Jimmy Kimmel Uses Pete Hegseth’s Own Damning Words Against Him In Blistering Opener

Jimmy Kimmel called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for hypocrisy in how he’s handling the scandal in which a journalist was accidentally invited into a group chat where top officials discussed highly classified military information.

“He’s dead to rights. He texted very sensitive information to a reporter,” Kimmel said. “So what does he do? He blames the reporter!”

Hegseth called the reporter ― Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic ― “deceitful and highly discredited” and a “guy that peddles in garbage.”

Kimmel offered up a damning comparison.

“This is like ― and I know Pete can relate to this ― this is like getting drunk, driving your car into a lamppost, and blaming the lamppost,” Kimmel said.

He also noted that the defense secretary sang a very different tune on mishandling classified information only a few years ago when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was accused of doing so.

“If it was anyone other than Hillary Clinton, they would be in jail right now for what has been done,” Hegseth said on Fox News at the time. “Because the assumption is in the intelligence community if you are using unclassified means there is the potential for and likelihood that foreign governments are targeting those accounts and gathering intelligence from them.”

“Very well said,” Kimmel agreed. “Case closed.”

Then he envisioned how Clinton may be responding to the news.

“I bet Hillary is walking around the woods laughing her ass off today,” he said. “Lock them up! Lock them up!”

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See more in his Tuesday night monologue:

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