Who ya gonna believe, The Hill 952AM Jan 5 or CBS News 205PM Jan 5?

 Thune says it’s unclear whether all Trump Cabinet picks will be confirmed 

Thune has privately told Trump that Hegseth has the votes to be confirmed as Defense Secretary, sources say

 

Spineless jellyfish Pete Hegseth does 180 on women and gays in the military lol

 

 Hegseth does a 180 on women and gays in combat

Hegseth has called policies allowing gays and transgender troops to serve in the military part of a “Marxist agenda.” But on Thursday, when he met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), reporters asked him whether he thought gays should serve in the military, and he replied, “Yes.”

And once an unapologetic critic of women serving in combat roles, Hegseth called women “some of our greatest warriors” during a recent Fox News appearance. ...

Hegseth has been working to explain himself behind closed doors. [Senator] Collins, after meeting with him for nearly 90 minutes, told reporters that he had backpedaled on women in combat. ... 

 “He was asked in our post-meeting gaggle [with reporters] whether he was supportive of women in combat and his answer was he was supportive of that,” [Senator] Hawley said. ...

 “I heard he was changing his tune a little bit on women in combat,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a Trump ally. “Sometimes you make comments that you don’t really want to stand by, sometimes, you know, when you’re not up for confirmation.”

Senatrix Joni Ernst reportedly caving on opposition to Pete Hegseth

Many, many women have caved to Pete Hegseth.

Here.

In March 2016 Pete Hegseth was no different from NeverTrumpers like Erick Erickson, Mark Levin, Charlie Kirk, and Ben Shapiro who all now bend the knee

 

 CNN video here from Dec 3rd, in which Hegseth criticizes Trump for being an arm chair warrior who had the temerity to criticize John McCain while avoiding the draft.

Which is rich coming from Hegseth who was never regular military.

It's Megyn Kelly interviewing him, too, lol, who has been defending Pete The Warrior and his PTSD for his bad behavior with the women.

I keep waiting for someone to ask Hegseth how many firefights he was in in the field in Afghanistan. We'd all like to know in this age of stolen valor. We know that's a fact about his time in Iraq, but everyone keeps talking as if that's what he did in Afghanistan when the only evidence I find is that he taught a course there and that his stay was very brief.

More at Mediaite here.

Bunch of phony, baloney, plastic banana, good time rock 'n rollas.

Pete Hegseth promises to quit drinking if confirmed as SECDEF lol

 

Why wait, Pete? Why not stop now?

Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that his relationship with alcohol is a matter of serious concern to GOP senators by pledging Wednesday in meetings on Capitol Hill that he would stop drinking if confirmed to serve as Defense secretary.

The Hill, here.

The bargaining is classic drunk.

OMG, the NY Post/Karol Markowicz comparison of Pete Hegseth to Brett Kavanaugh is completely wrong, and now Pete Hegseth goes there to defend himself

 Where else? but in The Wall Street Journal here:

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.

 

DeSantis is far and away better for DOD than Pete Hegseth, but it would be a step down for the governor, and a minefield which could blow up his chances for 2028, if he still has any

 Trump Mulls Replacing Pete Hegseth With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Beside all that, Trump is just poaching again. 

Florida still needs Ron DeSantis, especially to appoint the replacement for the already poached Senator Marco Rubio. One bad decision leads to another.

Can't Trump find anyone else? Isn't this just more evidence of how few quality people find serving in this lame duck presidency an attractive prospect?

Ron DeSantis should also think long and hard about having to defend everything Trump for four years, quite apart from defending the United States, if he's still serious about a 2028 run. He ran against Trump in the primaries, after all, for reasons.

I think this story is more of a trial balloon, an advertisement: "Hey out there! Anyone interested in the job? Help! I gotta get rid of Pete! Please step up!"

The New York Times has obtained an e-mail sent to Pete Hegseth by his mother, and hoo boy, does this fill in the details or what?

 

It's amazing how so-called conservative women will twist themselves into pretzels to defend Pete Hegseth, for example by lowering Brett Kavanaugh to his level

 

 Don’t let the left do to Pete Hegseth what it did to Brett Kavanaugh 

It’s the Brett Kavanaugh show all over again. ... Was Hegseth also in another relationship at the time [2017]? Maybe. But he’s being nominated for secretary of defense, not for the role of our boyfriend or husband. His personal life issues should stay personal. 

As Megyn Kelly pointed out, “Having difficulty in one’s personal relationship, especially after having served two tours — which it’s not uncommon for these combat vets to come back and not be able to navigate their love lives all that well — is much different than being a rapist.”

 

Brett Kavanaugh isn't on his third wife, or his second, and hasn't cheated on his first one, let alone on three and then lied about it by omission. There is no moral equivalence between Pete Hegseth and Brett Kavanaugh whatsoever. 

Hegseth meanwhile served in combat in Iraq in 2005-6, having married wife number one in 2004. That marriage ended in 2009, reportedly due to his infidelity, and he remarried the very next year in 2010, both of which life-altering events occurred while he was executive director of Vets For Freedom, 2007-2012.

In 2012 he was an active duty military instructor in Afghanistan, but evidently for not very long.

In that same year he had started a political action committee called MN PAC, briefly ran for the US Senate from Minnesota starting in February, lost at the Republican Convention in May, and also became CEO of Concerned Veterans for America that year, a job he held until 2015, having become a Fox News contributor the previous year.

It is laughable to suggest that this biography matches a man suffering from the post-traumatic stress of two tours of duty in the Middle East. He looks more like an ambitious climber trying to make the most he can out of what little he's got.

 

These people disgust me, portraying Pete Hegseth as a victim when he's a predator

 

 

 While citizens and the Senate should vet Hegseth’s qualifications to be Secretary of Defense, among the issues assessed should not be this claimed sexual assault.

The media appear, however, determined to parrot the allegation, without even superficial scrutiny, reminiscent of their failings regarding Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. While the admirably restrained Hegseth stays quiet, good citizens should voice strong disapproval of a legacy media whose partisan reporting interferes with the good government processes a democracy requires.

Link.

Pete Hegseth was a drunken bum cheating on his baby mama with a married woman in this incident, that's what this is about, and he neglected to inform Donald Trump about it when he was nominated for Secretary of Defense.

That Hegseth is untrustworthy is only underscored by the fact that he cheated on wife number one, cheated on wife number two with his baby mama, whom he impregnated while still married to wife number two, and cheated on his baby mama with a married woman in this incident.

This disgusting piece of trash is more reprehensible than Donald Trump, if that's even possible.

US Senate Republicans should let it be known now that Hegseth will be slowly roasted in front of the television cameras for all to see.

He cannot be allowed to be a role model to any young man seeking to join the US military, unless you want an army like the sex-obsessed Russian army.

Iraq combat vets wondered why National Guard member Pete Hegseth showed up in Iraq in 2005 leading a platoon

 “I showed up in the 101st Airborne Division, in one of the most storied units in our nation’s history, with a bunch of combat vets who’d already done a tour in Iraq and they looked at me like, ‘Who the hell is this guy?’” Hegseth said in a 2021 interview on “The Will Cain Show” podcast.

One former officer who served with Hegseth said he was surprised to see a National Guard member taking on such a role. He surmised that Hegseth probably wanted to run for office someday and thought a combat tour could help, the former officer said. ...

The former Army officer who served with Hegseth in Iraq said he believes he has latched on to “populist scenarios” in a quest for personal gain. When news of Hegseth’s potential nomination emerged, old acquaintances from those days got back in touch with one another, the former officer said.

One text he received especially stood out. All it said: “WTF?”

More.

The scandal of Pete Hegseth is that HE THINKS the encounter with Jane Doe was bad enough to threaten his job at FOX NEWS but not at the Department of Defense

Trump’s Pentagon pick paid woman after sex assault allegation but denies wrongdoing, his lawyer says

  Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News. ...

The person who reported the assault — whose name, age and sex were not released — had bruises on the right thigh, according to the city’s statement. ...

At the time of the 2017 accusations, Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his wife, according to court records and social media posts by Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after infidelity by Hegseth, according to court records.

 

Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, paid accuser to save job at Fox News, his lawyer says

 Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to serve as defense secretary, paid a confidential financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault out of concern that the allegation would lead to his firing from the cable news giant, his lawyer told CBS News. ...

The city of Monterey confirmed the 2017 investigation into Hegseth and said in a statement that investigators found the woman had "contusions" on her right thigh. No charges were filed, Parlatore said. 

The Washington Post, which first reported the financial payment, obtained what it referred to as a memo that was sent to the Trump transition team by a friend of the accuser alleging Hegseth raped a conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at the hotel bar. According to the Post, the memo states that the day after the incident, the accuser "had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack."

Pete Hegseth, three days after cheating on his baby mama with a married woman in California in October 2017

 Allegedly.

Hey, he fits right in.

 

 

Pete Hegseth wasn't honest with Trump about his past

 Trump transition team ‘quietly’ looking at alternatives to Pete Hegseth after he ‘wasn’t honest’ about past

Donald Trump’s transition team is said to be “upset” with Pete Hegseth because he “hasn’t been honest” about the sexual misconduct allegation from his past – prompting insiders to consider other options to lead the Pentagon.

Hegseth was tapped last week to become Trump’s defense secretary but now those in the president-elect’s inner circle are “quietly preparing a list of alternative” candidates, Vanity Fair reported.

“It’s becoming a real possibility,” a source told the outlet’s special correspondent Gabriel Sherman.

The source said that the Trump team was taken by surprise after a serious sexual assault allegation against Hegseth came to light, which led Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles to question the former Fox News host on a call last week. Hegseth was never charged with a crime and denies the allegations.

“People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest,” a second source told Vanity Fair.

A “prominent Republican” close to the Trump transition team told the outlet that some are also unhappy with the president-elect’s choice due to Hegseth’s lack of qualifications to lead the nation’s defense. . . ..     

What else would he fail to be honest about?

 

Jonathan Chait just glosses right over the fact that Pete Hegseth at the minimum cheated on his second wife AND on his eventual third wife, who had just had his baby, with a married woman

 The baby was born in August 2017, which coincided with his divorce from his second wife, which means Hegseth cheated on the second wife in 2016.

The "consensual sexual encounter" with the married woman occurred in October 2017.

This is the guy the officer corps should look up to? He's an out of control sexual predator.

Pete Hegseth is a train wreck of a man.

Does he remind you of anyone?

I predict that the US Senate will not get an opportunity to inquire of Mr. Hegseth about his belief that America was founded in proto-Marxism because he will have to withdraw his nomination, just like Gaetz, long before that, preferably by this Friday afternoon's news dump.

Here:

Hegseth denies the allegation and says that the encounter, which took place while he was transitioning between his second and third wives, was consensual. He paid the alleged victim an undisclosed sum in return for her signing a nondisclosure agreement.

For a man who promotes himself as a Christian, SECDEF nominee Pete Hegseth sure has A LOT of VERY RECENT sooty baggage involving consensual sexual encounters dotting his timeline

Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth denies sexual assault allegation, acknowledges payment to accuser

“In 2023, Hegseth paid the complainant as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement and maintains his innocence,” Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said in a statement.

He also denied that the encounter between Hegseth and an unnamed woman, which she alleges happened in 2017, was sexual assault. ...

Parlatore denied the allegation, saying, “This is a situation where a consensual encounter occurred and, unfortunately, the woman had to come up with a lie to explain why the woman had not come back to her husband’s room that night.”

 

His Wikipedia entry indicates he cheated on his second! wife sometime in 2016 with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet who had his baby in August 2017. By October 2017 he's cheating on her! with a married woman! also supposedly conservative! referenced in the confidential settlement by CNBC:

Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009.

He married his second wife, Samantha Deering, in 2010; they have three children.

In August 2017, while still married to Deering, Hegseth had a daughter with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet, with whom he was having an extramarital relationship.^[25] He and Deering divorced in August 2017.

Hegseth and Rauchet, who has three young children from her first marriage, married in August 2019.^[69]

Hegseth lives in Tennessee. He is a member of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship,^[70] a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.^[71][72]

In October 2017, a 30-year-old conservative group staffer accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room after he spoke at a California Federation of Republican Women event in Monterey, California.^[73] She went to an emergency room the next day for a rape kit test.^[74] Hegseth described the allegations as a "he-said, she-said" dispute about a consensual encounter.^[75] No charges were filed in the case.^[73] Hegseth paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement in 2020.^[76]

 

When it comes to being qualified to run the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth is just as qualified as Dick Cheney