The View’s Sunny Hostin strongly criticized Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday after he unveiled new measures to tighten physical fitness requirements across the U.S. military, calling his remarks “bizarre” and “not an uplifting message.”
Speaking on The View, Hostin said she was “befuddled” by the tone and content of Hegseth’s address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he demanded tougher physical standards, routine PT testing, and condemned what he described as “fat troops” and “fat generals.”
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“I was 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. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Hostin said.
“It also didn’t make a lot of sense to me that he was saying that he was gonna toughen physical standards and review the anti-hazing policy by sort of implementing a hazing policy, and then also he said he was going to return to the highest male standard for combat positions because the troops were fat. I just, I don’t understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military.”
Sunny Hostin also decries Hegseth wanting to "toughen physical standards" for America's service members and called it "really a bizarre thing." "I don't understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military," she bloviated.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 30, 2025
Of course, she whines about… pic.twitter.com/G3nTg6POYu
She added, “Yeah, it was just, 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, I don’t understand the sort of hypocrisy of firing these people, having all these people meet together, and then denigrating them.”
Hegseth, a former Army officer and Fox News host who is now the Secretary of War, defended his push for stricter requirements as essential for battlefield readiness.
HEGSETH: “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is.”
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 30, 2025
“It will also mean that weak men won't qualify, because we're not playing games.”
“This is combat. This is life or death.”
pic.twitter.com/gHJ6RTmW9d
“This is not about preventing women from serving,” Hegseth said in his speech.
“We very much value the impact of female troops. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”
Hegseth also ordered every member of the armed forces — from privates to generals — to pass physical training and height/weight standards twice a year.
Secretary Hegseth: "Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon." pic.twitter.com/iiqXUZA0UY
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 30, 2025
“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops,” he said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.”
The View’s other co-hosts weighed in, accusing Hegseth of belittling service members.
“Why is he obsessed with fat?” Joy Behar asked, while Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that the speech unfairly insulted troops who have continued to meet recruitment and readiness goals.
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“All of these people from different backgrounds come together and fight for the American values,” Griffin said. “So, I don’t understand why we have to denigrate the military to try to talk about doing better.”
Hostin reiterated that she found Hegseth’s rhetoric damaging: “I just don’t understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message.”