A decorated Marine Corps colonel assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon appeared on a podcast co-hosted by his brother that promotes antisemitism, white supremacy and political violence — including one segment that appeared to call for the execution of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Col. Thomas M. Siverts appeared on The Berm Pit podcast in March 2023. The 40-minute video shows Siverts discussing his career as a Marine Corps officer with his younger brother, Scott Siverts, the podcast co-host.
In a separate episode recorded in late 2024, the younger Siverts and co-host Matt Wakulik discuss how they would grade President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.
“Why don’t we grade them on a scale of how many bullets I put in their head,” Wakulik proposed, as Scott Siverts laughed.
When Siverts named Hegseth, a soldier turned Fox News host and controversial cabinet pick, Wakulik said: “Six bullets. I’d have to put another one in there after I emptied the whole chamber — or the whole cylinder.”
Wakulik, a Pittsburgh-area resident, regularly espouses antisemitic views. Citing perceived failures in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case and other conspiracy-adjacent fixations, he has said Donald Trump should be executed and FBI Director Kash Patel tortured.
In the segment about Hegseth, Wakulik also advocated execution for senior Trump administration officials including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Only Tom Homan, architect of Trump’s draconian deportations policy, would be spared.
Considering Hegseth, Wakulik also disparaged his support for Israel.
Siverts said: “The only problem with that is when you have dual allegiance — well, it’s Biblical, right? You can’t serve two masters.”
Scott Siverts told Raw Story that to some extent he understood why people would be outraged about the segment.
“It’s distasteful, off-putting, inflammatory,” he said. “Matt did it on the fly. He takes it to the next level, and I kind of laugh at it.”
While noting that The Berm Pit hasn’t produced a new episode since June 5, Siverts said he planned to scrub political content off the internet and sell the podcast to two active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.
Citing reputational harm and strained family relationships due to public backlash against his and Wakulik’s rhetoric, Siverts said his decision to quit the podcast was also motivated by concern that he would be held liable if someone in his audience carried out a violent act.
“I’m agreeing with your position that some rhetoric probably will radicalize people, which is why I’m stepping away from the podcast,” Siverts told Raw Story. “I understand the backlash I’ve received.”
Raw Story also reached out to Col. Thomas Siverts. Reached by phone, and asked if he was aware that the podcast his brother co-hosts had featured a discussion about executing Hegseth, Col. Siverts hung up.
The Joint Staff Public Affairs office at the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about Col. Siverts’ podcast appearance.
Scott Siverts said that following public backlash against the podcast including a successful campaign to get him fired from his job as a bar manager at Mario’s Saloon in Pittsburgh, his brother called to find out what the controversy was about. Scott Siverts said he offered to take down the episode featuring his brother.
“Nah, leave it up,” Col. Thomas Siverts said, according to Scott. “There’s nothing wrong with what we said. I didn’t serve my country and risk my life so you couldn’t have the freedom of speech. I like the episode. If they come after me at some point, I don’t care. It’s free speech.”
At the time of his interview with his brother in March 2023, Col. Thomas Siverts was commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, stationed at Camp Pendleton. A communications officer with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit listened to the interview in real time and approved it for publication, Scott Siverts told Raw Story.
The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit could not be reached for comment.
Scott Siverts said his brother’s interview took place before the podcast took an explicitly political turn. Two months earlier, though, Siverts had hosted Wakulik, who would become his co-host, as a guest.
In an episode titled “The Militia Man,” the two discussed Wakulik’s unsuccessful run for Allegheny County sheriff, which drew controversy over his paramilitary group wearing patches displaying the Valknut, a symbol associated with white supremacy.
‘Lotta big projects’
While a spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to confirm that Col. Siverts is employed there, Scott Siverts confirmed to Raw Story that his brother is currently assigned to the Pentagon.
Col. Siverts discussed his Pentagon assignment in an August 2024 interview for the 4 Years a Slave podcast, its title referring to the standard length of a U.S. military active-duty commitment.
“I’m on the Joint Staff, so I get to see some of the inner workings of how the Joint Staff supports the chairmen and SecDef and carrying out strategic objectives,” Col. Siverts said.
The Joint Staff includes representatives of all branches of the military, and assists Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in maintaining the integration of all combatant forces. Caine is the principal military advisor to President Donald Trump. In June, Caine stood alongside Hegseth and addressed reporters about the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Lotta big projects going on,” Siverts said on the 4 Years a Slave podcast. “You got everything going from, you know, current what’s going on in the world today to guys working programs 10, 15 years — maybe even longer than that — years out.”
As commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Siverts’ operational focus was enhancing U.S. national security posture in Southeast Asia, where China has long been considered the primary geopolitical rival.
Siverts received the Legion of Merit “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding services as a commanding officer” of the unit, which deployed for exercises with allies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
“What they did there was absolutely amazing and gave our great nation a strategic hedge in the battle that’s going on in the Pacific and competition,” a Marine Corps officer said during the change of command ceremony at Camp Lejeune in June 2024.
The officer hailed Siverts’ unit for standing up a “credible, combat-capable force” that “can flip a switch and they can start laying down lead and stacking bodies, if need be, and offer a credible deterrent to any adversary foolish enough to threaten the United States citizens or our interests.”
Siverts’ Legion of Merit lauded him for fostering “meaningful interaction, mutual trust and respect” with allies and for “genuine passion for professional development and welfare of the Marines and sailors under his charge.”
Scott Siverts also served in the Marine Corps. His podcast’s name references an earthen mound surrounding a pit on a firing range.
“I’ve always looked up to you. You’ve been a role model for me, and you’re the reason I joined the Marine Corps, too, and enlisted right out of high school,” Scott Siverts said of his brother in their interview, adding that he was his “third-biggest fan,” after Col. Siverts’ wife and daughter.
Scott Siverts said he was present when his brother received his officer commission through the Marine Enlisted Commission Education Program at the University of Virginia in 1989 and when he was promoted to colonel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia in 2021.
‘Allies of Evil’
Col. Siverts’ interview on The Berm Pit did not cover political issues, and his remarks did not give any indication of whether he agrees with his younger brother’s views.
The landing page for the podcast on the video streaming service Rumble features thumbnails for later episodes that clearly point to pro-Hitler, antisemitic stances.
One displays the text “The Allies of Evil,” alongside a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin. Another states, “General Patton said we fought the wrong enemy,” referring to Gen. George S. Patton, who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean during World War II.
Another episode, entitled “Remembering 9/11,” shows four men depicted as Jews who appear to be celebrating the attack on the World Trade Center.
In episodes of The Berm Pit which appear to have been recorded after Col. Siverts’ interview, his younger brother expresses agreement with the idea that murder of elected officials with opposing views is justified, and contemplates the possibility of race war.
“I still believe that it is the responsibility of the people to organize against any corrupt politician anywhere — I don’t care if it’s a school board member up to a senator or representative,” Wakulik says, in an episode published in April 2024.
“If they are that corrupt and all this is going on, then they need to be threatened, or actually shoot them in the face. Because violence and the threat of violence is the ultimate deterrent. Where is the lie, Scott Siverts.”
“Uh, no lies detected,” Siverts responds.
In an episodestreamed four months ago, Wakulik asks: “If there was a race war between whites and Blacks, where whites still make up 55 percent of the population and Blacks make up 13 [percent], and white as we know are more likely to be not only trained but armed with firearms, if that was to happen … who would win that war, that race war?”
Siverts responds: “Well, I mean, it’s a no-brainer.”
Scott Siverts insisted his brother “does not share” his political views.
“My brother told me he hasn’t voted since 1996,” Siverts added. “He doesn’t get political. He serves the commander in chief, regardless of party. He doesn’t see color, except green for Marines. The last guy he voted for was Bill Clinton.”
Scott Siverts told Raw Story that in summer 2023, he asked his brother about Alan Sabrosky, a retired Marine Corps officer and frequent guest on TheBerm Pit, including the “Allies of Evil” episode. When he asked his brother if he knew who Sabrosky was, Scott Siverts told Raw Story, his brother responded, “I think I do. I heard he’s an antisemite.”