Newsmax host Greg Kelly says the Pentagon briefing on Iran “politicized” the troops: “You know who pulled that stuff? George W. Bush.”
Kelly: “I've seen this before, where people in positions of power hide behind the troops and hide behind the stories of patriotism and nostalgia to avoid more pressing matters.”
Published
Citation
From the March 31, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): This frustrated me about the event today at the Pentagon a little bit. Hegseth, along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, look, they got a lot on their minds, right? And they're trying to manage a war, so they can't think about the media night and day. But still, I felt like he was treating us like we were in fourth grade.
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We got a war going on, and he's talking about this stuff. I feel like he was running out the clock. It was a way to talk about things that weren't germane to the war effort. And I've seen this before, where people in positions of power hide behind the troops and hide behind the stories of patriotism and nostalgia to avoid more pressing matters.
Now, you can do that from time to time. You can't - You know, sometimes you actually in the military have to deceive, but you got to be a bit more sophisticated about it. Okay, I saw this from a mile away and he wouldn't shut up about it. No disrespect, but come on.
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I mean, that's great, but is it relevant on a day like today? It's not. It's absolutely not. General Cain came out there and spoke for ten minutes. All right. His opening remarks. And 70% of his remarks were about a funeral and bomb factory workers. No, that's not appropriate.
And hey, I get it. The bomb factory workers are fantastic, right? After the war you talk about them during a press conference. But no, he did it today in the middle of the war.
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You can't necessarily tell everybody everything. I get that. But I think you got to be a bit more artful about it. And I saw a little bit of, hey, the troops know we're doing a good job here. The troops are on our side. Of course, the troops are on our side. But I feel that they were being politicized today.
You know, the troops are telling us, give us more bombs. We got to get this job done for America. You know who pulled that stuff? George W. Bush. He was always talking about how the troops — we couldn't, you know, we we had to finish the job in Iraq because of the troops. And quite frankly, that was a crutch. And the swamp ate it up.
A lot of people made money, right, on the war and gained status and power. The swamp. You know, those guys who would have those big fat dinners and eat it up? When President Bush joked about not finding weapons of mass destruction. You know, think I'm being a little bit disrespectful here? How about him?