Confirmation hearings are underway with Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, being first out of the gate. I watched the whole thing yesterday, the first time I’ve sat through an entire Senate hearing. This one was conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He started his opening statement with a strong affirmation of his faith.
Thank you to my incredible wife Jennifer, who has changed my life and been with me throughout this entire process. I love you, sweetheart, and I thank God for you. And as Jenny and I pray together each morning, all glory — regardless of the outcome — belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His grace and mercy abound each day. May His will be done.
No ambiguous acknowledgement of “God” here. Anyone who has had an encounter with Jesus will readily acknowledge Him. As the hearing went on, it became clear that Hegseth humbly recognized his need for forgiveness and redemption from some poor choices in the past.
In fact, it was also clear that there were two different groups sitting on the dais—the group who suddenly found that “character” mattered and went after him for statements he made about women in the military, anonymous accusations about alcohol abuse, and sexual indiscretions.
That would be the Democrats, and Democrat women in particular. It sounded a lot like this (one of the funniest videos I’ve seen of the proceedings):
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that it was all grandstanding political theater with a goal to smear his name while taking out their anger on him because they know he has the necessary support to be confirmed. With only a couple of exceptions, including a Democrat who said Hegseth’s lack of experience in running a large organization disqualified him for the role, Dems basically dragged him through the mud.
Conversely, during his opening statement, Hegseth talked about how, if confirmed, he would focus on high standards, lethality, meritocracy, and readiness. Our military is clearly no longer the most lethal fighting force in the world, with China in particular being at or beyond parity.
Both Obama and Biden began degrading our military readiness by injecting DEI and other woke priorities (CRT) into the system. Hegseth vowed to pull it out “root and branch.”
I don’t know Pete Hegseth, so I’m not in any position to judge the man. He sounds like someone who would prefer not to have women in combat positions (I agree with that) but said that women would be welcome in all roles as long as they were held to gender neutral “high standards.” If the Pentagon under Hegseth raises or strengthens its standards, it’s likely that many (most?) women won’t qualify for combat roles.
Cue the tears.
Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media writes:
One of the saddest recurring cries for help on Tuesday was listening to some of the Dems complain about the fact that Hegseth declined to meet with them prior to the hearing. More precisely, Hegseth ignored them. The implication was that they may have thought more highly of him had he paid them a little attention. That’s patently absurd, of course, and Hegseth knows that. They’re dealing in bad faith and no Republican ever need indulge their foot-stomping attempts to make it all about them.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that Hegseth has the votes to be confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense. The Dems’ desperation on Tuesday leads me to believe that’s true.
What I heard, I liked. Let’s hope all of Trump’s nominees are as successful as Hegseth seems to have been.
