Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth visited The Kelly File last night minutes before it was revealed that U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria had commenced. Nevertheless, the whole operation was a failure before it even began, Hegseth would have you think. Host Megyn Kelly ate up every word.

“Straight news anchor” Kelly never revealed that Hegseth is funded by the Koch brothers. She treated him like a neutral military expert – one who just happened to despise President Obama. Nor did she mention that just last week, Stephen Colbert made Hegseth look quite foolish.

The two began by discussing what Hegseth called “a revolt of the generals” against President Obama. Although Hegseth later acknowledged that the proper way for a general to respond is by resigning if he disagrees with the Commander in Chief’s orders, Hegseth announced, “As a captain, I’m happy to see my highest leaders both in and outside of government telling it like it is. Never seen anything like this.”

According to Hegseth, Obama’s decision not to put American “boots on the ground” means the whole mission is doomed. “How do you recruit other allies into the coalition when you, yourself are not willing to lead?” Hegseth asked rhetorically.

As it happened, just a few minutes later, when the airstrikes were announced, it was also revealed that five Sunni Muslim nations are also working with us in the airstrikes. But in this segment, Kelly enthusiastically endorsed Hegseth’s criticism: “And you happen to be America, who always leads!” she exclaimed.

Hegseth said Obama should “pick up the phone” and call George H.W. Bush and “get a lesson on what it takes to build a coalition. ‘Cause people always laud that coalition but it was American led. It was American at its core. …This idea that we’re going to get Saudi Arabia or Turkey or Egypt to commit ground troops without America leading?”

I don’t know about ground troops but Saudi Arabia is part of the air strikes coalition and John Kerry was quoted last night as saying he expects Turkey to participate in the coalition’s fight.

“Problem is, right now we don’t have General Conway leading …This guy knows how to fight wars,” Hegseth complained. “You know who’s making the calls right now? General Valerie Jarrett. The Pentagon knows that!”

How did “straight news anchor” Kelly respond to such an outrageous assertion? She giggled. “Don’t say that,” Kelly told Hegseth. Not because his accusation was almost certainly false. Nor because he almost certainly has no pipeline to the working of Obama’s inner circle. But because the thought is too terrible. “That is disturbing to many people. With all due respect to Ms. Jarrett. She’s not the one who should be making these calls,” Kelly said, giving the ridiculous statement undeserved cred.

Watch the discussion below.