In many ways, Matt Gaetz had to withdraw his nomination as Donald Trump’s Attorney General because he is so profoundly hated within the Republican congressional caucus. Even though he was a House member, Republican senators absolutely loathe him and they weren’t going to vote to confirm him. Compare that situation with Pete Hegseth, someone who has never served in elected office before. Hegseth is Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. While Hegseth has a military background, the most important factors for Trump were: Hegseth looks “good” on TV as a Fox News analyst and Hegseth has a violent hatred of women (just like Trump). In 2017, a woman accused Hegseth of drugging and raping her in a California hotel. The woman did the most to see Hegseth charged (he was not) and now she’s doing the most to make sure her story is out there ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing. But that’s not all – Hegseth is a white Christian nationalist who is on his third marriage, he wants to ban women and gay folks from serving in the military, and even his mother thinks he’s a piece of sh-t.
The mother of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, wrote him an email in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women for years and displayed a lack of character.
“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him. She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
Mrs. Hegseth, in a phone interview with The New York Times on Friday, said that she had sent her son an immediate follow-up email at the time apologizing for what she had written. She said she had fired off the original email “in anger, with emotion” at a time when he and his wife were going through a very difficult divorce.
In the interview, she defended her son and disavowed the sentiments she had expressed in the initial email about his character and treatment of women. “It is not true. It has never been true,” she said. She added: “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.” She said that publishing the contents of the first email was “disgusting.”
I mentioned Matt Gaetz’s withdrawn nomination at the start of the post because I find it interesting and telling that Hegseth’s nomination hasn’t gotten to a similar point. Even in the most generous reading of the rape accusation, Hegseth’s argument is that he had consensual sex with a drugged woman who was likely unconscious for several hours during those hours in his hotel room. Like, that’s HIS defense. What I’m saying is that Hegseth would have withdrawn his nomination if there were already senators saying “absolutely not,” as they were in Gaetz’s case. It’s extremely gross that so many Republican senators are taking a wait-and-see approach to Hegseth’s confirmation hearing. As for his mother’s comments… yeah. He’s on his third marriage, he’s been credibly accused of drugging and raping a woman, he’s cheated on at least one of his wives, and he’s a g-ddamn white nationalist.
Photos courtesy of YouTube, Instagram.
The awfulness of these cabinet picks cannot be overstated. They are all so bad that I’m having trouble determining the worst of what’s left after the Gaetz departure. But Hegseth is particularly loathsome given the fact that the military has an ongoing issue with sexual assault in its ranks. Of course, Hegseth will probably say that limiting the role of women in the armed forces to non-combat positions will solve that problem. But it would create all kinds of readiness problems instead since women are now so integrated into the force and perform all kinds of combat functions which require special skills and dexterity. On top of everything else, Hegseth’s own military experience at a low level in no way qualifies him to manage such a huge and complex bureaucracy. His mother was correct the first time but may be afraid of provoking him. He’s not a pillar of mental stability.
Ugh, as though taking women out of combat roles takes away the opportunities for rape. As though men never pass through the offices the women would be working in (assuming they actually retained any women after trump & his cult officially gain power), or have managerial positions over those women (you know darned well Hegs-whatever [too lazy to scroll back to see how his name is spelled] would never allow a woman past the entry-level phase).
All those women generals, admirals, etc? They’ll lose their rank, or their positions entirely? What a godawful mess. Our military deserves better.
They don’t care if the nominees have sexually harassed or abused women. See: Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
Republicans hate women. Even the Republican women hate women.
And white women hate Black women. Don’t @ me. I’m a white woman.
Oh, those WW hate themselves, too, and others of their kind.
And all mention of rapists, traffickers, pedophiles and traitors cease to exist. Funny huh.
Our government will be the Epstein client list… it’s happening they will all be as evil as Trump and this man.
Every single nomination is a big fat f-you to the US and democracy. The point is to destroy and destabilize from within. That’s the goal, and they’re all saying it out loud. Gleefully.
Yup.
Well Khrushchev said “We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within”.
And that is exactly what is happening. There will be so much confusion and discord that Trump will sink the US and it will be over before all the MAGAtts realize they were duped and that those freedoms they cling so tightly to, will be gone and they are under a dictatorship.
At this point, I think they will accept and want that. As long as the leaders are white and male. And their precious bathrooms are protected from transgender people just trying to pee.
It’s amazing to me that all these awful convicted felon rapey men will be voted in. While Al Franken resigned over a distasteful picture. Come back Al. Please.
👏👏👏
The piece de resistance to this creep cabal, Charles Kushner (yes, Jared’s dad) was just nominated by the orange turd to be ambassador to France. Lest you need reminding, Chuckie pled guilty to tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering after hiring a prostitute to seduce his bro-in-law and then arranging for the encounter to be recorded. Kushner then sent the video tape to his sister to blackmail her into not testifying to a grand jury. For all this, Kushner received 2 years imprisonment. Let me mention again, HE PLED GUILTY. Then Dump pardoned him. Trump fishing nominees from his own personal sewer.
Kushner is a nothing burger and can’t do much damage as an ambassador to a foreign country. Hands down, the one we should be very concerned with is Kash Patel as head of the FBI. That’s the final nail in the coffin. He’s the worse of them all.
And Tulsi Gabbard as nominee to head DNI (not sure she or Kash will get through the confirmation process, though). But yeah, Kushner as ambassador to France, while perhaps unseemly, strikes me as pretty harmless.
Never underestimate a Kushner. Jared received 2 billion from the Saudis for what, exactly? Charles owes Trump. He’ll do his bidding and could make some mischief. Patel is a sycophant. I agree, he’s trouble. But he’ll take his retribution marching orders from Trump. Trump appoints butt-kissers and people who owe him. My worry is the gruesome twosome, Bannon and Stephen Miller. These 2 keep me up at night. They have an agenda beyond Trump. They’re plotters, especially Bannon, and they’re smart. Bannon has been plotting for decades. Plus he has his own followers that may or may not be Trump/ MAGAts. With Trump, you get a sh*tshow. With Bannon, you get Gilead.
Oh God, the Kash Patel nomination is so vile. Chris Wray, also a Trump nominee, was covering up Trump’s misdeeds and Trump nominee misdeeds. When Garland appointed a point man for all Trump investigations, the FBI DC bureau chief told him no, we won’t investigate Trump. That’s Wray’s FBI. Patel doesn’t have Wray’s scrim of professionalism, he’ll allow Trump to dictate *any* action.
@nikkik
It’s not a nothingburger. A convicted criminal should not be an ambassador. Period. If we keep minimizing these appalling actions, they will continue unabated. Yes, the other nominees are dangerous, but that doesn’t mean this one should skate. Also, I don’t think Kuchner is harmless at all. That kind of demented thinking — a porn star to blackmail your own family?!? — doesn’t just go away. Just because we can’t imagine the damage he’ll do, that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to do any.
One of the most important things about the allegations against Hegseth (drugging and raping a woman) is that Hegseth wrote a column when he was the publisher of the Princeton Tory saying that if a woman is unconscious that what a man does to her without her consent is not rape. HIs definition of rape requires for the woman to have been under duress [actual force, for the woman to be fighting back screaming no] during the assault. Therefore, if the woman is unconscious, those requirements for the assault to be rape cannot be fulfilled. This information about him needs to be shared far and wide.
Hegseth is not the only right-winger who holds the view that woman are responsible for men’s transgressions against them (if the man is drunk, he can’t be held responsible for his actions but if a woman is drunk, she is responsible for the actions of the man against her is both a theme of his column and his attorney’s current defense of him against the rape allegations). As the GOP gains full control of the federal government, not to mention too many states, they will change laws regarding SA and the bodily autonomy of those they wish to dominate and control. In the MAGA worldview, Gisèle Pelicot was not raped because she was unconscious when her husband & men invited by her husband sexually assaulted her. Furthermore, in the MAGA worldview, a man like Dominique Pelicot would have every right to demand his wife to comply because a wife must submit to her husband’s authority. Remember, marital rape wasn’t a crime nationwide in the US until 1993.
Lest anyone think that it’s just “loose” women who get inebriated and wives who must submit to their husband’s at risk, under Hegseth’s “must be under duress” rule any woman who is unconscious for any reason (unable to consent or fight back, and not freaking out) and even those without the mental capability to understand what’s being done to them would be fair game for any man who wanted to rape her. I’m sure all those straight white women who voted for Trump think they’re safe, but they will find out that they’re not the hard way. Unfortunately, until it happens to them and they’re seeking sympathy, they’ll probably continue to dig their heels in to support all this MAGA BS
Chilling. Just FYI, I was unable to locate, after a short perusal, the article to which you referred.
Let’s not forget Hegseth fathered a baby with a news producer at Fox he was having an affair with WHILE he was still with his second wife AND just weeks before the accusation of a drunken sex assault and subsequent payoff went public. No wonder his mother went nuclear on him. He’s an utter sleaze-bag POS, as most of Drumph’s cabinet picks are.
Anyone realize how sick a guy has to be for a Boy Mom to go this nuclear?
Those who know him best loathe him most.
I have had ‘anger’ and ‘emotion’ and I can’t imagine writing anything about my child that is so detailed and so accusatory as that email. Extraordinary. The take back doesn’t work. He really must be a horrible man.
The “take back” bothers me. Was she threatened?
Even if there wasn’t a threat she can connect the dots about her future. No need to read the tea leaves.
His mom took it all back. I wonder why.
Threatened or paid off or both.
If she has been threatened in any way she has a duty to the rest of the country to get him arrested and taken away. She felt passionate enough about it to write it. She also raised him and I’m judging the entire family. If yall out there are related to these types of subhuman miscreants you have a duty to all humans everywhere to use what evidence you have to lock them up and keep them from receiving power to end life as we know it for free Americans
It was the duty of America NOT to elect a insane depraved maniac…they didn’t do that…so we will have to deal with what we get…
Simple as that…oh and get used to it…as a Black GenXer…I got rolling with the punches down to an art🤬😱😢
You would think that the white supremacist/nazi tattoos would be enough to disqualify anybody to hold public office.
We are watching the end of the “great experiment”.. the American dream is gone.