Really ladies?
The View co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin ridiculed War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, questioning why he is so “obsessed” with physical “fitness” in the military after his fiery speech to top brass at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
President Donald Trump also addressed the generals and admirals, but it was Hegseth’s call for tougher, uniform standards — and his rejection of “woke garbage” in the ranks — that drew fire from the ABC talk show panel.
Behar accused Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer, of pushing a “retro” vision of America’s armed forces.
“Right before we went on the air, the newly-renamed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to U.S. military leaders from around the world to lay out his very retro vision for our armed forces,” Behar said, before cutting to a clip of Hegseth’s remarks.
“It’s tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops,” Hegseth told the generals. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.”
“Um, why is he obsessed with fat?” Behar asked.
“Yeah, and fitness?” Hostin added.
The hosts also rolled tape of Trump’s address, which ranged from his comments about a possible Nobel Peace Prize to joking about the “gorgeous paper” he uses in the White House.
Afterward, Hostin attacked Hegseth for holding the rare gathering at all, blasting the price tag and questioning the purpose.
“I’m actually really befuddled by why he did that. The optics were terrible, meaning all of our top military brass are all in one place and we spent $6 million to get them there?” Hostin said. “That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. It also didn’t make a lot of sense to me that he was saying that he was going to toughen physical standards and review the anti-hazing policy by sort of implementing a hazing policy.”
Hostin went further, dismissing Hegseth’s blunt words about fitness as counterproductive. “I was confused how calling soldiers ‘fat’ was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military,” Hostin said.
Watch the clip below:
Joy Behar scoffs at Pete Hegseth's "retro vision for our armed forces" and questions "why is he obsessed with fat [service members]?"
Sunny Hostin chimes in to scoff Hegseth's obsession with "fitness" for the military. pic.twitter.com/V9GJ7XYH3a— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 30, 2025
[h/t Mediaite]