April 22, 2025 • 14 mins
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Let's get to Washington, DC, please, and the troubling headlines
tied to Defense Secretary mister Pete Hegseth. In the wake
of the signal chat controversy, heg Seth made moves to
essentially close ranks around his senior staff. Top advisors Dan
Caldwell was escorted from the Pentagon, and soon after Darren
(00:24):
Selnick followed. That same day, nearly every single member of
the Pentagon's Defense Digital Service announced they were resigning. As
the week progressed. Again, we're talking about just one week.
Last week, heg Seth quote unquote reassigned his chief of
staff and then asked the Pentagon's former top spokesperson, John
(00:48):
Elliott to resign. And just this weekend, two sources tell
in NBC News that heg Sith used his personal phone
to send information about US military operations in Yemen to
a thirteen person signal group chat, including his wife and
his brother. And according to the report, Hegseth did so
(01:09):
after an aid warned him to be careful not to
share sensitive information on an unsecured communication system before the
Yemen operation. So here, just to help y'all out, here
are just three moves from the past month that had
many inside of Pentagon and around Washington questioning his leadership.
(01:30):
It started with Signal Gate, where Hegseth tried to debunk
the reporting through a vague denial that quote nobody was texting.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
War plans end quote.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Then a Wall Street journal reported that Hegseth brought his wife,
a former Fox News producer by the way, into two
meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.
And finally, the Pentagon set up a top secret briefing
by the Joint chiefs of Staff on China for Elon Musk,
(01:58):
who still has extensive business interest in China. According to
the former top spokesperson John Elliott, the White House canceled
that meeting after learning about it. Does this sound like
competence to you? Thirteen person chat threat national security information?
(02:24):
Having your wife and brother on that text chain, showing
up to certain meetings with your wife?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
How that sound?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Ladies and gentlemen, now see, I don't want to sit
up there and get in the Pete hag set He
served our country honorably.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He was a weekend host on Fox News.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All I ever said was, how do you go from
a weekend host on Fox News to overseeing our national
defense as Defense secretary, overseeing three and a half million people.
How are you qualified to do that? How are you
qualified to do that? That's all I ever said. I'm
not wishing anything bad on him. I'm not wishing him
to fail. Him failing is us failing as a nation,
(03:11):
which endangers all of us when you're the secretary of Defense.
I'm feeling you on that. I got that part. What
I'm saying is more importantly than anything else. It puts
us in a position where we've got to question Donald Trump,
the President of the United States. I'm gonna hire the
best I'm gonna have the best staff, the most elite
people working for me, the most qualified people working for me.
(03:34):
They're gonna be better than anybody you've ever seen in
the American history. All of this other stuff, what about that?
See your fealty and your loyalty to the President of
the United States, how you want to deify him, as
questionable as that may be, if not flat out pathetic
in the eyes of others.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Really is not the point. The point is why.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Does your loyalty or feeling towards him extend to such
a degree that we want to put on blinders when
it comes to people.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
When he ain't hav in his cabinet, it's a fair question.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
When the plane collided with the helicopter and lives were lost,
God rest their wonderful souls in that crash months ago,
the first words out of trump mouth was to blame
DEI diversity equity and inclusion. Well, sir, mister president, do
you have any evidence of that?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, I had to go on national TV and say,
DEEI really should stand for it. Didn't earn it as
a force of diversity, equity and inclusion. But when you
look at what's transpiring right now, particularly as it pertains
to our security in this country or for this country,
(04:53):
there's a reason to be alarmed. Why do I say that,
because the hits keep on coming for President Trump's cabinet.
Est yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nolan had a.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Perse stolen at a restaurant in DC.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Inside the purse was a passport, a driver's license, and
government access badge, three thousand dollars in cash.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And blank checks, according to the reports.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
According to USA Today, specifically, the Secret Services launched an
investigation to trace any use of her financial assets. Ladies
and gentlemen, pause for a second, pretty.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Please sugar on top.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
One dude is the Secretary of Defense making these mistakes.
And I had a Homeland Security just got robbed, pickpocketed
that not even pickpocket. They stole a purse, secret service
around the people like that. They still stole a purse.
How hell I happened? Protecting the country, you can't protect
yourself from some of the most basically rudimentary things that
(05:58):
you should be able to avoid letting happen. By the way,
this comes from the same cabinet. I mean, have you
seen Pete hagk Seth speak.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
In the past.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Do you remember when the whole email scandal involving Hillary
Clinton that a lot of people on the left believe
course to the election because a week before a week
or two before the election, James Comey, then the head
of the FBI, decide to announce that there was an
investigation into emails that Hillary Clinton was using on a
(06:30):
private server, thereby threatening national security in the eyes of
critics who wanted to take her down. Well, guess what,
Pete hegg saith the same Pete hagik Seths that we're
talking about. Saint Pete Hegg sath that got his wife
and his brother in text change with national security information.
That Pete heik seth, Ladies and gentlemen, I want to
(06:52):
rewind the clock by nine years when the whole Hillary
Clinton thing was going down, right prior to the election,
lessen of Pete Hagk say talk about Hillary Clinton at
that particular moment in time. This is Pete Haikseth, and
we are quoting any security professional, military, government or otherwise
would be fired on the spot and criminally prosecuted for
being so reckless with this kind of information.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Say what, say what? Say what? He actually said that,
Yes he did, Yes he did. He most certainly said that.
Put that quarter piece saying, Hank set up there again.
Please put up on that full screet gain. I need
that RDY to see it. Because this man who is.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
The Defense Secretary for the United States of America, who.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Got busted.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Exchanging information of national security importance about the Hoodies and
Yemen ultimately scheduled to be bombed, that same dude set
down about Hillary Rodal Clinton. Any security professional, military, government
(08:01):
or otherwise, We'll be fired on the spot and criminally
prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So that doesn't apply to you, now, huh sir, not
at all. I mean you just completely insident on this.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And now you've got Homeland Security secretary getting her persnatched.
So we got the Apartment of Defense and Homeland Security
being compromised on personal levels involving security matters, and that too,
Donald Trump is telling us the trust without national security.
(08:45):
Remember what Trump said about Hillary Rodham Clinton. This is
gonna take a minute. Listen to the forty seventh president
of the United States, who he is now, when he
was in route to becoming a forty fifth president of
the United States, competing with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the
(09:06):
election at twenty sixteen. Take a look at Trump and
what his positions were. Let us listen, please.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think the one that you should really be apologizing for,
and the thing that you should be apologizing for, are
the thirty three thousand emails that you deleted and that
you acid washed, and then the two boxes of emails
and other things last week that were taken from an
office and are now missing.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I didn't think i'd say this, but I'm going to
say it. And I hate to say it, but if
I win I am going to instruct my Attorney General
to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation
because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,
there has never been anything like it, and we're going
(09:56):
to have a special prosecutor. When I speak, I go
out and speak. The people of this country are furious.
In my opinion, the people that have been long term
workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been
anything like this where emails and you get a subpoena,
you get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you
delete thirty three thousand emails and then you asked it
(10:20):
washam or bleach them, as you would say. A very
expensive process. So we're going to get a special prosecutor
and we're going to look into it, because you know
what people have been Their lives have been destroyed for
doing one fifth of what you've done. And it's a disgrace,
and honestly, you ought to be ashamed.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Of yourself, needless to say, Hillary Rodham. Clinton followed that
up immediately by calling that a bunch of lives, encouraging
folks to fact check her, claiming that it was a
complete fabrication.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Etc.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And that was the same moment where she was saying,
she said, thank goodness, somebody like him is not our
commander in chief and overseeing law enforcement in this country.
And that was when Trump said, yeah, because you'd be
in jail. So that was the same you know back
(11:15):
and forth that happened in twenty sixteen. I only bring
that up because since Trump is about law and order,
since he is about competence, since he is about transparency,
since he is about all of these things.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
What's up with your peeps?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What's up with you know, Christy Nolas it's not a
fireable offense. You're looking at the Secret Service. How you
let somebody snatch your pocketbook. But in the case of
Pete hegseth to find out that his wife and his
brother no national security clearance, there was a part of
(11:56):
these these communications, and you've got national security folks appalled
by that. Something has to be said about that, Something
has to be done about that. Now a White House
is calling it fake news, these reports, that's saying they're
looking to replace him. According to everybody that I've spoken to,
(12:17):
because I've cultivated a few sources in Washington over the
past few months.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of course, they say that, you know, knowing Trump.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
He'll probably stick with Pete hagg Seth just because the
national media is trying to compel him to let him go,
and Trump doesn't want to ever be seen as somebody
who caves in to such pressure. Nevertheless, that is the
situation right now. There are numerous reports and pr came
out with something. White House called it fake news, CNN
(12:46):
said something, others have said something in regards to Pete
haig Seth maybe approaching his final days as the Secretary
of Defense for the United States. The White House says, no,
that's not the situation. We'll see who's right, who's telling
the truth, who wrong. We will find out. But what's
undeniable and undebatable is that at this moment in time,
(13:07):
the inexperience of Pete Hagk's at this show. And that's
all I've been saying. You know, to go from a
weekend host on Fox News to be in the Secretary
of Defense for the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Is a bit extreme of a push.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And when you're willing to do something like that, you
don't get to turn to everybody else and talk about
DEI being a problem. You know, you're supposed to be,
especially you're the president of the United States, you're supposed
to be making sure that people in these positions.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Are qualified to do the job. That should be a
priority just as much.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I wouldn't say more, because loyalty to the president does matter.
You have to have people in your cabinet that you
can trust, so I'm not going to dismiss that. But
equally as important is their competence and their professionalism and
their integrity. And right now people believe they've got a question.
(14:02):
Look at Pete Hegseth and question all of that. And
in terms of your Homeland Security secretary and your Secretary
of Defense both being embroiled in security issues, that doesn't
seem like the President of the United.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
States has picked has picked the very best and the
very finest for the jobs. It's all I'm saying. It's
all I'm saying.
Let's get to Washington, DC, please, and the troubling headlines
tied to Defense Secretary mister Pete Hegseth. In the wake
of the signal chat controversy, heg Seth made moves to
essentially close ranks around his senior staff. Top advisors Dan
Caldwell was escorted from the Pentagon, and soon after Darren
(00:24):
Selnick followed. That same day, nearly every single member of
the Pentagon's Defense Digital Service announced they were resigning. As
the week progressed. Again, we're talking about just one week.
Last week, heg Seth quote unquote reassigned his chief of
staff and then asked the Pentagon's former top spokesperson, John
(00:48):
Elliott to resign. And just this weekend, two sources tell
in NBC News that heg Sith used his personal phone
to send information about US military operations in Yemen to
a thirteen person signal group chat, including his wife and
his brother. And according to the report, Hegseth did so
(01:09):
after an aid warned him to be careful not to
share sensitive information on an unsecured communication system before the
Yemen operation. So here, just to help y'all out, here
are just three moves from the past month that had
many inside of Pentagon and around Washington questioning his leadership.
(01:30):
It started with Signal Gate, where Hegseth tried to debunk
the reporting through a vague denial that quote nobody was texting.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
War plans end quote.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Then a Wall Street journal reported that Hegseth brought his wife,
a former Fox News producer by the way, into two
meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.
And finally, the Pentagon set up a top secret briefing
by the Joint chiefs of Staff on China for Elon Musk,
(01:58):
who still has extensive business interest in China. According to
the former top spokesperson John Elliott, the White House canceled
that meeting after learning about it. Does this sound like
competence to you? Thirteen person chat threat national security information?
(02:24):
Having your wife and brother on that text chain, showing
up to certain meetings with your wife?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
How that sound?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Ladies and gentlemen, now see, I don't want to sit
up there and get in the Pete hag set He
served our country honorably.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He was a weekend host on Fox News.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All I ever said was, how do you go from
a weekend host on Fox News to overseeing our national
defense as Defense secretary, overseeing three and a half million people.
How are you qualified to do that? How are you
qualified to do that? That's all I ever said. I'm
not wishing anything bad on him. I'm not wishing him
to fail. Him failing is us failing as a nation,
(03:11):
which endangers all of us when you're the secretary of Defense.
I'm feeling you on that. I got that part. What
I'm saying is more importantly than anything else. It puts
us in a position where we've got to question Donald Trump,
the President of the United States. I'm gonna hire the
best I'm gonna have the best staff, the most elite
people working for me, the most qualified people working for me.
(03:34):
They're gonna be better than anybody you've ever seen in
the American history. All of this other stuff, what about that?
See your fealty and your loyalty to the President of
the United States, how you want to deify him, as
questionable as that may be, if not flat out pathetic
in the eyes of others.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Really is not the point. The point is why.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Does your loyalty or feeling towards him extend to such
a degree that we want to put on blinders when
it comes to people.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
When he ain't hav in his cabinet, it's a fair question.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
When the plane collided with the helicopter and lives were lost,
God rest their wonderful souls in that crash months ago,
the first words out of trump mouth was to blame
DEI diversity equity and inclusion. Well, sir, mister president, do
you have any evidence of that?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, I had to go on national TV and say,
DEEI really should stand for it. Didn't earn it as
a force of diversity, equity and inclusion. But when you
look at what's transpiring right now, particularly as it pertains
to our security in this country or for this country,
(04:53):
there's a reason to be alarmed. Why do I say that,
because the hits keep on coming for President Trump's cabinet.
Est yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nolan had a.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Perse stolen at a restaurant in DC.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Inside the purse was a passport, a driver's license, and
government access badge, three thousand dollars in cash.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And blank checks, according to the reports.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
According to USA Today, specifically, the Secret Services launched an
investigation to trace any use of her financial assets. Ladies
and gentlemen, pause for a second, pretty.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Please sugar on top.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
One dude is the Secretary of Defense making these mistakes.
And I had a Homeland Security just got robbed, pickpocketed
that not even pickpocket. They stole a purse, secret service
around the people like that. They still stole a purse.
How hell I happened? Protecting the country, you can't protect
yourself from some of the most basically rudimentary things that
(05:58):
you should be able to avoid letting happen. By the way,
this comes from the same cabinet. I mean, have you
seen Pete hagk Seth speak.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
In the past.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Do you remember when the whole email scandal involving Hillary
Clinton that a lot of people on the left believe
course to the election because a week before a week
or two before the election, James Comey, then the head
of the FBI, decide to announce that there was an
investigation into emails that Hillary Clinton was using on a
(06:30):
private server, thereby threatening national security in the eyes of
critics who wanted to take her down. Well, guess what,
Pete hegg saith the same Pete hagik Seths that we're
talking about. Saint Pete Hegg sath that got his wife
and his brother in text change with national security information.
That Pete heik seth, Ladies and gentlemen, I want to
(06:52):
rewind the clock by nine years when the whole Hillary
Clinton thing was going down, right prior to the election,
lessen of Pete Hagk say talk about Hillary Clinton at
that particular moment in time. This is Pete Haikseth, and
we are quoting any security professional, military, government or otherwise
would be fired on the spot and criminally prosecuted for
being so reckless with this kind of information.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Say what, say what? Say what? He actually said that,
Yes he did, Yes he did. He most certainly said that.
Put that quarter piece saying, Hank set up there again.
Please put up on that full screet gain. I need
that RDY to see it. Because this man who is.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
The Defense Secretary for the United States of America, who.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Got busted.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Exchanging information of national security importance about the Hoodies and
Yemen ultimately scheduled to be bombed, that same dude set
down about Hillary Rodal Clinton. Any security professional, military, government
(08:01):
or otherwise, We'll be fired on the spot and criminally
prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So that doesn't apply to you, now, huh sir, not
at all. I mean you just completely insident on this.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And now you've got Homeland Security secretary getting her persnatched.
So we got the Apartment of Defense and Homeland Security
being compromised on personal levels involving security matters, and that too,
Donald Trump is telling us the trust without national security.
(08:45):
Remember what Trump said about Hillary Rodham Clinton. This is
gonna take a minute. Listen to the forty seventh president
of the United States, who he is now, when he
was in route to becoming a forty fifth president of
the United States, competing with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the
(09:06):
election at twenty sixteen. Take a look at Trump and
what his positions were. Let us listen, please.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think the one that you should really be apologizing for,
and the thing that you should be apologizing for, are
the thirty three thousand emails that you deleted and that
you acid washed, and then the two boxes of emails
and other things last week that were taken from an
office and are now missing.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I didn't think i'd say this, but I'm going to
say it. And I hate to say it, but if
I win I am going to instruct my Attorney General
to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation
because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,
there has never been anything like it, and we're going
(09:56):
to have a special prosecutor. When I speak, I go
out and speak. The people of this country are furious.
In my opinion, the people that have been long term
workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been
anything like this where emails and you get a subpoena,
you get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you
delete thirty three thousand emails and then you asked it
(10:20):
washam or bleach them, as you would say. A very
expensive process. So we're going to get a special prosecutor
and we're going to look into it, because you know
what people have been Their lives have been destroyed for
doing one fifth of what you've done. And it's a disgrace,
and honestly, you ought to be ashamed.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Of yourself, needless to say, Hillary Rodham. Clinton followed that
up immediately by calling that a bunch of lives, encouraging
folks to fact check her, claiming that it was a
complete fabrication.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Etc.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And that was the same moment where she was saying,
she said, thank goodness, somebody like him is not our
commander in chief and overseeing law enforcement in this country.
And that was when Trump said, yeah, because you'd be
in jail. So that was the same you know back
(11:15):
and forth that happened in twenty sixteen. I only bring
that up because since Trump is about law and order,
since he is about competence, since he is about transparency,
since he is about all of these things.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
What's up with your peeps?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What's up with you know, Christy Nolas it's not a
fireable offense. You're looking at the Secret Service. How you
let somebody snatch your pocketbook. But in the case of
Pete hegseth to find out that his wife and his
brother no national security clearance, there was a part of
(11:56):
these these communications, and you've got national security folks appalled
by that. Something has to be said about that, Something
has to be done about that. Now a White House
is calling it fake news, these reports, that's saying they're
looking to replace him. According to everybody that I've spoken to,
(12:17):
because I've cultivated a few sources in Washington over the
past few months.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of course, they say that, you know, knowing Trump.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
He'll probably stick with Pete hagg Seth just because the
national media is trying to compel him to let him go,
and Trump doesn't want to ever be seen as somebody
who caves in to such pressure. Nevertheless, that is the
situation right now. There are numerous reports and pr came
out with something. White House called it fake news, CNN
(12:46):
said something, others have said something in regards to Pete
haig Seth maybe approaching his final days as the Secretary
of Defense for the United States. The White House says, no,
that's not the situation. We'll see who's right, who's telling
the truth, who wrong. We will find out. But what's
undeniable and undebatable is that at this moment in time,
(13:07):
the inexperience of Pete Hagk's at this show. And that's
all I've been saying. You know, to go from a
weekend host on Fox News to be in the Secretary
of Defense for the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Is a bit extreme of a push.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And when you're willing to do something like that, you
don't get to turn to everybody else and talk about
DEI being a problem. You know, you're supposed to be,
especially you're the president of the United States, you're supposed
to be making sure that people in these positions.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Are qualified to do the job. That should be a
priority just as much.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I wouldn't say more, because loyalty to the president does matter.
You have to have people in your cabinet that you
can trust, so I'm not going to dismiss that. But
equally as important is their competence and their professionalism and
their integrity. And right now people believe they've got a question.
(14:02):
Look at Pete Hegseth and question all of that. And
in terms of your Homeland Security secretary and your Secretary
of Defense both being embroiled in security issues, that doesn't
seem like the President of the United.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
States has picked has picked the very best and the
very finest for the jobs. It's all I'm saying. It's
all I'm saying.
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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