And Elon Musk may be waiting in the wings to threaten any Republican who dares to question the MAGA agenda or who doesn’t behave in a completely thoughtless manner Robot rubber stamp for Trump, showering them with primaries backed by an avalanche of Musk money. Well, I don’t know how real this is, but these Republican senators are facing a situation where if they exercise their independence in any way against Donald Trump, they may be threatened with violence. Huge sums of Musk money are behind primary challenges and what have you got? Of course, there is also the Twitter propaganda machine, which goes full throttle against anyone who dares to get in Donald Trump’s way.

Gertz: Yes. It is worth pausing for a moment because this is not a fight for the position of some mid-level government post. This is the Pentagon. This is a position that oversees more than three million U.S. soldiers and civilian officials and has a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Pete Hegseth is not remotely qualified for this position. This is a position awarded to batsmen, generals, people who have worked in the Pentagon for a long time and US senators with many years of experience in leading the Department of Defense. And Trump is trying to blame it on someone whose television hits he likes because he appreciates the propaganda that Pete Hegseth provides for him. If Republican senators were really going to kneel on this issue, it’s really hard to imagine where they wouldn’t.

Sargent: If you take a step back, it’s absolutely mind-blowingly crazy. This is a guy who has allegedly engaged in serial infidelity, bouts of insane public drunkenness, and supposedly chanting Kill all Muslims. His own mother had to vouch for him after she received an email saying he was a serial abuser of women. Suddenly MAGAworld is here They decide to make this hill the hill where Republican senators must die. And it’s the Pentagon. It’s an amazing turn of events in what has happened to the right.