Newsmax host and guest criticize Pete Hegseth for lifting suspension of military pilots who flew by Kid Rock's house: “We need to be a professional disciplined force”
Greg Kelly: “Leadership, it can be lonely. And I don't think a lot of people who are shooting their mouths off right now know enough about it.”
Published
Citation
From the March 31, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): Did you guys see the Kid Rock situation? The Kid Rock video? Do we have it? I think we might have it actually. We talked about it before.
A helicopter, a little hover right outside Kid Rock's house, and there was going to be a big investigation and it turned out, well, the Secretary of War said don't worry about it, no investigation.
Look, it's kind of cool, but it's also kind of — look, I was a pilot, you can't — you get in trouble for this stuff. What if they flew by, I don't know, Billie Eilish's house or Madonna's house? You know what I mean?
Kid Rock is cool. We like Kid Rock, he likes Trump. But what if some pilot decided to fly by, I don't know, Cher's house, and Cher can be, I don't know what her politics are, but whatever. You know what I mean, Blaine, how do you feel about that little thing?
BLAINE HOLT (GUEST): So I hate to be the fun sucker, but flight discipline is flight discipline and no violation of flight discipline is OK. You basically just said, hey, pilot force, if you want to fly by your mom's house that's cool with us and I watched people lose their entire careers over that kind of crap, and so, yeah, I get it, it's Kid Rock, it's not good enough, and I'm sorry, it's — we need to be a professional disciplined force.
KELLY: And when Hegseth says, hey, don't worry about it, no investigation, no punishment, I understand the spirit, but he doesn't know what you know and what I know, and that these things are big and complex and dangerous and you can't —
HOLT: And don't micromanage, don't micromanage. That's not your job. You've got a lieutenant colonel down there who can handle that perfectly.
KELLY: Right, right. Hey, by the way, Kid Rock did not have to make a social media video out of it, right. He could have just returned the salute, you know, everybody's got to document everything. Everybody's got to make a big deal.
HOLT: Yeah, but he's a celebrity. I would expect that, not the Apache guys.
KELLY: I would kind of — anyway. All right, well, I know what you mean. You know, the crowd wants people to say this is great, but sometimes the commander, the responsible officer, literally the responsible officer has to make unpopular decisions with the troops and with the people. Leadership, it can be lonely. And I don't think a lot of people who are shooting their mouths off right now know enough about it.