Newsmax host attacks Pete Hegseth over conditions aboard the USS Lincoln: “I suspect that Pete has Pete in mind more than the military”
Greg Kelly: “This shouldn't be happening right now, you can't have troops at sea for that long without a break”
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From the August 13, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): What the hell is going on? This is not a superpower's military, OK?
I think this is an organizational problem, a tactical problem, some — this shouldn't happen. I wanna show you major aircraft carriers, and we usually had three — three — aircraft carriers off the coast of Vietnam at any given time. Take the USS Enterprise, alright, during major combat in Vietnam, a lot more intense than what's going on right now in Iran. Look at how often they would make stops, ports of call. Right?
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I mean, it was kind of routine and necessary. That was a nuclear-powered ship. You can't have guys out there for that long. It does bad things. We've studied this forever.
You're supposed to have 45 days, 60 days. Six months is crazy. Eight months, whatever the hell it is right now — we need more ships. I'll tell you that. We need a lot more ships. We need more aircraft carriers. We don't have enough, and we can't build them fast enough, folks. We can't build those aircraft carriers fast enough.
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KELLY: President Eisenhower said, what did he say? Amateurs talk about tactics, but the generals talk about logistics. Right? The stuff, the gear, the beans, bullets, and band-aids.
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KELLY: We need Congress and this is where Pete comes in again, the secretary of war. You've seen these moments, they go viral, and everybody's kind of entertained.
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KELLY: Yeah, it goes super-duper online and everyone comments and wow, take that oh, he owned the libs once again. Sooner or later you got to work with these people, even the ones you don't like. And there are Republicans also who are resenting this kind of attitude, arrogance, and often I suspect that Pete has Pete in mind more than the military. This man got back from Afghanistan and two seconds later declared for the United States Senate back in 2012. And in early 2016 of course he was an ardent Trump opponent. Yeah, this shouldn't be happening right now, you can't have troops at sea for that long without a break. Alright? No relief. They need relief.