Ben Shapiro says the “general idea” of Pete Hegseth's comments to generals is right, but “we've had some overweight generals before who were pretty good generals”

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From the October 1, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show

BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): So, again, he's not wrong about any of this. Now, it happens to be true when he says he doesn't want fat generals or fat admirals walking around, we've had some overweight generals before who were pretty good generals. I mean, Norman Schwarzkopf, who was name checked there by Hegseth, was pretty famously a little bit on the tipping the scales side of the weight spectrum. With that said, the general idea here is, again, not wrong. And Hegseth says, listen, we're not going to use softened standards. OK. There's been an attempt to inject diversity into the military by lowering standards. It's one thing, if diversity is a byproduct of quality, it's another thing if we lower quality standards in order to ensure diversity. He says, we are going to ensure the highest male standards in the military. If you meet it, great. If you don't, tough.