OPINION: Why President Trump Needs a Plan B For Hegseth Nomination -- UPDATED
Documents obtained by The New Yorker have made the confirmation chances for President-elect Donald Trump’s increasingly problematic nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, much more difficult. The allegations detailed in an article trace a troubling pattern of behavior during Hegseth's leadership at two veterans' advocacy organizations. The report accuses Hegseth of financial mismanagement, being repeatedly intoxicated during work events, and engaging in sexist behavior towards female staff. Hegseth's conduct allegedly led to his forced resignation from these organizations.
The revelations have been sufficiently damaging that at least six GOP senators are prepared to vote against Hegseth's nomination. Those senators are Susan Collins (Maine), John Curtis (Utah), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Thom Tillis (North Carolina). Lindsay Graham (South Carolina) and Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) are very much on the bubble.
Even though Trump and Hegseth seem poised to fight it out, if even a portion of the allegations against Hegseth are true, senators would be well within their rights to vote against his nomination; see VIDEO: Pete Hegseth's Mom Appears on Fox and Friends to Set the Record Straight About NY Times Piece. The power to "advise and consent" does not mean that the President gets his way. Hegseth is not being nominated to run "Trump's" Defense Department; he's there to run the United States Department of Defense, and anything that would interfere with that is fair game.
Given the totality of the circumstances, I believe that reasonable, pro-Hegseth people can have doubts that Hegseth is the man for the job of reforming the Department of Defense.
YES! Pete Hegseth Takes Aim at Gender Ideology in Service Academies. – RedState
Pentagon Generals Freak Out, Scramble to Hide Evidence of DEI Advocacy – RedState
Why Wouldn't the 'Antiwar' Left Want Pete Hegseth As Defense Secretary? – RedState
OPINION: Why Pete Hegseth Is a Great Choice for Secretary of Defense – RedState
Hegseth's nomination was under assault from inside the Pentagon because of his alleged lack of experience and hostility toward DEI (see The Pentagon's DEI Mafia Has Set Their Sights on Saving Themselves From Pete Hegseth and Pete Hegseth Lays Down a Marker in His Looming War on DEI). That attack pivoted to questions of Hegseth's character with the revelation that he had been accused of sexual assault and paid the accuser a settlement, and she signed a non-disclosure agreement. While the police report clears Hegseth of a sexual assault charge, it also paints a rather negative picture of an extremely intoxicated Hegseth hooking up with a woman at a conference.
This picture is made more complicated by the fact that he was married at the time, though a divorce action was in process, and the woman to whom he is now married had recently given birth to their out-of-wedlock child.
These are the highlights of new allegations:
A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team.
The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club.
In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”
The bottom line is that the preponderance of evidence indicates he was forced to resign from two veterans organizations for reasons of conduct and mismanagement. Allegedly, he left Vets for Freedom with $430,000 in unpaid bills, a $75,000 credit card balance, and less than $1,000 in the bank. The party environment alleged in the internal report calls into question Hegseth's self-discipline and judgment. Hegseth's public abuse of alcohol, even at official events, also raises red flags.
While many folks that I respect are advocating "going to the mattresses" on this nomination, I just don't see how it makes sense. This is not a case of the Democrats dredging up bullsh** a la Brett Kavanaugh. These are allegations than even a modicum of vetting would have uncovered. In fact, Hegseth hopefully told Trump's transition team about what was hanging out there before he was nominated.
The next Secretary of Defense will have to wrestle with the material and moral decay in the military and the department. To win those fights, he must have a solid character. Everything we read about Hegseth says he's talented and charismatic, but there is a growing body of evidence that indicates is not in control of himself or his passions. If Trump truly wishes to bring Defense to heel, he probably needs to look for another candidate rather than provoking an ugly, and probably losing, confirmation fight with the very people he will need to carry out his agenda.
UPDATE
One of the trustees of Concerned Veterans of America, the group Hegseth headed until 2015 has posted an open letter contesting the report in The New Yorker that Hegseth was asked to resign because of personal conduct issues.
Post a Comment