'A Disruptor': JD Vance Weighs In on Pete Hegseth's Confirmation

As Townhall has been covering, Vice President JD Vance had quite the memorable Sunday morning show appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation," during which he spoke with Margaret Brennan. At one point, he was asked about the confirmation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Vance had to get involved on Friday night with such a confirmation by casting the tiebreaking vote, leading to a memorable post over X from the vice president about being "done voting in the senate," complete with a laugh emoji.

I thought I was done voting in the senate 😂
— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 25, 2025

Was thrilled to have played a role in making this official. Congrats Pete! https://t.co/XeoZTHTvCs
— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 26, 2025

The interview on Sunday began with Brennan's question about the narrow margin in confirming Hegseth, specifically, "If the nominee can't unite your party, how is he going to lead three million people?" It was something of an unrelated point that Brennan was making, but Vance handled it well, highlighting how Hegseth is the person needed for the job.

"Well, look, I think Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don't like that disruption, but Margaret, that disruption is incredibly necessary. If you think about all of those bipartisan, massive votes, we have to ask ourselves, what did they get us? They got us a country where we fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven't won a war about as long as I've been alive," Vance, who is himself a veteran, responded with such a sobering point. Further, when it comes to previous nominees confirmed, former President Joe Biden managed to get his nominees through, and they were woefully incompetent and picked for reasons based on "equity" and identity politics.

"They've got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that's totally dysfunctional, where we buy airplanes for billions and billions of dollars, terrible cost overruns, the delivery dates are always delayed. So we need a big change," Vance continued, speaking further about the need for Hegseth's leadership. "Now, admittedly, there are people who don't like that big change, but it is necessary, and it's explicitly what Donald J. Trump ran on and I think part of the reason why the American people elected him their 47th president."

Vance also went on to explain that "the main thing that we want Pete Hegseth to do is to fix the problems at the Department of Defense," adding, "Unfortunately, there are many." He also spoke further about losing wars the United States had been involved in, before Brennan cut him off. "We've gotten into way too many wars that we don't have a plan for winning. We've gotten into way too many misadventures that we shouldn't have got into in the very first place, and our procurement process, Margaret, is incredibly broken," he pointed out.

As she jumped in to insist that "those are policy decisions," Vance had another perfect response for Brennan. "Well, of course, they're policy decisions, but they're also logistical and implementation decisions. If you look at where we are with the rise of artificial intelligence, with the rise of drone technology and drone warfare, we have to really, top to bottom, change the way that we fund the procurement of weapons, the way that we arm our troops," he pointed out, going on to bring it back to how Hegseth is indeed a "disruptor."

"This is a major period of disruption, and we think Pete Hegseth is the guy to lead the job," Vance reminded. "Now there's another element to this Margaret too, which is we believe that military morale, at least until the election of President Trump, was historically low. You had the Army missing recruitment goals by tens of thousands of soldiers, and already recruitment is starting to pick up because Pete Hegseth is fundamentally a war fighter's leader at the Department of Defense. He is a guy who sees, not through the perspective of the generals or the bureaucrats, he looks at things through the perspective of the men and women that we send off to fight in our wars."

Vice President JD Vance tells @margbrennan Pete Hegseth is "a disruptor," after he was forced to cast the tie-breaking vote to push through Hegseth's controversial confirmation as defense secretary. "A lot of people don't like that disruption, but, Margaret, that disruption is… pic.twitter.com/xFc6mm6WRY
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 26, 2025

Hegseth's most recent book, "The War on Warriors," which we previewed last Memorial Day shortly before its release, touched upon not only Hegseth's own personal experiences in the military, but also how issues like DEI are having a negative effect. He also spoke with Townhall when discussing the book about a need to "save" the Pentagon.

As the new secretary of defense arrived at the Pentagon for work on Monday morning, his plans for the military have been a trending topic over X.

🚨 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives to the Pentagon for his first day: "Every moment that I'm here, I'm thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, in Germany, in Fort Benning, and Fort Bragg, on missile defense sites, and aircraft carriers. Our job is lethality and readiness… pic.twitter.com/DxTI8yNQJD
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 27, 2025