Pete Hegseth

I would consider myself a gummy bear aficionado.

Now, probably not as much as you, but I'm always looking for the softest, chewiest, best gummy bear.

They're good to go.

I'm going to try one right now.

Well, they smell good.

I find that the generic ones are often the softest.

Well, the idea of the book, I would say, you know, I wrote a book about education.

I've written some books about politics.

And it just didn't feel like the right time to kind of assess where we were in the military, especially after 20 years of more or less ongoing combat.

And, you know, it takes a while for the dust to clear and to get a sense of, like, hey, what happened?

But then things...

you know, under Obama, but really after Trump and then in Biden, you start to look around and you say, wow.

And it happened really fast.

It happened slowly and then it happened fast.

You start to realize this institution that I love, that I gave so many years to, that you gave so many years to, and I say that humbly because I did far less than so many.

You know, I did my one little thing as part of a bigger effort over 20 years.

But this institution's going sideways.

It doesn't... And you hear time and time again... Which institution?

The Department of Defense, the military, the army, pick your service.

And it started with a central question, the book.