The main focus of Friday’s Washington Week in Evaluate journalist roundtable (which aired on the eve of Memorial Day weekend) was the Division of Protection, particularly on Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth’s battle in opposition to wokeism, which the panel disapproved of, particularly New York Instances nationwide safety correspondent Helene Cooper, who all however accused Hegseth and the Trump Administration of racism and sexism.
Helene Cooper, Nationwide Safety Correspondent, The New York Instances: Effectively, that is an important query, Jeff. I believe I’d begin first with simply he is instilled an environment of worry, which is pervasive now all through the Pentagon, simply because he has fired or threatened to fireside or compelled to retire simply so lots of the prime brass….
Missy Ryan of The Atlantic (who works for host Jeffrey Goldberg, additionally Atlantic editor in chief) accused Hegseth of getting “completely discarded” the Pentagon custom of minimizing “overtly partisan” conduct, calling “The impression on the establishment….way more corrosive, and I believe that we’re beginning to see that within the conduct of the senior uniformed officers.”
Goldberg ran a clip of Hegseth speaking about combating wokeness within the navy, saying “No extra identification months, DEI workplaces, dudes in attire, no extra local weather change worship….”
Ryan threatened to make an perception into Hegseth’s persona, amidst the usual therapy of Hegseth as senseless macho man:
Ryan: ….This is anyone who — , he attended Princeton College, he attended Harvard, and these are largely liberal organizations, and he was form of part of a smaller group of social conservatives. And I believe that that form of, I am the underdog, I am pushing again in opposition to this oppressive dominant tradition….
Cooper, desirous to conflate anti-DEI with pro-racist views, went on a ramble to color Hegseth as anti-integration.
NYT’s Helene Cooper on Pete Hegseth’s push in opposition to DEI: “There was this perception that there is not any manner this navy was able to be led by [two black men]…what you are seeing in some ways with Pete Hegseth is type of the embodiment of what — that [black] Marine was afraid of.” pic.twitter.com/rQ9DKH5fZo
— Clay Waters (@claywaters44) Could 25, 2026
Cooper: ….after we’re speaking about DEI, we’re speaking about his anti-woke battle, I simply wish to put a few of this into somewhat little bit of perspective. The Pentagon has all the time — the American navy had prided itself about its integration. They have been, , one of many first to combine the minority illustration….However in case you regarded on the individuals who have been within the management roles of the navy, all of them have been white males. There weren’t girls, and there weren’t black folks. There weren’t Hispanics. That was it. It was white males. You stroll down this hallway within the E Ring of the Pentagon, and also you — all you see are the portraits, just like the Milley portrait that Pete Hegseth took down….Portraits of white man after white man after white man.
Cooper continued her self-indulgent ranting, segueing into an anecdote about standing in a Pentagon hallway watching black officers “stroll down that hallway, and I saved watching, every one pause when he received to [the portrait of] Colin Powell….As a result of at the moment, there had solely been one black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, and it had been Colin Powell. After which Lloyd Austin got here in. You might have a black Protection Secretary, and never quickly after that, President Biden appointed C.Q. Brown because the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, and also you had two black males main the navy.”
Cooper: And I bear in mind a black Marine saying to me, that is by no means going to fly. And there was this perception that there is not any manner this navy was able to be led by and it could’ve been the identical manner in case you had been two girls main the navy. It simply wasn’t prepared for that. And I believe what you are seeing in some ways with Pete Hegseth is type of the embodiment of what — , what that Marine was afraid of.
As a result of Trump is notoriously averse to girls holding distinguished positions in his administration!
