Pete Hegseth wasn’t on the USS Abraham Lincoln when sailors were stuck at sea for more than a year, running short on rations, reporting suicide attempts, and watching supply bases get taken out by drone strikes. He showed up for the homecoming photo op. Paul Rieckhoff joins Connell McShane at News Nation to call it exactly what it is — a 2028 presidential campaign being run out of the Pentagon, with internal camps already forming around JD Vance and Dan Driscoll on one side and Hegseth loyalists on the other. The only person in close November races people are running away from faster than Trump is Hegseth himself.
From there, the conversation moves to the three-year anniversary of October 7th, the worst day in Israel’s history, and why Israeli voters are now demanding accountability from Benjamin Netanyahu for the failures that let it happen and for the collapse of Israel’s standing in the world. Then Ukraine: scrappy counter-offensives in the Donbas, battlefield innovation in drones and cyber, and a winter that Putin has already promised will target civilian heat and light. No-BS, no spin, just a rapid-fire national security read for independents who are done being lied to by both parties.
In this episode
- Why Hegseth’s USS Lincoln appearance was a campaign stop, not a leadership moment
- The failure of planning that left sailors stranded at sea for over a year
- Paul’s call: Hegseth, Vance, and Rubio are all running in 2028 — and the Pentagon knows it
- The Vance-Driscoll camp vs. the Hegseth camp inside the building
- Why Hegseth is now a bigger drag on November races than Trump himself
- October 7th at three years: remembering the civilians, separating the attack from Netanyahu’s response
- Israel Democracy Institute polling — 62% of Israeli voters say October 7th is central to their vote
- Ukraine clawing back ground in the Donbas while the world told them to give up
- Putin’s winter playbook: target infrastructure, shut off the heat, break the civilians
- Why Ukraine is the front line of democracy AND of military innovation in drones and cyber
