MSNBC’s Chris Hayes thinks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may yet survive the current chaos engulfing his department—if President Donald Trump can keep Republicans united.
Hayes appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, where host Jimmy Kimmel asked him whether he thinks Hegseth will eventually get fired.
Kimmel began by noting that Trump made it a habit of firing cabinet secretaries during his first term. “It seemed to be an extension of The Apprentice where he was just firing, firing—‘you’re fired’ is his catchphrase, and he kept up with it,” Kimmel said.
Hayes said Hegseth “never should have been confirmed,” but he was skeptical that Trump would feel forced to push him out over the scandals.
“You’ve now got four top staffers who have left, one who wrote an op-ed for Politico saying, like, ‘this guy has to go, this place is in chaos,’ I just saw news that his chief of staff is moving,” Hayes said. “But the thing that Trump learned from the first term is, if no one inside the tent ever starts criticizing, you can hold this kind of 40, 42 percent together, and then everything sort of goes away if you stick it out long enough.”
Hegseth has faced multiple calls of mismanagement by former close Pentagon officials, and The New York Times reported that Hegseth also shared attack plans on the Houthis with his wife, brother, and lawyer on Signal. Trump said Monday he still supports Hegseth, though NPR reported the White House has begun looking for his replacement.
Hayes acknowledged that the Republican calls for Hegseth’s ouster have begun, starting with House Rep. Don Bacon on Monday. Bacon told Politico that Hegseth’s actions reflected those of “an amateur person.”
“I’m not going to tell the White House how to manage this … but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it if I was in charge,” the Nebraska Republican said.
But Hayes thinks Hegseth could ultimately weather the storm if other Republicans resist the urge to follow Bacon’s lead.
“I think they’ve learned this very perverse lesson which is, if no one else starts coming out, if you keep everyone together, you can kind of get through anything,” Hayes concluded.
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