GOP rep: Sessions would ‘root out all the BS’ at DOD

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) would make a great Defense secretary who could “root out all the B.S.” in the Pentagon, a top GOP congressional ally of President-elect Donald Trump told The Hill on Tuesday.

“He’s a guy who not only knows the defense-side of stuff, but he can root out all the B.S. that the Pentagon has become and has infested the Pentagon right now,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a former Marine and member of the House Armed Services Committee, who campaigned for Trump. 

Speculation about Trump’s Cabinet has been rampant since his election, and Sessions, the first senator to back his presidential bid, has been floated as a possible Pentagon chief.

{mosads}”I think he’d be great. He’d be a great Sec Def,” added Hunter, who was reportedly on the shortlist for the position himself and whose name has been floated for deputy Defense secretary. 

Other names who are short-listed include: Former George W. Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadle and former GOP Sen. Jim Talent (Mo.). 

Hunter said several things make Sessions, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, especially qualified for the position: his service in the Senate as well as the Army and the fact that he’s not a bureaucrat or lawyer. 

“Here’s the problem with the Pentagon: The bureaucrats and the lawyers are running the show right now. That’s why the warrior culture has fled the Pentagon. If you want to find the warrior culture in the military, you’ve got to actually go overseas,” said Hunter, who’s served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Hunter said right now, “you have bad rules of engagement, you have sensitivity stuff as opposed to focusing on winning wars, killing our enemies, supporting our allies, [and] projecting American power throughout the world.”  

“That’s what the Department of Defense is there to do. It isn’t there to do transgender sex operations,” he added. 

“It’s not there to have roving squads of word police where if you say something offensive or use a cuss word you get reprimanded. That should not be happening. So get the lawyers and bureaucracy out of the way, and put the warriors back in charge, and I think Sessions would be great at that,” he said. 

Amid talk that a Trump Pentagon would roll back combat roles for women, Hunter said Sessions would not entirely undo those efforts — just not have women serve n the infantry and special operations. 

In regards to speculation of him being potentially tapped as deputy Defense secretary, Hunter said, “As long as I can do what I’m doing now, which is make an impact.”