Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is not known for mincing words. And during a conversation with Don Lemon this week, she offered one of her bluntest assessments yet.
She aimed squarely at Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is under growing scrutiny over leaked communications and questions about his leadership.
Speaking with Lemon on the sidelines of an event, Crockett tore into Hegseth’s credibility and the Republican Party’s shifting stance on him, saying Washington’s sudden hand-wringing was “too little, too late.”
“We knew we weren’t going to get the best,” she said of President Trump’s decision to bring Hegseth into the administration — a pick made as part of Trump’s right-leaning disposition.
“Pete Hegseth has always been a loser.”
Her comments come as pressure mounts on Hegseth following a leaked signal chat that critics say raises questions about judgment inside his office. Democrats are calling for an investigation, while some Republicans — publicly at least — are distancing themselves. He is also alleged to have ordered the obliteration of unarmed civilians in international waters under the pretext of fighting narco-terrorists.
Crockett wasn’t impressed:
“Now people want to say, ‘Oh, we should get rid of him.’ I’m sorry — the Signal leak didn’t inform you that this guy wasn’t the guy to be leading our troops?”
A Sudden GOP Pivot
The Texas congresswoman reserved her sharpest criticism for what she described as the Republican Party’s whiplash shift on Hegseth.
For months, conservative lawmakers defended him as a loyal soldier for the administration. Now, facing backlash, Hegseth and GOP leaders have begun pointing fingers at one another in an attempt to contain the fallout.
Crockett didn’t hesitate to point out the contradiction:
“Right now they’re saying, ‘Throw him under the bus.’ And Pete Hegseth is like, ‘No, throw those under me under the bus.’”
She then connected the moment to a recent episode in Congress, where Republican members admonished service members about following lawful orders — a warning Democrats saw as a veiled shot at their own colleagues.
“They wanted to remind service members that you are not to follow an unlawful order,” she said. “Now Pete Hegseth wants to go after a sitting senator for simply reminding people of their oath — while at the same time going after people they claim violated their oath.”
Her conclusion:
“That is absolute hypocrisy. It is disgusting. And it is beneath our service members.”
A Broader Fight Over Military and Moral Authority
The controversy around Hegseth goes beyond leaked messages. It lands in the middle of a broader political tug-of-war over who speaks for the military, who protects the institution, and who uses it as a political weapon.
For Democrats, Hegseth has long been a symbol of the militarization of partisan media culture — a Fox News fixture elevated to a Cabinet-level role. For Republicans, he was an ideological ally, a veteran with television reach, and a reliable culture-war combatant.
But in Washington, loyalty has an expiration date.
