Not a single member of The View had ever served in the military. And yet, the windbag hags felt their opinions actually meant something when it came to Secretary Pete Hegseth’s focus on fitness and grooming standards. They whined that Hegseth was being a “bully” for calling out unfit service members as fat and proclaimed that the military “should be taking anyone” no matter what, and that fitness and the infantry didn’t matter because of drones.
Following a soundbite of Hegseth proclaiming “No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radical, just warriors,” fill-in moderator Sara Haines griped that it was “Not exactly a recruitment video.”
Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin thought she actually had the credentials to critique Hegseth’s standards because she worked in the Pentagon’s press shop for a brief time. And she seemingly felt more qualified than the man who had actually led men in combat:
FARAH GRIFFIN: But, listen, I worked at the Department of Defense and what Pete Hegseth has done, listen, he was a major in the Army. He did serve our country. But it would have been like if I showed up at this table and was like, Barbara Walters, I'm going to tell you how it's done.
DEBBIE MATENOPOULOS: Oh boy.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Like, he is literally taking on -
MATENOPOULOS: That would not go well.
FARAH GRIFFIN: That would not go well.
"[War is] not infantry men any more."
The windbags of The View have ever served in the military but whine about Secretary Hegseth enforcing fitness/grooming standards. They diminish his military service and claim the military doesn't need the infantry since drones are a thing:… pic.twitter.com/wQnTSovW2o— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 2, 2026
No, Alyssa. A more accurate parallel would be – let’s say, a nepo baby who got her start in politics because of her daddy’s connections, then bounced around from press team to press team until she landed in the Pentagon, and then thought she knew more than a major. But that’s just spit balling.
“He is taking on people, the four-star generals, the admirals who have decades of experience both in combat but in working with the civilian workforce, and he’s denigrating their service to our country,” she bemoaned, seemingly under the false impression that generals actually took part in combat.
Farah Griffin and legacy guest co-host Debbie Matenopoulos seriously argued that physical fitness standards didn’t really matter because drones existed. They even ridiculously claimed the infantry was obsolete:
FARAH GRIFFIN: This whole emphasis he has on like whenever he does these regular Ted Talks on people's weight and their physique. We obviously need a healthy force, but the future of warfare is not, you know, hand-to-hand combat. It's drones.
MATENOPOULOS: It's not infantry men any more anyway.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Exactly.
Claiming the infantry wasn’t needed at all was really a braindead take. How would a military force take and occupy territory without them? Even in Ukraine, where drones were a crucial and burgeoning tool, infantry was needed to hold trench lines and retake settlements. It was a key part of the Ukrainian 3rd Army’s recent successes against Russia in the east.
If the infantry was no longer needed, why did the Pentagon just adopt the M7 as their new standard issue rifle? Why were they having FN develop the MTL-30 for their Precision Grenadier System? Why were they reconfiguring the squad-size elements?
Legacy guest co-host Debbie Matenopoulos, who never servied in the military whines that Hegseth condemning fatbodies in the military is "bullying them":
"He is bullying these people who have voluntarily put themselves in the military and put themselves sometimes in harm's way to… pic.twitter.com/wQMLquXdlH— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 2, 2026
Matenopoulos would later go on to whine about Hegseth being a “bully”:
[H]e is bullying these people who have voluntarily put themselves in the military and put themselves sometimes in harm's way to protect our freedoms and protect our country and you are bullying them! You're essentially their superior. You need to act like a leader.
He’s not “essentially their superior,” Debbie. He’s second only to the president of the United States in the chain of command.
As they were nearing the end of the segment, Haines thought it was ridiculous that Hegseth would care about “waistlines,” and argued that the military “should be taking anyone” who wondered into a recruiter’s office.
Legacy guest co-host Debbie Matenopoulos, who never servied in the military whines that Hegseth condemning fatbodies in the military is "bullying them":
"He is bullying these people who have voluntarily put themselves in the military and put themselves sometimes in harm's way to… pic.twitter.com/wQMLquXdlH— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 2, 2026
Sara, just because someone might be “willing to fight for this country and make the ultimate sacrifice” doesn’t mean they’re cut out for the military. Someone so morbidly obese that they can’t get out of bed certainly shouldn’t be accepted. What you're asking for is not the type of compassion you think it is. What's you're asking for just creates cannon fodder.
We’ve been over this before, girl.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
October 2, 2026
11:04:01 a.m. Eastern(…)
SECY. PETE HEGSETH (Department of Defense): No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radical, just warriors.
[Cuts back to live]
SARA HAINES: Not exactly a recruitment video, but what did you make for his plans for the military?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I literally thought that last quote was a parody. I saw it circulating on social media, I was like, ‘that's not real. This is SNL. This is not real life.’
But, listen, I worked at the Department of Defense and what Pete Hegseth has done, listen, he was a major in the Army. He did serve our country. But it would have been like if I showed up at this table and was like, Barbara Walters, I'm going to tell you how it's done.
DEBBIE MATENOPOULOS: Oh boy.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Like, he is literally taking on -
MATENOPOULOS: That would not go well.
FARAH GRIFFIN: That would not go well. He is taking on people, the four-star generals, the admirals who have decades of experience both in combat but in working with the civilian workforce, and he’s denigrating their service to our country.
But he also talks about a military that I don't recognize. It's not what I saw when I worked there. We are the greatest fighting force in the history of mankind.
MATENOPOULOS: Yes, we are. [Starts clapping]
FARAH GRIFFIN: We're not weak. We're not incapable.
[Applause]
And I don't know where he's hearing this from. But I also - This whole emphasis he has on like whenever he does these regular Ted Talks on people's weight and their physique. We obviously need a healthy force, but the future of warfare is not, you know, hand-to-hand combat. It's drone.
MATENOPOULOS: It's not infantry men any more anyway.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Exactly. It's just so bizarre! I think he knows that his days are short. I think there's already articles of impeachment for him if the midterms go the way they’re expected.
HAINES: And that's what he showed up with if he thought he was on his way out? [Points to the screen]
FARAH GRIFFIN: You’d think he would do something different. But no, it feels like his latest Ted Talk.
(…)
11:06:37 a.m. Eastern
MATENOPOULOS: You know what? I'd Ike to talk a little bit about him saying about the partisan journalism. I agree with him. Journalism should not be partisan. It shouldn't be in the same sentence. Journalism needs to be objective on either side. It should never ever be subjective. However, his message is lost because of the fact that he has tried to ban the press from the Pentagon, number one.
And, number two, because he is bullying these people who have voluntarily put themselves in the military and put themselves sometimes in harm's way to protect our freedoms and protect our country and you are bullying them! You're essentially their superior. You need to act like a leader.
(…)
11:09:02 a.m. Eastern
HAINES: Ana, the focus of this whole thing comes back to what you said about unserious. We are talking about a time when we're not only actively in war, we’re talking about the A.I. concerns and how we are underdeveloped. Our computer systems are completely antiquated to battle the A.I. we made in this country.
And to think his focus now is on waistlines and whether you - like, who you sleep with at night. Like, really we should be taking anyone who is willing to fight for this country and make the ultimate sacrifice and stop doing whatever this is that he's doing, the whole online dating again.
