QUESTION LEGAL BASIS

“So the stakes really couldn't have been larger, Michael. Once a year, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff come up to congress and testify. Basically, they're asking for money. They want to get their budget approved. And this year's budget is a biggie. It's almost $1,500,000,000,000. Wow. The largest budget request ever. Some $500,000,000 more than this year's budget. And this is to do everything from replenish munitions stockpiles to rebuild the navy, to construct a new anti missile system called Golden Dome. So this is all kind of part and parcel of of this budget request. But remember, it's been a year since he's had to testify before Congress, and there's been so many things that have happened in that year.”

“I I think the, you know, legal scholars we we talked to said, no. That's not correct. But, obviously, this hasn't been tested in this particular format. So Friday is the deadline. We'll see what the White House decides to do. But that seems to be the legal basis that they're now resting on, that they don't have to meet this, deadline, at least not yet. And so that was another point. It just kind of shows in in the Democrats' view, kind of how cavalier the administration has entered into this war. They thought this was gonna be over so quickly. They They don't even have to worry about this sixty day limit. We're never gonna approach this because the Iranian regime will fall. Everything will work out just fine. And, of course, that hasn't happened. And suddenly, here's one more unintended consequence that they're having to deal with.”

“And there's a kind of irony to this, which you know very well, Eric, because we've talked to you about it from the moment that Hegseth was nominated for this job and through his confirmation hearings. Pete Hegseth's appeal to president Trump, and in theory to folks in the Pentagon when he was nominated, was his unusual willingness to criticize previous military leaders, to say that past folks who occupied the same seat he now does had blown it, that they had gotten America in bad wars, forever wars, that they had ruined the culture of the military. And now he has that job. And as hearings like this demonstrate, he is not willing to endure the kind of criticism that he so forcefully delivered and that, in large part, may be responsible for why he now has the job.”

“In many ways, he captured president Trump's attention as a Fox News host for criticizing the very senior military leaders who he once served as an officer in both Afghanistan and Iraq Right. And basically saying, I am part of this generation of men and women who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I know the mistakes that were made. I live them day in, day out, and I've come back to fix them and to correct them. And with presidents Trump imprimatur, we're well on our way of doing that. But I think what the hearings this week showed was that at least in the secretary's telling, he can never be wrong. He can never be challenged the way he challenged civilian and uniform leaders in years past. And anyone who challenges that needs to be taken down.”