Thursday, December 5, 2024

Why Are Deep Red State Republican Senators So Often Squishes?


It was no shock when Senator Mike Rounds of one of the Dakotas – I don’t know or care which one, but they’re both supposedly deep red – went on a Sunday morning TV show, which is strike one, and announced that he thinks Christopher Wray is a great guy. Christopher Wray is not a great guy. He’s a deep-state flunky who has turned law enforcement against decent American patriots like us in the service of the Democrats. He shouldn’t finish out his term at the FBI; he should finish out his term at Leavenworth. What the hell is this crap from a supposedly conservative Republican senator? Rounds is so tone-deaf he couldn’t be autotuned into coherence. And the fact that he’s from a super red state makes it even worse. We need to ask ourselves the question – and answer it – about why the hell the red states so often seem to elect the biggest squish sissies in the Republican caucus.

You see this all the time. We got John Cornyn, who actually pushed a gun control bill with the Democrats because of Muh Bipartisanship or some such nonsense. He’s from Texas! We know Texas can do better – they have Ted Cruz! We got James Lankford, who gave the Democrats a talking point they simply will not shut up about by capitulating on immigration. This guy is from Oklahoma! There’s Bill Cassidy from Louisiana and Thom Tillis from one of the Carolinas. Those are not blue states. And now it appears that Utah has replaced Mitt Romney with a more ethnic Mitt Romney clone, though every single person on earth is more ethnic than Mitt Romney. 

There are rational explanations for some soft Republicans. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski is from a state with a bizarre electoral system that lets her manipulate the elections. I don’t have a beef with Maine’s Susan Collins because she’s from a blue state, and she’s never pretended to be a conservative. But what the hell is up with these other ones? These guys are from red states. These guys should be savages. They should be animals. They should be chewing up commies and spitting out their crushed bones.

But no. No, they harken to the institutions. They care what the Washington Post thinks. They are all about the norms that haven’t existed since the Dems used them on us as a suppository.

Instead of fighting like men, they act like a bunch of invertebrate sissies. “Oh no, Donald Trump actually supports nominating people loyal to the vision he expressed on the campaign trail and that the American people voted for! Some of them don’t like the status quo! Some of them want to change things! Some of them are aggressively heterosexual! Oh my gosh, the scumbag bureaucrats and deep-state parasites who persecuted Republicans for the last decade might just be held to account! Well, we can’t have any of that. What about the norms? What about the institutions? What about my campaign donations?”

Here’s the problem with Republicans from deep red states. Deep red state Republican parties are, by necessity, big tents. They are not just conservatives. They also include little weasels who would be Democrats if they were anywhere else. The fact is that if you want to be elected dog catcher in East Dakota or Idaho or someplace like that, you have to be part of the GOP. So, anybody who wants to get elected to anything is pretty much going to join the GOP. But that doesn’t mean they’re conservative. And in many cases, they’re not conservative at all. 

We see this again and again. Now, it’s not as bad as it used to be. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of these tools. But the dynamic is still there. You can be a moderate Republican in a state like Texas, believe it or not. They pretend to be right-wing at election time, and then once they get established, out comes the communism. They get in there, gum up the works, and collaborate with Democrats to do things like block school choice. It becomes a giant hassle to remove them. Oh, it’s possible. It can happen. Texas conservatives are purifying the party right now at the state level. You’ll probably see Texas go for school choice next year. But it took several election cycles to get rid of these imposters.

What they’ve learned is that they can be liberal without accountability. If you’re never held to account, you’ll never learn to behave. Many of them are well-established in office. The state parties are always full of insiders, and that’s who these legislators suck up to. They have the money and the party structure, but mostly they have a Republican voter base that’s just not paying attention. They have a Republican voter base that’s not saying, “Hey, wait a minute, what the hell are you doing undermining the president we just elected?” If the voters refuse to act, and if the voters refuse to hold these geeks accountable at election time, then they’re never going to learn. 

We must teach them. A politician’s proper state is one of abject terror of the electorate. They should be petrified of crossing the line and alienating us, but that requires that we voters pay attention. In red states, the voters are not doing that, and these spineless weenies are the result.

Right now, John Cornyn has no primary opponent for 2026. But he should have one. He should have a strong one, like Ken Paxton, who is not weak, not spineless, and not eager to do things that please liberals rather than satisfy conservative patriots. But just getting the voters angry isn’t enough. Again, these guys are entrenched, like ticks, and they’ve got a lot of money and institutional support. Yet, there’s another factor at play this time.

There’s Donald Trump this time, and he has nothing to lose. If he decides to pay attention to the people who deprive him of the nominees he needs to complete his agenda and keep his promises, those politicians will have a real problem. Trump needs to have a sit down with John Cornyn, Mike Rounds, and the rest of these weebles. He must promise them that if they cross him, he will make them his hobby. He will focus his attention on their primary races by lifting up solid conservative candidates to oppose them. And you know what? Donald Trump coming to Dallas, Houston, and other places in Texas may allow us to leverage Cornyn out of his sinecure.

Now, it might not work. But it will cause them pain. A lot of pain. And that’s something. They need to suffer if they cross us. Again, politicians should be treated like garbage. They work for us, not vice versa, and if they can’t cut it, they need to be discarded like trash. And you voters in red states need to take an interest in your own politicians. Do better. It’s ridiculous that you can be so deeply red and still elect hacks who play footsies with the blue.



X22, And we Know, and more- Nov 5

 




Trump Should Bring a Constitutional Gun to the Senate / Swamp Knife Fight


From the moment of Joe Biden’s coup d’Γ©tat “victory” in 2020, Democrats, who had spent years telling everyone our elections were vulnerable to manipulation, suddenly began telling us it was the most secure election in American history.

Not long after the inauguration, adding insult to injury, Molly Ball wrote a long piece in TIME describing all of the maneuvers and manipulations Democrats had used to steal the election and their preparations for “protests”—read violence—if their coup didn’t succeed. But it did, and they were gloating about it.

Since that time, we’ve all come to see exactly what happened, much of it described in Mollie Hemingway’s bible on the coup: Rigged. We’ve read the Twitter files, we listened to Zuckerberg on Rogan, and watched Mike Benz on Tucker, not to mention the yeoman’s work done by Jeff Fulgman, who investigated the blatant fraud in Georgia, one of the swing states that was awarded to Biden.

Mad doesn’t begin to express the rage inspired by watching them shred the Constitution and the Republic for four years, trying to kill the golden goose that has produced more prosperity and more freedom for more people around the world than any nation in human history.

But now, after Donald Trump won a second term, perhaps a different perspective is necessary. One of gratitude…

Why gratitude? Clarity. Because of the Democrat’s unprecedented malevolence, Trump has an opportunity no previous president has ever had. More than any politician in our history, Trump knows exactly what his enemies are willing to do to stop him. We’ve watched it play out over 8 years, and now he’s in a position to do something about it. Almost…

Despite Democrat fraud that stole GOP Senate seats in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, Trump still finds himself with a GOP Senate. That body, ostensibly under Republican control, is as much of a swamp as anything you’ll find anywhere in the Democrat party. The majority recently elected RINO John Thune as their leader.

What’s more, the outgoing leader, the anti-Trump Mitch McConnell, has just announced he’ll be chairing the powerful Rules Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. At the same time, on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the single most powerful chairmanship in the Senate will be occupied by the virulently anti-Trump RINO, Susan Collins of Maine. None of that bodes well for the MAGA agenda.

Trump, however, doesn’t have to acquiesce to RINOs derailing his agenda. Why? Because (in addition to not having a re-election to eat away at his time) he has a not-so-secret weapon: JD Vance. Trump should tell Vance that his sole job for the next four years is to exercise his constitutional role as President of the Senate and preside over the body, something vice presidents regularly did until the 1950sArticle I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution says: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.”

While casting the deciding vote when the Senate is tied is something Vance is likely to be called upon to do, there’s much more that he could do. The Constitution itself says practically nothing about how the Senate should be run. It talks about voting and quorums, passing laws, and more but says virtually nothing about what goes on in the Senate procedurally.

As such, most of what Senators do is done because… that’s how they’ve always done it, or at least for a while. Members voted on some of the procedures while leaders put others in place.

For example, the majority leader is the most powerful person in the Senate because he has the chair must recognize him first: “This perception is based on his ability to make motions to proceed to legislation and nominations…” That “right” didn’t exist for the first 150 years of the Republic until Vice President John “Cactus Jack” Nance Garner created it while presiding over the Senate in 1937.

And this is where President Trump needs to utilize Vance. According to the Senate’s website: “The Senate is governed by the Constitution, a set of standing rules, precedents established in the course of the legislative process, and special rules of procedure adopted by statute for particular types of legislation.” The Senators create and vote upon the rules. Unlike in the House, the rules apply from one Congress to the next. As such, those would be difficult to change without a rock-solid majority, something the President sadly doesn’t have.

However, precedents are something altogether different. Here’s the thing, as we saw with the Supreme Court overturning Plessy and Roe: precedents are precedents… until they’re not. And there are a lot of them: 1,600 pages worth!

At a minimum, Vance should eliminate Garner’s rule about the right of first recognition. From that point forward, he is free to guide the proceedings by calling upon whomever he chooses. Beyond that, Vance should scrutinize the Senate’s 1,600 pages of precedents and figure out which ones can be used to help support the president’s agenda (for example, committee assignments) and adjust them accordingly.

But “Wait!” you say, “That’s not how that’s supposed to work!”

Well, it is true that the Senate was specifically crafted to balance the passions of the masses as represented in the House and, to a lesser degree, the White House. That, however, was when States were considered equal partners in our federal system of government and appointed Senators.

But of course, the leftists eviscerated the Founders’ original intentions about the Senate with the 17th Amendment. As a result, the Senate has become simply a more entrenched version of the House. Therefore, if a cabal of geriatric swamp-loving RINOs wants to try to shanghai the president’s mandate because the close balance of party power in the chamber allows them to do so, to paraphrase Sean Connery in The Untouchables, Trump should bring a constitutional gun to their knife fight and keep them from doing so.

To those who cry that if we do it, they’ll do it later, I say, so be it. The reality is that Democrats don’t need this in order to try to destroy the Republic. They nuked the filibuster, which went back to our Founders. They were prepared to add Puerto Rico and DC as states to permanently alter the balance in the Senate. They yearned to pack the Supreme Court to turn it into a progressive rubber stamp. And, of course, they imported 30 million illegals in order to control the House. The Democrats don’t need precedent to do anything. They do what they want, period.

The fact is that the Swamp is an existential threat to freedom, prosperity, and the Republic. Donald Trump must take advantage of this moment and the powers the Constitution provides to eviscerate it now. If he doesn’t do it now, when the winds of change are so strong and America’s desires so clear, it will never happen. He should not let a handful of geriatric RINOs stand in the way of exorcising the bureaucratic cancer of the swamp that menaces American citizens and ravages America’s prosperity. If he allows them to prevail, he will have betrayed the nation and go down in history as America’s greatest disappointment.



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Hegseth Puts Media and 'Anonymous' Sources on Notice in New WSJ Op-Ed: I'm Not Going Anywhere


Teri Christoph reporting for RedState 

It's been a tumultuous few days for Pete Hegseth, as the future of his nomination to be President-elect Trump's secretary of defense has been called into question over the blatherings of "anonymous sources." 

When Wednesday dawned, things looked a little shaky for Hegseth. Reports emerged of a handful of Republican senators would didn't support his nomination. Hegseth's mother went on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" to defend her son against allegations of past bad behavior. Hegseth himself sat down for an hour-long interview with Megyn Kelly.


Some thought that Hegseth had one or two news cycles to get on top of the allegations and save his nomination; there was talk of Trump considering a plan B. Trump himself called Hegseth, who has been trying to whip up support on Capitol Hill, reportedly telling Hegseth to "Keep going, keep fighting, I'm behind you all the way."

Wednesday seems to be ending on a higher note for the potential SecDef, judging by an op-ed he penned in today's Wall Street Journal. The op-ed is entitled, I’ve Faced Fire Before. I Won’t Back Down, and in it, Hegseth tells of his years in the US Army, defending our nation while in on combat missions in Iraq.

Since the op-ed is behind the WSJ paywall, the Trump campaign was kind enough to share it in its entirety in a late-afternoon press release. We'll put the text of it below, but let's highlight some of the more important parts first.

Of his time helming Vets for Freedom:

We traveled the country, stormed Capitol Hill, and returned to the battlefield to report on progress. We were young, bold and battle-hardened. Our passion was for the troops still fighting—and we had their backs.

 We weren’t perfect, but we were always honest and earnest. We raised money honestly and spent it earnestly—to advance our cause. We weren’t political experts, but we were patriotic believers. Like veterans returning from any war, we drank beers to manage the reality of what we had faced. But we never did anything improper, and we treated everyone with respect. We had a new mission and fought for it.

On his time at Fox News:

Since then, I’ve been at Fox News—where I saw my work as a continuation of my mission to fight for America. Again, the legacy press has used anonymous sources to try to discredit even that. (Please see my X feed for all the on-the-record sources whom I did actually work with and who know what kind of person I am and how I conduct myself.)

On his return to faith after his journey as a war veteran:

But by the grace of God, I took another path. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has renewed and restored my life. I am saved by his grace.

On his future as Donald Trump's secretary of Defense nominee:

I am grateful President-elect Trump chose me to lead the Defense Department, and I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing with our distinguished senators—not a show trial in the press.

Here it is in its entirety:

I’ve Faced Fire Before. I Won’t Back Down

On these pages 18 years ago I penned an article titled “More Troops, Please.” I was a young U.S. Army lieutenant who had just completed a combat tour in Iraq, and believed we needed more troops and a new strategy to turn the war around. I had seen a lot, been through a lot, and believed in my troops and the mission. 

Ever since then, I have been fighting for our troops.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that op-ed launched my next mission—fighting for the warriors on the home front. Like many veterans of my generation, when I came home I jumped into a new mission—always looking for a way to channel the sense of purpose that had been unleashed in combat.

For me, that next mission meant taking over Vets for Freedom, an organization for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We traveled the country, stormed Capitol Hill, and returned to the battlefield to report on progress. We were young, bold and battle-hardened. Our passion was for the troops still fighting—and we had their backs.

We weren’t perfect, but we were always honest and earnest. We raised money honestly and spent it earnestly—to advance our cause. We weren’t political experts, but we were patriotic believers. Like veterans returning from any war, we drank beers to manage the reality of what we had faced. But we never did anything improper, and we treated everyone with respect. We had a new mission and fought for it.

In the 2008 election, we fought hard for John McCain to defeat Barack Obama. We were a bit naive, so we doubled down on our political spending at the very end, when other groups pulled back. It was a tactical mistake, which left us in debt (like most political campaigns). But I stayed with the organization until all the debt was paid off and outstanding contracts negotiated.

Shortly thereafter, I volunteered—again—to deploy overseas, this time to Afghanistan while Mr. Obama was president. Fighting and winning our wars was never political to me. I wanted to do my part again; like many warriors of my generation, I found the battlefield had a recurring pull on my passions. But the war wasn’t going well, and we all knew it.

When I came back from that battlefield, I took the helm of another veterans organization, Concerned Veterans for America. My mission at home continued. This time we fought to fix our broken Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system, and we made great progress. Our group was the original nexus of the VA accountability and VA healthcare choice legislation that improved the lives of countless veterans. Few groups in Washington ever accomplish as much as we did.

We fought entrenched interests and mobilized veterans and patriotic Americans across the country. We had hundreds of employees and thousands of volunteers—yet based on the anonymous accusations of a few disgruntled employees, the legacy media has made it sound as if we ran a college frat house. That’s just untrue.

What is true is that as our organization grew, there was an internal difference of opinion about its future. I wanted to engage in foreign policy; our donors didn’t. Eventually, the organization and I parted ways. The feeling was mutual, and the organization’s leadership wrote me a glowing letter when I left.

Since then, I’ve been at Fox News—where I saw my work as a continuation of my mission to fight for America. Again, the legacy press has used anonymous sources to try to discredit even that. (Please see my X feed for all the on-the-record sources whom I did actually work with and who know what kind of person I am and how I conduct myself.)

I’ve been through a lot: combat tours, job changes, divorces and family challenges. (Yes, I love my mom very much, and she loves me.) I have always led with honesty, integrity and passion. Tragically, many veterans never find the purpose for their next chapter and succumb to the bottle, depression or, worst of all, suicide. I understand what they are facing—because I’ve lived it. But by the grace of God, I took another path. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has renewed and restored my life. I am saved by his grace. 

The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown. They provide no evidence, no names, and they ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about.

Talk to those who served with me in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan or the National Guard. They support me, and I’m honored by that. I have never backed down from a fight and won’t back down from this one. I am grateful President-elect Trump chose me to lead the Defense Department, and I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing with our distinguished senators—not a show trial in the press.

 Read the Op-Ed from the WSJ here.


OPINION: Why President Trump Needs a Plan B For Hegseth Nomination -- UPDATED


posted by streiff at RedState 

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

Former Biden WH Aide Issues Dire Warning to Democrats, Media Over New Slurs Aimed at Pete Hegseth – 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.


‘100 Percent Bullsh-t’: Fox News Talent Shoot Down NBC’s Smear Campaign Against Pete Hegseth


NBC News’ hit piece received immediate pushback from Hegseth’s former Fox colleagues and network guests.



Current and former Fox News talent are calling bull on legacy media’s latest smear campaign to sink Pete Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon.

On Tuesday, NBC News dropped a malicious hit piece against the Army veteran and former “Fox and Friends Weekend” host, in which 10 allegedly former and current network employees supposedly claimed that Hegseth displayed signs of a drinking problem in the workplace. Curiously, none of the alleged anonymous sources referenced by authors Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube, and Sarah Fitzpatrick identified themselves, citing “fear of retaliation.”

The left-wing outlet’s trafficking of slanderous and unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing by Hegseth bears a striking resemblance to the smear tactics deployed by media hacktivists in their bid to defeat Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court nomination. Lacking any journalistic integrity, these so-called “reporters” ran with any and all claims laundered by the judge’s accusers with virtually no pushback or skepticism.

The publication of Tuesday’s hit piece received immediate pushback from Hegseth’s former Fox colleagues and network contributors and guests, who all shot down the allegations of unprofessional workplace conduct.

On X, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Will Cain called NBC’s story, “Bullsh-t. 100 percent bullsh-t. Actually … horsesh-t,” and noted in a follow-up post that he “was not contacted by anyone at @NBCNews” regarding the allegations against Hegseth.

“Your story is horsesh-t @NBCNews. Put my name on it. On the record. It’ll be your only on the record source,” Cain wrote. “Signed, The guy who sat next to him for 8 hours every week for five years starting at 6am.”

“Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy similarly confirmed on X that “the losers @NBCNews never reached out to [her] either,” and pushed back on the story’s allegations.

“@willcain is right — your story IS horsesh-t,” she wrote. “You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story?”

[The Police Report About Hegseth Vindicates Him Of Criminality]

Campos-Duffy’s daughter and Fox News guest Evita Duffy-Alfonso also voiced her support for Hegseth, writing on X, “I stand with Pete and his beautiful family in the face of these smears.”

Federalist Editor-in-Chief and Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway said she has “nothing but good things to say about Pete and the anonymously sourced stories don’t match [her] personal experience in any way. Quite the contrary, in fact.”

“I can’t stand the propaganda practice of using anonymous sources to smear political opponents, as NBC does here,” Hemingway wrote on X.

Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe said she has “guest co-hosted with [Hegseth] numerous times before,” and that “Not once did this happen. Not once [has she] heard this from others.”

“This is such a disgusting and false smear. It is wrong and malicious,” she wrote on X.

“I have routinely sat on the couch with @PeteHegseth for 8 years,” wrote Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox contributor. “Not once did I suspect he had consumed anything other than an egg sandwich and coffee before going on air.”

Radio host and frequent Fox News guest Dan Bongino called the allegations against Hegseth, “100 [percent] HORSESH-T.”

Fox News contributor and veteran Johnny Joey Jones said the hit pieces against the defense secretary nominee “are getting laughable,” and noted that he’s “disgusted by the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath” and has “never EVER seen Pete drink like that, and have never smelled alcohol on his breath at work.”

[Media Lie About Hegseth’s Faith To Falsely Smear Him As Racist

Former Fox News producer Breanna Morello said she’s “never heard” of the allegations against Hegseth “in [her] life,” noting how the alleged Fox employees cited in the NBC report “are anonymous.”

“Everyone spoke highly of him and still does til this day,” Morello wrote on X.

Former Fox producer and independent journalist Kyle Becker detailed on X how he saw Hegseth “numerous times while working at Fox News,” and “[n]ever got the impression he was ever drunk.”

“No bloodshot eyes. No slurred speech. No disheveled appearance. No wobbly gait. Nothing,” Becker wrote. “I’m also calling bullsh-t.”

Fox News contributors Guy BensonSara Carter, and numerous other network employees and guests have come out in defense of Hegseth against the unsubstantiated claims published by NBC News.


Let's Face It, Donald Trump Is Already President


Teri Christoph reporting for RedState  

Technically, Donald Trump has 47 days left before he's sworn into office for his second, albeit non-consecutive, presidential term. In reality, however, he's already the president, and Mar-a-Lago is his White House.

Let's look at the facts. Joe Biden, the lamest lame duck president there has ever been, is busy pardoning his ne'er-do-well offspring and falling asleep at public events taking place on the international stage. Hardly the doings of a man who is taking his job seriously. Meanwhile, our American hostages are languishing away somewhere in the hellhole that is Gaza, World War III seems to be brewing, we're stuck with an economy that could use some invigorating, and there are serious, troubling consequences arising from a border that's been leaking like a sieve for nearly four years now. 

And where is his hapless vice president, Kamala Harris, you ask? Well, she has gone AWOL and seemingly has entered into a throuple with Ernest and Julio Gallo. And that's right where we want her; the woman has no business being anywhere near the levers of power. 

You can find enough proof of Trump's de facto presidency in the daily, post-election meltdowns of corporate media hacks like Joy Reid. RedState covered one of Reid's most recent breaks with reality when she got herself all worked up about Trump posting an AI-generation image of himself looking out over the frozen plains of Canada. She took the bait, and concluded he was amassing forces ready to make it the 51st state.

In short, the media is treating Donald Trump like he's already the president because he's acting like he is. 

Just yesterday, President-elect Trump took on one of the most important roles of a president -- that of comforter when tragedy strikes. 

Many of us can remember the iconic scene of Ronald Reagan comforting the distraught families of the Challenger astronauts. Americans look to their president for comfort during tough times; what we got with Biden was a president who checked his watch, instead of treating Gold Star families with dignity. 

If getting results is the measure of a successful presidency, Trump's pre-presidency presidency is yielding some pretty impressive wins.

Mexico seems to be taking Trump's tariff threat seriously, and is taking action to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.


Nervous About Trump Policies, Illegals Starting to Return Home


Speaking of the afore-mentioned Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently flew to Florida to meet with Trump and discuss the issues of tariffs and securing the northern border of the U.S. The now-neutered Democrats would usually make a fuss about Trump "interfering in foreign affairs," but they now seem to be taking a "let the real president get to work" approach.

And you know how heads of state are invited to big international events? Well, Donald Trump is heading to Paris this weekend to join other dignitaries for the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, where he's bound to meet with other international players. You know, the stuff competent presidents do.

Possibly one of the things Trump will be discussing with other leaders in Paris is the topic of the hostages in Gaza. He has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he wants them home before he is officially inaugurated on January 20, 2025. 

There are many other examples of how Donald Trump is already president, but the important thing is that we now have the answer to the question: Who's in charge here? Although he has yet to get the keys to the actual White House, he is calling most of the shots now. 

Some media outlets are calling it a "shadow presidency," but that doesn't go nearly far enough. Donald Trump saw the massive leadership void created by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the bumbling Democrat Party, and he decided to do something about it. He is now the de facto president of the United States, and we should all thank God for that.