Sunny Hostin baffled why Pete Hegseth wants to ‘toughen physical standards’ in military

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin appeared confused on Tuesday about why Secretary of War Pete Hegseth would impose stricter physical standards for soldiers in the military.

Hegseth announced in Quantico, Virginia, that all combat roles, regardless of sex, will be held to the highest “male-level” standard to ensure that they will be prepared for potential “life and death” situations, and acknowledged that the standard could result in less women. Hostin said that Hegseth “denigrated” the Marines by calling to strengthen standards and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

“Also, [Hegseth] said he was going to return to the highest male standard for combat positions because troops were fat. I don’t understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military,” Hostin said. “It was really a bizarre thing. He started talking about woke DEI policies. By the way, there are no gender quotas in the military. By the way, he fired more than a dozen military leaders, many of them people of color and women. He fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown Jr., who is African American. He fired the first woman to command the Navy, Admiral Lisa Franchetti. I just don’t understand the sort of hypocrisy of firing these people, having all these people meet together, and then denigrating them.”

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During the speech, Hegseth also said that it is “unacceptable” for generals and troops to be out of shape and stated that they must go through “real hard” physical training, as well as undergo two physical tests per year to ensure their preparedness.

“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusion, no more debris. I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that s–t,” Hegseth said.

Starting in November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will begin requiring all applicants to successfully complete one strict pull-up as part of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) to become a special agent. The new standard will require a person’s hands to be no wider than two hand widths outside the shoulders and to pull their body upward until their chin is higher than the bar.

Democratic Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono grew worried that these new standards would harm women applicants during a Sept. 16 hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. The FBI director said that an agent must be able to fulfill the agency’s basic physical requirements regardless of their sex.

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