Pete Hegseth, Belligerent Drunk, May Be Too Much Even for Trump

The tabloid drama continues in the rogue gallery of Trump cabinet nominees: Just over a week after Matt Gaetz’s rocky fall from grace to attorney general nomination cameo hustlerPete Hegseth, President Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, may be the next person to gain attention.

Hegseth, a Fox News host, was one of Trump’s first “shock and awe” picks for the president-elect’s Cabinet. According to reports, he was immediately stripped of his top posts at two veterans nonprofit organizations after being accused of financial mismanagement, excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. research by new yorkerI’m Jane Mayer. After an inauspicious start in the world of military advocacy, he landed a job at Fox, where he quickly began repeating the same behavior, including a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her at a right-wing conference in 2016. received compensation and a non-disclosure agreement. California, where Hegseth was a speaker. of Police complaint regarding incident It makes for a tense read.

The complainant described the sensations she had when she woke up in Hegseth’s hotel room, which she did not recognize and which left her confused and under the impression that she had been drugged. That’s what it means. She also remembers repeatedly saying “no” when Hegseth reportedly approached her for sex and requested a rape test after the encounter. Hegseth denies this account and maintains the sex was consensual. His lawyers say the financial settlement was reached solely to protect Fox’s appearance. Still, Hegseth manages to stand out in Trumpland as the only cabinet nominee accused of being a “woman abuser.” by his own mother.

Despite being blindsided by the assault charges, President Trump reportedly continued to push for Hegseth’s nomination, sending him to meet with senators at the Capitol to prepare for his confirmation hearing. After all, the president-elect is a self-confessed sexual assaulter, certified by the courts, and is probably hoping that his Cabinet nominees will brush these scandals off like he did. .

What appears to have tipped Hegseth’s nomination into Gates’ territory is that NBC coverage It documents a pattern of excessive on-the-job drinking at Fox, and is likely a much brighter red flag for Trump, a lifelong teetotaler, than reports of brutal sexual predation. Fox employees spoke of Hegseth arriving minutes before the early morning show aired, while others spoke of the need to “babysit” the hard-partying Hegseth. “I had to call him to make sure he hadn’t overslept, because I knew he was going out partying the night before,” said one former Fox employee. Another person said flatly: “He shouldn’t be Secretary of Defense. His drinking should be disqualifying.”

That these latest damning leaks are coming from the inner sanctum of FOX is another serious attack on Mr. Hegseth’s nomination. Trump’s executive branch picks, Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswami, and Mehmet Oz, have been hit by many critics for the right-wing two-minute hate delivery system. The official number of former FOX News personalities scheduled to take office in the second Trump administration is currently: 12. Hegseth is exposed as a belligerent drunkard and An unprofessional Fox on-air personality is likely a bridge too far for Trump.

Amid the current storm of scandal surrounding Hegseth, it is often overlooked that he is severely unqualified to run the U.S. military in the first place. My colleague Joan Walsh writes:

There is nothing to recommend Hegseth for the job, which runs the nation’s military and weapons strategy and oversees a force of 2.1 military personnel and more than 1 million civilian employers or contractors. (Does Mr. Hegseth also oversee producers at Fox? One or two?) President Trump has hand-picked talented people, some of whom are odious conservatives. It includes human resources. Hegseth is not one of them.

In 1989, amid reports of widespread alcohol abuse, the Senate rejected President George H.W. He was a former senator who led disarmament negotiations. Together with the Soviet Union. In contrast, Hegseth dedicated a bully pulpit to Fox. Engineered amnesty for US war criminals And they are calling for the illegal mobilization of the US military. quell domestic protests.

Early indications are that if Trump ultimately worsens Hegseth’s prospects, he Tap Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to the Secretary of Defense. Mr. DeSantis, a Navy veteran and former U.S. congressman, would likely be an easy candidate to be confirmed and relatively scandal-free. But just as Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi emerged after the Gates fiasco as a more superficially likable version of the same brand of fawning, uncritical Trump supporter. , DeSantis would provide Trump’s White House with a bland, quirky gloss to Hegseth’s pet obsession.

Like Hegseth, DeSantis is a staunch enemy of the Pentagon. It is said that he fainted and woke up.has launched an attack on the Pentagon’s gender-inclusive personnel policies and promises to roll back climate change mitigation policies in the vast defense sector. “It’s time to pull the woke people out of the military and return the military to its original mission,” he wrote. And disturbingly, DeSantis shared with Hegseth a record of downplaying abuses of power by the military. As a JAG lawyer who engaged in the extrajudicial detention of noncombatant prisoners of war in the U.S. war on terror at Guantanamo, Cuba, DeSantis provided “the illusion of accountability” while detainees were subjected to grotesque abuses. writes Jasper Craven. Release in 2023 The Baffler. Former Guantanamo detainee Mansour Addafi helped organize a hunger strike to protest conditions at the base and was force-fed five times a day when DeSantis publicly mocked him. I told Craven about that time.

We were crying. We were strapped to nursing chairs. and [DeSantis] When he saw that, he laughed,” Adeifi recalled. During one session, Adeifi said, DeSantis approached her chair and said, “You better start eating.” He responded by vomiting in young JAG’s cute face.

In a group text chat organized by Adeifi among former detainees, one recalled that DeSantis “was with a group of the meanest cops who tortured us severely.” Another called him “a real evil demon piece of shit!!”

These charges do not appear to be a major issue for DeSantis’ nomination. A key sticking point in initial negotiations to replace DeSantis and Hegseth is reportedly whether the Florida governor will take office. would appoint lara trumpthe president-elect’s daughter-in-law and designated RNC maverick, will serve a term in the Senate when Marco Rubio is confirmed as Trump’s secretary of state. After all, in today’s Republican Party, the standard career trajectory is to work your way up from “real evil devil shit” to standard issue MAGA shit eater. That’s what Ron DeSantis does best. Seasoned professional.