Pete Hedgseth for Secretary of Defense

[Anonymous]

Look this is a classic he said-she said rape case. I am not at all surprised that it didn't move forward because lots of rape cases come down to this and women who really were raped don't want to press charged knowing the case comes down to their testimony and whether a jury believes them. Prosecutors don't like bringing these cases for the same reason. This is so many rape cases.

But even accepting there might be a chance she's lying and he's innocent, it should be disqualifying. Because what if he's not? No one is entitled to be SecDef. It's not something he's earned and is being deprived of. It is a high honor and a critical role and it should only go to someone who has no black marks of this sort on their record. You don't want someone with anything like this in their background. Too bad for him if it turns out he's innocent but on the other hand he knew he had this in his past, didn't disclose it to Trump's team, and accepted the nomination anyway. That's his fault.

Just move on to the next option. Does anyone think Pete Hegseth is just the only person on the planet who can be SecDef? That's stupid. There are other people without this baggage. Time to move on.

[Anonymous]

In 2020 our Secretary of Defense nominee said there would be civil war if Democrats won the Presidency, and that the military would have to chose sides

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 2020 our Secretary of Defense nominee said there would be civil war if Democrats won the Presidency, and that the military would have to chose sides

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book

That sounds disqualifying. We need a better option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely disgusting how quick people are to assume a woman would lie more than they’d believe that a man is guilty. 1 in 3 women is assaulted in their lifetimes. Most don’t file reports. It’s the hardest crime to prosecute because it’s so hard to prove and so many people like PP making it harder.

He is unfit for a number of reasons. Thee are millions of men who have never been accused of sex crimes. Hire one of those. Why is that too much to ask????

In this case, it was a married with kids woman boozing and partying in a hotel with a model-esque womanizer Fox News host until 2am, with her husband and kids in another room, and then she walked back arm in arm into the Fox guy's room for a two hour romp. Then four or five days later she cries assault. Give me a break. I would bet anything it wasn't her first time cheating and the suspicious husband wouldn't let it go.

In this case, it was a married with kids woman staffer for the local Republican party, there with her husband and kids, working a party event and got stuck with the job of babysitting one of the speakers (get him to his room at night and get him up and to his plane in the morning) because they were told that he was going to get drunk, hit on people, and sleep in). Like a good hostess/any woman who has been socialized to deal with drunk men she got him away from the women he was hitting on at the bar and walked back arm in arm into his room and agreed to have a drink (hoping he would pass out at that point) where he--with drugs he had brought with him--roofied and assaulted her while her husband spent the night freaking out and looking for her. After four or five days of back and forth with her spouse about whether or not its worth going to the police--she can't remember anything, there's no physical evidence, she doesn't want to be in this situation with a famous person, the Republican Party people are never going to let her do anything again--she goes to the police and reports the assault. They also decide that given the lack of evidence, there's not much they can go. A couple of years later, following the Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes settlements, she and her husband decided to sue.

Roofied. Doesn't remember anything. She was his "babysitter". So of course that meant she had to walk back to and into his room while arm and arm. Give me a break. Nobody is buying this malarkey. The far more plausible story is she got buzzed and cheated on her husband with a hot sleazebag. The end.

Nothing in the full police report made mention to her being obligated to walk him to his room. This wasn’t her “job”

[Anonymous]

Right wing apparatus is digging in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 2020 our Secretary of Defense nominee said there would be civil war if Democrats won the Presidency, and that the military would have to chose sides

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book

+1 Jonathan Chait with The Atlantic has read all of his books (three in the last few years) and there’s tons of disqualifying stuff in there. That public education is a communist plot, that vaccines are poison, and that socialists were responsible for the Holocaust, among others.

"The main question I was looking to answer when I started reading Hegseth’s collected works was whether he would follow a Trump command to shoot peaceful protesters. After having read them, I don’t think he would even wait for the order."

Hegseth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.”

He calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left” and says that without its “utter annihilation,” “America cannot, and will not, survive.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/pete-hegseth-books-trump/680744/?gift=cAi0XjdW-W3cRUws9AyEUl0t-yYFv3CC0oliageSwyk&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

And again, these views and his disgusting behavior in his personal life are second and third to the fact that he’s never run an organization with more than a couple dozen people and to put him in charge of the largest bureaucracy in the world is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2020 our Secretary of Defense nominee said there would be civil war if Democrats won the Presidency, and that the military would have to chose sides

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book

+1 Jonathan Chait with The Atlantic has read all of his books (three in the last few years) and there’s tons of disqualifying stuff in there. That public education is a communist plot, that vaccines are poison, and that socialists were responsible for the Holocaust, among others.

"The main question I was looking to answer when I started reading Hegseth’s collected works was whether he would follow a Trump command to shoot peaceful protesters. After having read them, I don’t think he would even wait for the order."

Hegseth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.”

He calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left” and says that without its “utter annihilation,” “America cannot, and will not, survive.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/pete-hegseth-books-trump/680744/?gift=cAi0XjdW-W3cRUws9AyEUl0t-yYFv3CC0oliageSwyk&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

And again, these views and his disgusting behavior in his personal life are second and third to the fact that he’s never run an organization with more than a couple dozen people and to put him in charge of the largest bureaucracy in the world is insane.

All of this. He's an intellectual lightweight with no relevant experience who has expressed a broad range of anti-democratic and totalitarian attitudes over the years.

He's honestly even less acceptable than Gaetz. His confirmation hearing is going to be a total mess. And the Senators who were lining up against Gaetz were spared having to cast a vote against Trump's nominee there and will likely go ahead and rubber stamp Bondi who at least is qualified and doesn't have any giant skeletons in her closet (she comes pre-vetted because of her high profile in Florida and in Republican politics). That frees them up to vote against Hegseth or Gabbbard, and I think some would be willing to vote against both because Gabbard isn't even a Republican and the national security stuff is very non-partisan as objections go.

I just do not understand why Trump would waste any capital on this guy -- good chance he doesn't get through even if he gets to hearings. Seems like a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right wing apparatus is digging in.

That's Matt Walsh -- not exactly someone who reflects the attitudes of the average Republican Senator. And ultimately it doesn't even matter what they think if public sentiment turns on Hegseth. One think no one even talks about yet is what Hegseth would be like in confirmation hearings. This dude is smarmy and not that bright and it shows. He struggles with whatever passes for witty banter on Fox & Friends, he's not going to handle being questioned by dozens of senators over multiple hours on national television well. Even if they can get to hearings without public sentiment going way south, that footage is going to be brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

or with it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

or with it

That's not how things work to make someone guilty

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right wing apparatus is digging in.

That's Matt Walsh -- not exactly someone who reflects the attitudes of the average Republican Senator. And ultimately it doesn't even matter what they think if public sentiment turns on Hegseth. One think no one even talks about yet is what Hegseth would be like in confirmation hearings. This dude is smarmy and not that bright and it shows. He struggles with whatever passes for witty banter on Fox & Friends, he's not going to handle being questioned by dozens of senators over multiple hours on national television well. Even if they can get to hearings without public sentiment going way south, that footage is going to be brutal.

He was specifically chosen because it was assumed he would do well on television. But yes, he's going to get humbled in hearings. I'm surprised the nomination hasn't been pulled yet. It only takes four Republican senators to reject the nominee. And I don't think the GOP establishment wants to go to the wall for this guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

or with it

That's not how things work to make someone guilty

Two people testify and you decide which is more credible. Testimony is evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

or with it

That's not how things work to make someone guilty

Two people testify and you decide which is more credible. Testimony is evidence.

Under oath in front of a jury and applying rules of procedure and evidence.

Then the jury must make a finding based on instructions from the judge applying appropriate the standard of guilt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regret does not equal rape. Say that ten times.

OK, done. Sex without consent equals rape. Say that ten times.

There is no evidence this was sex without consent

or with it

That's not how things work to make someone guilty

He's not going to be criminally charged. You can calm down.

The question is whether he should be SecDef. You are so concerned about his culpability - which speaks for itself.