CNN Data Guru Hands Pentagon Pete Sobering Reality Check

Politics admin September 17, 2026 0 Comments

CNN Data Guru Hands Pentagon Pete Sobering Reality Check

A new poll has made clear how the American public really feels about Pete Hegseth.

The embattled defense secretary is almost universally disliked, CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten said Thursday after a Quinnipiac University survey delivered a damning assessment of Hegseth.

“We start off the title slide asking ‘Who hates Hegseth?’ and basically everyone, if you’re the American public,” Enten said on CNN News Central.

The poll found that only 32 percent of voters were happy with Hegseth’s job as defense secretary, while 57 percent disapproved and 11 percent had no opinion, leaving his net approval a staggering 25 points underwater. Quinnipiac University said those numbers marked Hegseth’s lowest approval rating showing in its polls.

Enten pointed out that Hegseth was nine points underwater in January, before the Trump administration waged war against Iran.

“You think that’s low? Look at this: he’s more than twice as unpopular, nearly three times as unpopular now,” he said.

Hegseth fared even worse among independent voters, who gave him a net approval rating of minus 43.

The poll also found that only 39 percent of voters felt some confidence in Hegseth’s leadership of the military, while 56 percent were either not so confident or not confident at all.

The data guru said the findings left “no wonder” why House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, chose to clock out until the November elections and stave off an impeachment vote against Hegseth.

“No wonder, no wonder, no wonder Speaker Johnson did not want his Republican representatives to actually have to vote on this because if they voted with the president, they’d be voting against the American public because the bottom line is Pete Hegseth is hated by basically everyone,” he said.

The House headed home Wednesday night, allowing members to avoid voting on a Hegseth impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie. The Kentucky Republican, who has long been a thorn in the Trump administration’s side, took aim at Hegseth over the war in Iran, which was not authorized by Congress, and other abuses of power.

When reached for comment, the Pentagon responded with an attack on CNN and the Daily Beast.

“CNN is Fake News, and the Daily Beast is low IQ slop for the left,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said.

Valdez, 27, spent a year at college and left without graduating. He has never worked outside Republican politics. He became deputy press secretary to Hegseth—where he demanded journalists be “punished” for reporting true stories—after working for extreme MAGA reps Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.