Ruben Gallego Says Hegseth Is Trying To ‘Compensate For Something’

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) thinks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent attempt to flex his power was a total misfire.

Asked about the summit of top military officials that Hegseth pulled together this past Tuesday, Gallego told “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper it seemed clear that the Fox New personality-turned-cabinet member was throwing his weight around in order “to compensate for something.”

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Gallego, a veteran of the Marine Corps.

Suggesting that the gathering revealed how Hegseth and President Trump’s administration are looking to use the military for political gain, the senator added, “Everything he did at that meeting, he could have sent in an email. He was just trying to, I don’t know, show force, and he looked very weak in the process.”

Pressed to say more about what Hegseth was trying to “compensate for,” Gallego said it likely boiled down to “the fact he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“He knows that within the Department of Defense, people think he’s a laughing stock and that he is probably one of the worst Secretary of Defenses this country has had,” he explained. “I think he’s trying to exert his power over some of these generals, but it’s not going to help when he is clearly way out of his league.”

Multiple military leaders who attended the event agreed with Gallego’s reading.

One defense official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity said that the whole affair “could have been an email” while another called it a “total waste of money” that was “not quite a loyalty test” but seemed meant to gauge something “on the spectrum of loyalty to ideology.”

During an event which lasted not much more than an hour, Hegseth ranted about “fat generals” while also declaring an end to “ideological garbage” and a return of “warrior ethos” in the armed forces.