Pete Hegseth Snaps at Reporter Asking About ‘Underqualified’ Military Chief

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth snapped in response to a reporter’s question about an “underqualified” replacement for the ousted chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown.

Hegseth was enjoying some small talk with Saudi Defense Minister Khalid Bin Salman and his delegation Monday afternoon in the Pentagon, when things started to sour. Hegseth fielded questions from assembled reporters and one grilled him on retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine replacing CQ Brown in the critical role.

“Why did you select an underqualified, retired lieutenant general to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?” the journalist asked, appearing to anger Hegseth in front of the Saudis.

“I’m going to choose to reject your unqualified question,” he fired back, before moving on to the next question from another reporter.

A full four-star general and former fighter pilot, Brown was the second African American to hold the position of the nation’s top military officer, having been in that role since October 2023, when he replaced Gen. Mark Milley. He was replaced Friday by Caine, a retired three-star Air Force general.

Prior to his appointment during the Biden administration, Brown had been Air Force chief of staff since 2020. Hegseth on Sunday said Brown was “an honorable man” but not “the right man for the moment.”

But he was less forgiving back in November, when he told podcaster Shawn Ryan that Brown needed booting for pushing “woke bulls–t.”

“You gotta fire the chairman of the Joint chiefs, and you got to fire this—I mean, obviously you’re going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI, woke bulls–t has got to go,” he said.

In his Truth Social post announcing the decision on Friday, Trump reiterated that Brown is “a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader.”