Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard: Trump's Picks Raise Concerns | Pivot

1. 0:00 – 0:30

   Kash Patel tapped for FBI: loyalty test and threats to Trump’s critics

   1. KSKara Swisher0:00

      President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI is former national security official, Kash Patel. Uh, that's a... Uh, ooh, what a strange man he is. Patel is a Trump loyalist who's vowed to come after Trump's enemies, including people in the media. A number of high-level Senate Republicans have already indicated their willingness to get behind the choice, but others, not so much. That it's a real, it's a real mixed bag on this guy. By the way, he has to fire Cr- uh, Chris Wray, who was appointed by Trump on a, to a 10-year term, so Chris Wray shouldn't be out of office until

2. 0:30 – 1:00

   Replacing Chris Wray: the institutional shock of firing a 10-year FBI director

   1. KSKara Swisher0:30

      2027. Um, it's alarming a lot of people. Um, at the same time, the Pete H- Hegseth nomination is still raising big questions. This New Yorker piece is a damning whistleblower report on his previous behavior, eh, running two organizations where he drank too much, he abused women, sexual harassment, bunch of lying, misspending, mismanagement. Th- this story is quite... has got it all, by Jane Mayer. Um, and it's, it's based on, uh, well, it's, it's a, it's a devastating,

3. 1:00 – 1:30

   New Yorker whistleblower allegations against Pete Hegseth: drinking, harassment, mismanagement

   1. KSKara Swisher1:00

      very well-reported piece about how bad a manager he was. It may have been a bad period of his life, but boy was it bad. Um, the New York Times also had the 2018 email from Hegseth's mother calling her son an abuser of women. That email was something else. Um, she told the Times she'd written the messages in anger and had apologized for it, but boy, did it have a ring of truth at the time. I guess it was during the same time period. Um, what do you think? Uh, I thought the mother thing, I was, had mixed feelings on. At the same... The New Yorker piece, I do

4. 1:30 – 1:51

   The mother’s email to Hegseth: private family message becomes public signal

   1. KSKara Swisher1:30

      not. It's really... He's a bad, bad, bad manager. And again, he could be going through a difficult period, but this... You, you know, if you recall, John Tower, the womanizing and the sexual, and the drinking was a big issue and sort of scuttled his, his, um, his nomination. This guy's entirely unqualified for this job. Both of them are. So, what do you think about that?

5. 1:51 – 2:03

   Changing standards for public office and confirmations

   1. SGScott Galloway1:51

      I remember an era where you couldn't be on the Supreme Court if you'd been a Playboy Bunny waitress at some point in your life.

   2. KSKara Swisher1:59

      Yeah.

   3. SGScott Galloway1:59

      I mean, you wanna talk about how... uh, just a digression.

   4. KSKara Swisher2:02

      Mm-hmm.

6. 2:03 – 4:18

   Patel vs. Wray: credibility, nonpartisanship, and the danger of weaponizing the FBI

   1. SGScott Galloway2:03

      You know, first off, Patel, he's said that he wants to go after the former head of the CIA. He says that he wants to prosecute and put in prison, you know, people who weren't supportive of Trump. He, he's called... Uh, and, and at the same time, he's found time to write kids books about Trump? This is an odd... This is an odd pers-... And then Director Wray is an outstanding individual. This is a... This is someone I, I c- I c-... I, I am so impressed by this guy. Every time he gets in front of Congress, it's one of those rare moments where you can't tell if he's a Republican or he's a Democrat.

   2. KSKara Swisher2:37

      Yeah.

   3. SGScott Galloway2:37

      He's just trying to do his goddamn job. And, by the way, in my opinion, reflected well on Trump. And everyone in those panels, they actually have a productive session because they realize this guy is loyal to the flag, first and foremost. And the other thing that's so dangerous, uh, m- m- my... No. Okay, so I'll go to Hegseth. As a mother and as the son of a single mother, I read that letter and I found it deeply rattling. One, I was sad, and I didn't know how comfortable I felt about it being made public. A, a letter, a communication, an emotional letter between a mother and a son, I do feel like it should be confidential. But the fact that it's out and the fact that a mother felt compelled to write that to her son?

   4. KSKara Swisher3:24

      Yeah. Me too. I, uh, I couldn't-

   5. SGScott Galloway3:25

      Jesus Christ.

   6. KSKara Swisher3:27

      Did it have a ring of truth?

   7. SGScott Galloway3:28

      I-

   8. KSKara Swisher3:28

      It absolutely did.

   9. SGScott Galloway3:29

      Ugh.

   10. KSKara Swisher3:29

       It was beautifully written. It was all so beautifully written, by the way. It wasn't emotional. It actually was, "My son sucks." Right? I can't imagine writing it. It, it, it rattled me-

   11. SGScott Galloway3:39

       Yeah, it pains me to say this.

   12. KSKara Swisher3:41

       Right. It rattled me beyond belief. I thought, "I would write that letter if my son behaved like that, but I would feel sick to my fucking stomach for doing it." But I would have written-

   13. SGScott Galloway3:50

       I can't imagine...

   14. KSKara Swisher3:51

       ... that letter if my son behaved like this.

   15. SGScott Galloway3:52

       ... that I, I can't imagine getting that letter from my mother.

   16. KSKara Swisher3:55

       Mm-hmm.

   17. SGScott Galloway3:55

       I just, I can't imagine, like... It would just... It would devastate me-

   18. KSKara Swisher3:59

       Yeah.

   19. SGScott Galloway3:59

       ... so much-

   20. KSKara Swisher4:00

       Me too.

   21. SGScott Galloway4:00

       ... that, uh, it would just... I, I, I can't imagine writing it, I can't imagine reading it. And, you know, uh, look, uh, Peter Hegseth, by the way, an outstanding soldier, deserves the Bronze Stars he was given. He should not be in the running for this position.

7. 4:18 – 4:54

   The New Yorker ending and counterattacks: discrediting accusers and aggressive spin

   1. KSKara Swisher4:18

      Did you read that New Yorker piece?

   2. SGScott Galloway4:19

      And then-

   3. KSKara Swisher4:19

      It was disturbing on every level.

   4. SGScott Galloway4:22

      Yeah, the end- the ending-

   5. KSKara Swisher4:23

      And then the-

   6. SGScott Galloway4:23

      ... is really chilling.

   7. KSKara Swisher4:24

      And, and the attempts to try to attack the pe-... There's, like, dozens of people making these allegations, and they're all conservative, every one of them. And (laughs) you know, this, they're trying to, like, say this person had created fake rape allegations, one of, this woman who accused him of raping her. And then, of course, the reporter went to the, to the, to the police, and they said, "No, absolutely not. She has not." Like, they lie about the people. They're so aggressive still.

8. 4:54 – 5:51

   Hegseth’s fitness to lead Defense: competence, sobriety, and nuclear-level decision-making

   1. KSKara Swisher4:54

      It's disturbing that they're trying to shut down a dozen people who are, who, who by the way, are not Democrats. These are Republicans making these allegations, very conservative Republicans. He sounds like a drunk and should get some help, by the way. He sounds like a sexual harasser of women when he is drunk. He's falling down drunk, and all the rich people got him out of his jobs. They fired him. They fired this guy. As, as, as good a career he had in the military, they saw the need to fire him. Now, he may have come back from Iraq with all kinds of troubles and he drowned them in alcohol. He should get some help, and he behaved incredibly badly, and to, to... And he's incompetent at running... He couldn't run a small organization. He cannot run and make decisions about nuclear war for us. I'm sorry. (laughs) And the mother thing, at first, when I read the two in combination, it's devastating, just devastating. He's incompetent.

9. 5:51 – 7:42

   Security apparatus ‘thrown in the towel’: Gabbard as the most frightening nominee

   1. SGScott Galloway5:51

      What's so disappointing is, it appears to me that Trump and his advisors have decided, "We need to be adults and have a certain screen, a pretty fine screen, around people and senior appointments that impact the economy."And yet they seem to have thrown in the towel on issues related to our military or defense or our security apparatus. I feel like the most frightening potential nominee right now is Representative Gabbard.

   2. KSKara Swisher6:18

      Yeah.

   3. SGScott Galloway6:18

      I, I, I cannot believe that you are gonna send a message... There are agents, there are CIA officers who have spent their entire lives and have put themselves in incredible danger every day, and there's only two people that know their identities if they're deep, and that is their case officer and potentially the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, or p- perhaps someone who's heading the entire security apparatus.

   4. KSKara Swisher6:42

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SGScott Galloway6:42

      And do you really believe that Representative Gabbard might not believe at some point to forward your names and your identity to these people-

   6. KSKara Swisher6:50

      Yeah, I know, I just-

   7. SGScott Galloway6:50

      ... because there's some sort of con- I, I would be like, "Okay, folks-"

   8. KSKara Swisher6:54

      Nikki Haley's spoken out against her. All these people.

   9. SGScott Galloway6:55

      "... it is time for me, it is time for you to bring me back and give me my retirement." Because I believe that one of the thing, I believe this is true of, of, of, of, um, Director Wray, I believe this was true of George Bush when he was running the CIA. I think these case officers, uh, quite frankly these spies and these assets and these FBI officers or, um, agents, they have to believe that this person would die for me, that this person would put himself or herself in harm's way before letting me be in harm. And I think all of those people met that qualification. They were deathly concerned about their safety, they, they put the safety of these people ahead of others, and I don't believe that is true of Representative Gabbard. In addition-

10. 7:42 – 8:28

    Allies, intelligence-sharing, and America First: why trust is a strategic asset

    1. KSKara Swisher7:42

       No.

    2. SGScott Galloway7:42

       ... you wanna talk about real harm to our national security, no one nation can fight the rest of the world on its own. And this level of arrogance that we have enjoyed because of our prosperity and this America first kind of macho has given us the impression that we don't need the cooperation of our allies to prevent terrorism, to prevent theft of our intellectual property. And guess what? The European economy is just as big as ours. And the Mossad, MI6, guess what? The French Secret Ser- they are very good at what they do. And on really sensitive issues, around bioweapons, around terrorism, we cooperate, we coordinate, and we share information 'cause guess what? We have mutual shared interests. In addition to that, we trust each other. Do you think these folks are gonna share information with these folks?

11. 8:28 – 9:16

    ‘Acceptable alternatives’ and why these picks feel uniquely extreme

    1. KSKara Swisher8:28

       No, I, I, I think the all three of them. I gotta say Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard are... A- and by the way, uh, one of the things I did when I was looking at them was find the other people that were in line. Every one of them was acceptable. Like, they're not my favorites, but they were certainly competent. Like, the other names-

    2. SGScott Galloway8:46

       That's right.

    3. KSKara Swisher8:46

       ... being bandied about? They were fine. I, they're just Republicans and they're a little more conservative than I care to have. You know, a little more aggressive, a little less, a little too America first for me, a couple of them. But e- and, you know, nobody, not, not having allies, anti-ally. Okay, I see it. That's a point of view. These people, one is a, absolutely incompetent and has a real problem with women in a creepy, creepy way, and has a drinking problem, which he may or may not have taken in hand. I have no idea. This, and can't run

12. 9:16 – 10:03

    Consequences: chaos, distraction from ‘kitchen-table’ promises, and looming investigative battles

    1. KSKara Swisher9:16

       anything, by the way. Is just inco- a good, go- he's a good soldier. Otherwise, no thank you. The second one is insane. Kash Patel seems insane. And the other one is feels like a Russian asset. Like, it's like cr- like, and the fact that he had good people and picked these guys, and then also Matt Gaetz, who they managed to get rid of, is just such a ridiculous... It's ridiculous. It's really kind of... Like, it's gonna take up his whole... He's gonna have to fire Chris Wray, just so you know. And then that'll be chaos, well, he'll never get anything done 'cause the chaos will ensue, 'cause they'll spend all their time doing chaos versus doing anything he said. Nobody when they were voting for him to get the price of eggs down voted for this luna- this lunacy. I'm sorry, they didn't. They didn't. They didn't, and that's a, it's an opportunity lost.

13. 10:03 – 11:40

    Final warnings: role-model harm, press intimidation, and what to read next

    1. SGScott Galloway10:03

       Hegseth is a terrible role model for young men. He creates, he cements, or he's emboldening this notion that it's no longer a, a bug, it's a feature to be a little bit rapey. (laughs) We can't normalize this. We can't, we can't normalize this. What's even worse than being a poor role model (laughs) and not being qualified, a different level, in my opinion, of, of threat is Patel, who has called for using the power of the Bureau and the Justice Department to prosecute journalists. Open quote, "We're going to come after you whether it's criminally or civilly. We'll figure that out," he said during an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast. You c- i- i- the fact that this guy is being (laughs) considered is so-

    2. KSKara Swisher10:51

       Uh, he's always been around.

    3. SGScott Galloway10:51

       The fact that, uh, as you described it perfectly, I don't think it, well, back o- uh, I'll, I'll take that back. It's not fair to call her a Russian asset. She's a Russian sympathizer. She provides comfort and aid to the enemy, and she will absolutely frighten the shit out of our own assets and our own allies. Uh, so I don't understand why he's not bringing the same level of maturity to our security apparatus and our defense apparatus that he's brought to the economic appointments. It just doesn't make any, it doesn't make any sense to me.

    4. KSKara Swisher11:17

       Well, he e- I think he just gets... Something happens late at night with him. Maybe he's taking ketamine with Elon or something. In any case, we'll see what happens here, but it's disturbing. I would recommend reading the mother's letter. It's disturbing. It is, along with the story from The New Yorker for Hegseth, that's for sure. And I'm looking forward to the Kash Patel story, which is gonna be just worse I think in a different way, and the Tulsi Gabbard stories.

Episode duration: 11:41