Hassett, Birx, Medal of Honor recipients appear on Face the Nation

A White House economic point man, a pandemic-era public health official and two Medal of Honor recipients shared the same Sunday platform, turning Face the Nation into a study in three competing definitions of national leadership.

CBS News’ May 24, 2026 broadcast featured White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Dr. Deborah Birx in separate interviews, alongside retired Army Lt. Col. William Swenson and retired Army Command Sergeant Major Matthew Williams in a full interview. The lineup made the program less about a single policy fight than about the credentials now being used to frame authority in Washington: economic stewardship, public-health experience and military service.

Hassett has re-emerged as one of the administration’s main economic voices after returning to the White House in early 2025 as NEC director. He had previously chaired the Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 to 2019, giving him a role in both the Trump and current White House economic playbooks. His appearance placed the administration’s economic messaging front and center at a moment when inflation, growth and broader fiscal concerns remain central to the national debate.

Birx brought a different kind of credibility. CBS identified her as the former White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, a title that still carries weight for viewers who remember the public-health crises of the pandemic years. Her presence on the broadcast underscored how pandemic response continues to shape political trust and how former crisis managers remain influential voices on health policy and government preparedness.

The military segment carried its own force. Swenson received the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry during combat operations in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on September 8, 2009. The White House announced in 2013 that President Barack Obama would award him the medal, describing him as the sixth living recipient recognized for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Williams earned the Medal of Honor for actions on April 6, 2008, during the Battle of Shok Valley in Afghanistan, and received the decoration on October 30, 2019. CBS identified both men as retired Army officers and noncommissioned officers, and their shared interview made service and sacrifice part of the week’s political conversation.

Put together, the guest mix signaled what agenda-setters wanted viewers to weigh: whether economic expertise, public-health authority or combat heroism now best defines leadership in a country still sorting through the aftershocks of war, pandemic and partisan economic pressure.