Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense by the US Senate. Hegseth ended up benefiting from the Matt Gaetz situation – Gaetz was originally Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General, but Gaetz has a long history of soliciting sex from teenagers and being an unrepentant sleaze, so even Republicans felt comfortable saying “nah, not this one” on Gaetz. Hegseth ended up slipping right through for the most part, and I doubt most people even know that he was credibly accused of drugging and raping a woman in 2017, and that his victim tried to get him criminally charged, and he ended up settling out of court with her. He’s also on his third marriage, having cheated on his previous two wives, and even his mother thinks he’s an abuser. Did I mention he also has significant alcoholism issues? That too. Don’t forget about the white supremacy and weird white nationalist tattoos either. Surprisingly, a handful of Republican senators voted “no” on Hegseth’s confirmation. Mitch McConnell was one of the “no” votes. Long story short, JD Vance was the tiebreaking vote.
Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the defense secretary on Saturday morning by Vice President JD Vance after the Senate narrowly confirmed Mr. Hegseth the night before. The Trump pick survived a bruising struggle with Democrats who decried him as unqualified and unfit to oversee the country’s 1.3 million active duty troops and the Pentagon’s nearly $850 billion budget.
Vice President Vance had to cast a tiebreaking vote to confirm Mr. Hegseth, after three Republicans — Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in opposition.
The final vote, 51 to 50, was the smallest margin for a defense secretary’s confirmation since the position was created in 1947, according to Senate records.
Mr. Hegseth, a military veteran and a former Fox News host, has vowed to bring his self-described “warrior” ethos to the Defense Department, which he says has been made weak by “woke” generals and diversity programs.
Republican leaders embraced that outlook as they cheered his confirmation.
“Peace through strength is back under President Trump and Pete Hegseth,” Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi and the chairman of the armed services panel, said in a statement after Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation, adding: “We cannot wait another minute to rebuild our military might and put the war-fighter first.”
But Democrats, who unanimously opposed Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation, promised to continue their scrutiny of him.
“I am going to watch him like a hawk,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the armed services panel, said in a statement, adding: “I will point out where we disagree. I will demand accountability.”
Mr. Hegseth’s selection by President Trump and the confirmation process were complicated by a claim of sexual assault and accusations of abusive behavior, public drunkenness and fiscal mismanagement of two nonprofit veterans groups. In a sworn statement submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, a former sister-in-law of Mr. Hegseth’s described him as frequently intoxicated and “abusive” toward his second wife. Mr. Hegseth, 44, has denied the account, along with other allegations that have dogged his nomination.
Yeah, I don’t know what to say here. The only “interesting” thing of note is that before Trump and his cult of personality, the Republican Party always branded itself as pro-military, everything rah-rah-militarism and bloated Pentagon budgets. In his first term, Trump only liked having military people around him for the optics, but he actually didn’t care about the military or national defense or military preparedness or any of that. That will get worse in this term, especially with Hegseth at the helm of DOD. I was going to paint a vivid picture of how bad it will get, but you know what? I won’t bother. I’m sure it will surprise everyone and the media will expect us to react with outrage and tears as Hegseth launches Operation Make Greenland Great Again.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth testifies at his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, D.C. Featuring: United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 14 Jan 2025 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth testifies at his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, D.C. Featuring: United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 14 Jan 2025 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth testifies at his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, D.C. Featuring: United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 14 Jan 2025 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth testifies at his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, D.C. Featuring: United States Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 14 Jan 2025 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
As an American I am dismayed by this confirmation. Hegseth’s messy history makes him a target for America’s enemies for kompromat. I wouldn’t be surprised if women have been auditioned to be honeytraps for this idiot. SMH.
It’s not just his personal messy history but his utter lack of experience that scares the bejeezus out of me. He has no idea how to do this job at even the most basic level.
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Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan was removed from her position last week. Expect Hegseth to continue to remove all women from high level military posts
The Coast Guard is under the Department of transportation, not the department of defense.
Department of Homeland Security as of 2003
I hate this timeline. Every day I wonder what I did to get stuck in this particular parallel universe. I’m sure there are worse ones, but I’m also certain there are much better ones.
I’m no longer sure there are worse timelines. This one wins the gold 🥇 I think.
Go Senator Reed.
Sen. Jack Reed is simply the best. I live in RI, though Whitehouse is my senator. Have met with Reed a few times as part of my job and of all the legislators I’ve met with over the years, he is one of the most knowledgeable, prepared, articulate, etc. in either legislative branch. Does not rely on aides to do his work, and when he says he’ll be watching the former Fox News reporter like a hawk, you can best believe it’s not just words to make the news.
I love Jack Reed. Worked with him on some issues years ago and he’s just one of the best. He has turned down the position of Secretary of Defense three times so when he says he’ll be watching Hegseth, he definitely will be doing so with the necessary knowledge that others will take seriously
The Italian part of my brain is thinking that now Berlusconi looks like Churchill.
The other side thinks that if Berlusconi compared to Trump is Churchill the situation is tragic.
I feel bad for you, for the women, the girls, the minorities…and whatever these lunatics will do to the environment.
“Peace through strength” sounds unsettlingly close to “freedom through work”. So, you know, quiet part out loud, etc.
That whole “Trump won’t be a warmonger!” crap went out the goddamn window pretty fucking fast, huh?
He’s a man who failed at managing 100s, and will now try to manage millions. The Generals and Admirals at the Pentagon are going to take full advantage of his cluelessness. I think he only made it to Captain in the Army Reserve? Hahahaha. He can fire as many people as he wants and talk to media 24/7 but the Pentagon will just keep moving in the background.
Aside from the fact that he’s an abusive, misogynistic, racist POS, this man does not have the experience to head up the Pentagon. WTF? I’m more qualified to head up the Pentagon compared to this j*ackass. And I’m sorry, but I HATE this man…I will not stop cursing him out.
AMEN!!! I never thought a white person who has admitted there are a hard core racist that even sports that ugly filled with ignorance tattoo and also thinks women are 2nd class citizens along with everyone else who isn’t a straight white Christian (say that loosely) male. Biden wouldn’t allow him in any part of the government when he was president — he said he was a member of a terriost organization and he’s correct a white supremacists organization!! He shouldn’t be allowed in the Whitehouse which goes for 99 percent of Trump’s cronies!! This is a disgrace!! I am a big civil rights person and God will cast divine intervention to block Trump and his evil plans!! Amen
Birds of a feather. It’s no accident that DT surrounds himself with equally disgusting people.
Welp…many of the higher up White men in the military are rascist mysogynistic (Gen. Kelly/POS Trump’s former COS) ….fascists (Gen. Flynn/POS Trump’s inner circle)…so to me…this tracks…we now have the America 🇺🇲 that was ALWAYS festering and flourishing in the background…on center stage🤬
I take solace in knowing that I fought with my vote…in EVERY election since I was 18…to stop this😪
In recent years, the military and it’s officer corps has become much less conservative. Many of them believe in DEI and promote it as a strength of the military. To achieve the highest ranks officers must be broadly educated and this tends to liberalize them. Unfortunately, there are also right wing militias trying to get a grip on enlisted personnel and lower ranking officers. This dip💩 will try to advance the neo-Nazi elements of which he was a part.
During the first term of this menace, a friend of mine from hs moved from active duty army to army reserves. He is smart and is kind of center in politics, a “they’re all terrible” kind of person. And he went on a two year campaign of trying to get anyone in the chain of command to give a crap about an open wyt suprematist who was also insane and in a leadership position. He was tagging Dan Crenshaw, who was his rep and should care, all kinds of military groups, and after two years, the other guy got transferred. That was it.
I do believe that there are more people like my friend from high school in the military than the other kind, but they definitely haven’t made rooting out racists a priority.
I will say, Hegseth is a monster, but the fact that the Republican president nominated an alcoholic surprised me, I think that’s the one vice he finds unforgivable. I give it six months before Pete barfs on him and gets fired.
@Brassy…ya know when I look at the votes of military members and I see they vote OVERWHELMINGLY…Republican…each and every time even though in my lifetime ALL the Republican party has done to the military is defunded the Veteran Administration kept pay grades low and started unnecessary wars/conflicts… look at the 😱 that has happened to enlisted Women on military bases over the last few years…
I don’t see anything to quantify what you said…the military rot is so deep…it would take MORE than a few token promotions…I say token…because the deplorable infrastructure is STILL the same…
But we don’t have to worry about that now.
I’m with you on that Lala. I’d like to think that there are a majority of decent, caring, diversity loving men in our military, and it seems that way as individuals, but…when you look at the SA statistics in the military, when you look at voting statistics, and when you look at all the ex and active military Jan 6 offenders, especially those in ‘patriot/lost boy’ whatever groups…damn. The rot is deep.
And many leave the military — and become police officers….
I’m seeing lots of admiration going around for Mitch McConnell on this. But he’s already announced he’s not running for re-election, so he has nothing to lose by standing up to Trump now. I’m not going to join the admiration chorus. It’s partly because of Mitch’s abuses of power (ahem Merrick Garland’s SCOTUS nomination) and his years of craven Trump toadying that we are where we are today.
Mitch McConnell is responsible for the Supreme Court
They also know that they can’t afford to lose more than three votes when one hundred are voting ( thank you, Kamala for saving Senate seats that would have been lost). So, my guess is we’ll see this a lot. It’s strategic. They will let the Senators who are in danger in the next election vote against Felon47. They will also let McConnell vote as he wishes to preserve his “legacy”. But they won’t let more than three go rogue on any votes. The pig in eyeliner will be casting many tie breakers, all to do horrible things, no doubt. And McConnell could have whipped more no votes but didn’t. He’s no hero.
Moscow Mitch had the votes to convict Mango re the 2nd impeachment following the January 6 insurrection. He backed off. This hellscape we’re in right now is on McConnell. A patriot he is not.
What a disgrace this country is.
Putin is thrilled right now.
Great, now the Director of Defense is a recovery position. I don’t believe that he will stop drinking during his tenure. In addition to other areas of his sloppy personal life, he is racist and anti-women.
Hegseth’s professional experience is laughable to be confirmed for this position and a slap in the face in regards to respect for the military and/or extensive government experience, along with being a role model to uphold military values.
I’d be laughing hysterically if the consequences of this weren’t so dire. Hegseth gets to be the Secretary of Defense — while thousands of career civil servants will lose their jobs. “DEI” has become a dirty word — except when it gets people like Vance into places like Yale. I guess competencies and “merit” get measured differently for white nationalists?
If you think about it, Hegseth is the most Trump “D” for Diversity yet. He has no relevant experience in leadership and management and no strong character, and his only quality for selection is his loyalty to Trump and his willingness to do his bidding.
Normalizing a rapist-felon madman and his posse of rapists and rape apologists .
I hope all the bars around D.C have cameras, and people have their phones at the ready. I give this guy two months tops.
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An abomination.
I hope he doesn’t last long.
Can’t believe Mitch McConnell did something right for once in his (too long) life. He’s still trash though.