‘The View’: Whoopi Goldberg Gives Pete Hegseth a Personal Challenge After Confirmation Hearing

Amanda Bell January 15, 2025, 11:36 am

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The View hosts had a lot to say about the first round of confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s proposed cabinet members, which began in dramatic fashion with Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News star-turned-nominee for secretary of the Defense Department.

On Wednesday’s (January 15) show, the cohosts reviewed some footage of his congressional hearing, particularly those moments in which Senate Democrats challenged his fitness for the job, his moral character, and the previous statements he’s made disparaging women in the military.

“I think Republicans made a really bad decision to lower the bar for what they expect from the Secretary of Defense,” Alysa Farah Griffin said in response to the clips. “Usually, these people are concerned on a bipartisan basis.” However, she also knocked those senators who brought up issues of his alleged personal misconduct, saying, “I think Democrats still think we’re living in an episode of The West Wing where moral failings, everyone’s going to get on board with and be like, ‘This is not okay.’ It’s not the world we live in. We just elected Donald Trump.”

Sara Haines then went on to respond to a viral moment in which a senator asked if Hegseth would reject an unlawful order from the president, saying, “Anyone who is serving in public service takes an oath to the Constitution, not an individual. That was a really easy [question].” She also took issue with his on-the-record statements about not wanting women in combat positions in the military.

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Sunny Hostin echoed Haines’ frustration with those comments — particularly one from his book in which he wrote, “We need moms, but not in the military” — and rolled tape to dispute Hegseth’s repeated phrasing during the confirmation hearings that reports against him were merely anonymous smear campaigns. “He said it, and we should believe him,” Hostin concluded.

Joy Behar called the entire ordeal “depressing,” adding, “He’s so smug. He just sits there because he knows the fix is in. All he has to do is be loyal to Trump and he’s in.” She then blasted the FBI for not investigating sexual assault allegations against him and added, “It’s very depressing to watch this happen and unfold… When [Trump] was in office the last time, he had [Rex] Tillerson and [Jim] Mattis, people like that. He has nobody now, for us, nobody who’s going to be a guardian, who’s going to protect the American people from this insanity that’s going on.”

Whoopi Goldberg, as she is now known to do, took a more measured approach to the conversation, joking, “I just put butter on my popcorn.”

After some unsolicited praise from Behar about her no hairdo to lighten the mood, Goldberg continued by issuing a direct challenge to Hegseth, saying, “I want him to sit in front of some of these generals, the female generals in particular, and tell them they’re not qualified to their face.”

The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC