Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) painted recent remarks from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on whether Ukraine would be welcomed into NATO as a “rookie mistake.”
“Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job,” Wicker told Politico on Friday. “But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels, and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line.”
The newly minted Defense chief has seemingly walked back the comments, clarifying on Thursday that President Trump is leading the negotiations and that “everything is on the table.”
“I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool,” Wicker told Politico’s Jonathan Martin on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“Everybody knows … and people in the administration know you don’t say before your first meeting what you will agree to and what you won’t agree to,” he added later.
Wicker has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s initial invasion nearly three years ago. He said he was “heartened” by Hegseth’s move to retract his controversial statements.
“There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys,” Wicker said.
“They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated,” the Mississippi Republican added. “And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to it.”
Trump spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week about ending the war. He is also expected to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia at a later date, which was not disclosed.
His administration has outlined a six-month timeline for peace between the Eastern European nations following Trump’s campaign promise to bring an end to the global conflict.
Wicker has long urged the U.S. to continue weapons shipments to Ukraine and hammered down on the objective Friday arguing arms should continue arriving “until there is a ceasefire.”
