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Former Obama Adviser On Hagel's Confirmation: He 'Seemed Unimpressive And Unprepared'

1,198 views · Published 4 February 2013 · 2:10 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: MichaelSavage4Prez · 2013 · News & Politics

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2/3/13 - Former White House press secretary and Obama adviser Robert Gibbs commented on Chuck Hagel's confirmation to become secretary of defense. While reaffirming that Hagel is the man for the job, Gibbs also remarked that he "seemed unimpressive and unprepared" during the hearing. "This performance was not good," noted Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. Gibbs was critical of some of the questioning that took place during the hearing. Specifically, he looked at Sen. John McCain's insistent grilling on the issue of the Iraq troop surge.

"The next defense secretary is not going to deal with Iraq and the surge," Gibbs said. "This was a vanity thing for John McCain to try to prove to a former friend who disagreed with him that he was right on the surge and that Chuck Hagel was wrong."

But he was critical of Hagel as well.

"The disconcerting thing, obviously, for anybody that watched it was he seemed unimpressive and unprepared on the questions that, quite frankly, he knew was coming," Gibbs said.

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