Pete Hegseth tried to deliver a solemn prayer. What he actually delivered? Something straight out of a Quentin Tarantino script — and Anderson Cooper wasn’t about to let that slide.
The Secretary of Defense is catching heat after a bizarre moment at a Pentagon worship service, where he recited what he claimed was inspired by a Bible verse — but sounded a whole lot more like Pulp Fiction.
And Cooper went straight for the jugular.
Appearing on The Late Show, the CNN anchor mocked Hegseth while talking with Stephen Colbert about the administration’s actions in Iran. Then he dropped a nickname that pretty much sums up the whole mess.
“This administration says this is not a war. And yet, they insisted on renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. Secretary Samuel Jackson calls himself the Secretary of War,” Cooper said.
The audience erupted. Because yeah — that’s exactly what it sounded like.
Here’s why this blew up so fast.
At the Pentagon event, Hegseth introduced what he called “CSAR 2517,” saying it was “meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17.” Then he launched into this:
“It reads—and pray with me please—the path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children,” Hegseth read.
“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”
If that sounded familiar, it should.
It’s strikingly similar to the monologue delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, in Pulp Fiction — a speech famously passed off as a Bible verse before he shoots someone. The catch? Most of that speech isn’t actually from the Bible.
Naturally, the internet noticed. Quickly.
And Cooper wasn’t alone in piling on. Earlier in the same show, Colbert took his own swing at Hegseth, joking that the defense secretary had quoted from “the gospel of Quenton Tarantino.”
“If you’re not familiar with that gospel, it’s like the regular Bible, but Tarantino’s Jesus says the N-word a lot,” Colbert quipped.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, scrambled to clean it up.
A spokesperson insisted Hegseth was delivering a “custom prayer” used by military personnel, claiming it was “obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction” but still rooted in the biblical verse.
They even went further, pushing back hard: “Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality.”
That defense didn’t exactly calm things down.
Because here’s the problem: when your “prayer” sounds like a movie monologue about vengeance before a hit job, people are going to notice — and they’re definitely going to laugh.
And thanks to Cooper, Hegseth now has a nickname that’s probably not going away anytime soon.
Watch the full segment below:
