Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore says she was "never given a reason" why Pete Hegseth fired her

[0:00] We spoke Friday with Democratic Congresswoman-elect Nancy LaCour, a former Navy Vice Admiral and a mom of six who flipped a seat in South Carolina as part of last week's Blue Wave. [0:11] She's a former registered Republican who says she left the party in 2016 because of President Trump. [0:18] We began by asking her what areas she thinks she could work on with the president. [0:23] I see a lot of opportunities because of what the new Congress is going to look like. [0:30] You know, there's a significant majority this time. [0:34] There are a lot of veterans who are now, you know, elected, you know, soon to be official congressmen and women. [0:41] And as veterans, we don't really care what your political affiliation is. [0:46] We just focus on achieving the mission. [0:49] And I think that's what you're going to see out of this new Congress. [0:51] Well, you said on the campaign trail that your mission would be bringing down the cost of housing, medical care, health care, [0:58] getting rid of tax breaks for data centers. [1:01] That's a long to-do list. [1:03] Do you have a sense from Democratic leaders what the first initiative will be in the new Congress? [1:09] The things that I'm going to focus on on day one, first of all, will be to end this war, [1:13] because that has driven up costs extraordinarily high across the district and the country. [1:18] We also need to look at repealing some of these tariffs that have driven up a variety of other costs, [1:24] including those of building new homes. [1:27] And One Big Beautiful Bill. [1:28] There are some great pieces to the One Big Beautiful Bill, [1:30] but there are some very pieces that have done a lot of damage and made things a lot more unaffordable. [1:36] I love to talk about the fact that we're not paying taxes on tips or Social Security, and I think that's great. [1:42] But we need to make that permanent, because right now those are going to expire with the end of this administration. [1:47] Nine out of ten voters said government corruption was a crucial or major factor in their vote. [1:53] They put it right up there with the cost of living. [1:56] Leader Jeffries, likely to be Speaker Jeffries, has said there should be accountability, [2:02] but the American people don't want us to get even. [2:05] They want us to get things done because life is too expensive. [2:09] So what does accountability look like? [2:11] Do you need investigations or do you need legislation? [2:14] It probably depends, I think, on what specifically we're talking about. [2:19] We need to put some rules in place to make sure that our elected officials are not trading stocks. [2:25] That is one area that we've seen, I think, extensive corruption there with insider information. [2:30] But, you know, we also need to overturn and Citizens United and make sure that we are getting that dark money out of politics [2:36] so representatives can answer to their constituents and not, you know, insider interests. [2:44] So when we look at your bio, you will be the highest ranking female military officer ever to be elected to Congress. [2:51] No female admiral or general has ever served before. [2:55] You were chief of the Navy Reserve until you were relieved from your position by Secretary Hegseth in August of 2025. [3:01] He has said he's cutting the number of high-ranking officers by 20 percent, [3:08] but he's also said he's ending diversity initiatives or DEI. [3:12] Do you have any idea why he targeted you? [3:15] I don't. [3:16] You know, I was never given a reason when I was removed from my position in August of 2025. [3:20] I don't think any of the other generals and admirals were ever given reasons either. [3:25] And, frankly, at this point, it doesn't really matter. [3:29] You know, it opened a door for me to do what I'm doing now and continuing my service in Congress. [3:35] Secretary Hegseth released a video Thursday arguing that attempts to oust him from office are about his rebuilding of the force. [3:42] Here's a clip. [3:45] Diversity is not our strength. [3:47] Our unity is. [3:49] Men and women, they're not the same thing. [3:51] But in the military, they must be held to the same standard. [3:54] Strong young men who believe in something greater than themselves are admirable. [4:00] He went on to call being transgender a mental illness. [4:03] He dismissed a reference to white rage. [4:06] He said that seemed to be maybe about renaming military bases and taking Confederate general names off of them. [4:14] Of all of these initiatives, what do you think the impact has been on the U.S. military? [4:19] You know, I have said since I launched this campaign, Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary that this nation has seen. [4:28] He has caused significant damage to us as a country and put us at risk and really damaged the readiness of our entire military force. [4:36] He is focused on the wrong things. [4:38] He should be focused on strategy and readiness instead of these things that are down in the trenches. [4:42] Well, what do you think would be an impeachable offense? [4:46] Because I know there is an effort underway in this Congress to do so. [4:50] You have said you hope that gets taken care of before you come to Washington. [4:54] Yeah, I mean, I think there's probably plenty. [4:57] And I do believe that this will be handled before I get there. [5:00] You know, we can tie this war as one thing that is extremely damaging to our country. [5:06] Some of the things that we saw going on down off Venezuela as well. [5:11] But really, it comes back to, you know, it's all part of the problem with the corruption and the lack of strategy, [5:18] which is doing nothing but really driving up costs for people. [5:21] And that's what people really care about. [5:23] And so that's what I want to focus on when I get to Congress.