Jeh Johnson defends Trump pick Pete Hegseth Tulsi Gabbard

Former Obama DHS Secretary Yeh Johnson defended the president-elect Donald Trump’s nominations from Tulsi Gabbard And Piet Hegseth for important national security roles.

Trump is making headlines this week with cabinet choices that are causing outrage. The selection of former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to become Trump’s attorney general was fulfilled of almost universal shock Wednesday.

That selection comes as Trump has picked Fox News host Piet Hegseth lead the Ministry of Defense and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) as his nominee for Director of National Intelligence.

On Thursday edition by CNN News CentralJohnson ripped the Gaetz pick as an absurd selection that he initially believed was “a Russian hoax.”

But he defended Gabbard’s choice on the grounds that “skepticism” can be healthy in a DNI, and said he would give Trump “the benefit of the doubt” on the Hegseth nomination. praising the Fox News host as “well-educated, clearly intelligent”:

SARA SIDNER: Tulsi Gabbard for the position of Director of National Intelligence, which means she oversees all the intelligence agencies, I think there are eighteen.

She has spread Russian propaganda. She has questioned the intelligence services about whether President Assad used chemical weapons, which the intelligence services say certainly happened. And now she finds herself in this position of potentially leading the senior intelligence of all the intelligence agencies. What does this mean, what does this mean? To you?

SEC. JEH JOHNSON: Well, I’m going to surprise you a little bit. I don’t think it’s an absolute requirement that the director of national intelligence be someone from the intelligence community.

I also believe that it is sometimes a good thing to be skeptical of the information we are given. Those of us who are in a position to make serious decisions, policy makers.

I have received information that I was skeptical about, and I have asked the hard questions. I have asked to speak directly to the briefers who wrote the report.

So it can be a good thing to be skeptical about what the intelligence community produces. And I’m thinking, for example, of the intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

But again, I believe the Senate has a constitutional obligation to advise, concur, and carefully investigate this nomination.

SARA SIDNER: Let me ask you about another controversial choice, a Fox host, Pete Hegseth. He served in the Army National Guard, but now he is running for Secretary of Defense. And you know, he said a few things.

He has lobbied for people accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. He recently said that women don’t believe they belong in combat roles. But you said you’d give him the benefit of the doubt. Why?

SEC. JEH JOHNSON: I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Up, up, up. At least the nomination right now.

Because here is someone who was well educated, clearly intelligent, was in the financial services industry, was in the Wall Street community for a while, could have made a lot of money and chose to leave the uniform of our country and see the struggle .

So for that reason I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. With all due respect, being a cable news anchor does not necessarily mean you are Secretary of Defense.

SARA SIDNER: That’s certainly not the case.

SEC. JEH JOHNSON: And so this is once again a nomination where the Senate has an obligation to scrutinize the things that he has said, the positions that he has taken, the positions that he has taken regarding those found responsible for war crimes to investigate. .

You know, one of the reasons why our U.S. military, and I have worked with the U.S. military in the Pentagon for years, one of the reasons why it is the largest and strongest military in the world, is not just because of our raw power, but because of the military’s commitment to the rule of law, commitment to abiding by the rules.

View above via CNN News Central.

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