Hey, everyone. It is 4 o'clock here in New York. I'm Alicia Menendez in for Nicole Wallace.

Brand new reporting gives us an alarming glimpse into the world of Pete Hegsseth, his relationship with extremism and violence, as well as the company he keeps. Just this morning,

CNN on Earth clips of Heggseth on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's podcast in the wake of

the January 6th insurrection, peddling the completely baseless claim that leftist groups or

Antifa stage a false flag operation at the Capitol. And there are reports, you know, in the New York Post and elsewhere.

And just from, you know, common sense that Antifa folks took advantage of this to try to get to the front and try to agitate and create openings for themselves.

They want chaos ultimately. I could even spot it. You can see the helmets where there's a, you know, Donald

Trump bumper sticker on the back quickly put on it so they could look like they wanted to stop the steel.

Again, and I know you know this. That is completely false. It has been debunked repeatedly,

including by the outgoing Trump-appointed FBI director, Christopher Ray. Here's what he said, just two months after the

attack. Has there so far been any evidence that the January 6th riot here, the insurrection,

was organized by people simply posing as supporters of President Trump's?

We have not seen any evidence of that, certainly at this. Is there any evidence at all that it was

organized or planned or carried out by groups like Antifa or Black Lives Matter? We have not

seen any evidence to that effect thus far in the investigation. And is there any no evidence,

but whatever right-wing narratives there are to excuse or whitewash the insurrection,

well, Pete Hegsef has been happy to give them a platform. On that same podcast with Newt Gingrich,

Hegeseth downplayed and justified the attack, led to several deaths with more than 140 police officers

injured. I talked to the people on the mall. I've talked to them a lot. Listen, they believe the

election was stolen. They wish there were more recourses. They've watched what happens. They've seen stories be suppressed before Hunter Biden during and after unwilling to air anything. I mean, the amazing extent to which the media has now taken to taking the official line of secretaries of states or governors and saying,

well, this has been fact checked and debunked because the government officials are telling us

that it's not true. When's the last time that's what the media was supposed to do,

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