All Fun And Games Until A Newsmax Host Turns On Pete Hegseth
Could this matter? Maybe?
This morning, NBC News had a report about Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth meeting with Republican senators on Monday, and some of those senators afterward basically shrugging off all the allegations against him. “HUR HUR HUR! Boys bein’ boys and gettin’ credibly accused of rape!” they all said, like a Greek chorus from “Hee Haw.”
(Obviously that is not an exact quote, but Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis actually said, “Are soldiers sometimes wild childs? Yeah, that can happen.” Christ, what an unserious fucking moron.)
Of course, yesterday the political world was also marinating in Jane Mayer’s excellent reporting on Hegseth’s long history of mistreating women and constantly being drunker than drunk, which is a great quality for a guy tapped to lead the Pentagon’s three million employees and help the president make life-or-death decisions involving troops and nuclear weapons.
Last night on Rachel Maddow, Mayer said that ever since her report came out, her phone has been ringing off the hook with people telling her more stories that corroborate her reporting.
Pete Hegseth’s mom appears to think she can just say her lengthy email to Pete in 2018, about how he had been an “abuser of women,” for years, doesn’t count because A) she was mad at the time, B) she said she was sorry, and C) she didn’t even sign it “Simon Says.” All the same, we have a feeling that bell ain’t gonna unring itself.
(For a horrifying look at where a lot of Hegseth’s ideas about the proper treatment of women might come from — or at least where his pre-existing ideas might have found fertile ground — read Amanda Marcotte today about the sick church Hegseth goes to, the sick school he sends his kids to, and the sick fuck Christian nationalist guru he worships, who oversees all of it.)
There were reports before Thanksgiving that Hegseth’s nomination could be on the rails, because Trump is mad Hegseth didn’t tell him about the rape allegation or police report beforehand — obviously Trump would not be mad about rape allegations themselves per se, PFFFFFFT PSHAW HAHAHA LOL FUCK OFF THAT JUST GIVES THEM SOMETHING ELSE IN COMMON!
But now — record screeeeeeeeeeech — a Newsmax host is turning on Hegseth? A major important incredibly stupid prominent Newsmax host named Greg Kelly?
That seems like it could matter.
Here’s the video:
And here is the full transcript, courtesy of Media Matters. We bolded some parts we think are important and significant:
GREG KELLY: Alright, Pete Hegseth.
Pete. Life is long, and Pete Hegseth is a talented guy with a lot to offer. But this secretary of defense thing is not going to happen. It just can't, not after what we're learning about. And yeah, I understand that, oh, you know, we — this is a tough thing to say. And there's a lot to like about Pete. He is the only person in public life other than some folks around here who says that CQ Brown, the corrupt general of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chairman, should be fired. […]
Well, music to my ears. And getting rid of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — yeah, that guy waged, I believe, essentially a soft coup against President Trump. Hyperpolitical statements in the summer of 2020 designed to promote Democrats and actually harm MAGA. Some people say you can't fire this guy. He's so fireable. He's actually probably prosecutable. Pete Hegseth also served in combat, and that's a big deal. Very few secretaries of defense lately have seen combat here. Here we go. All the way back to 1981. That's — what is it? 40 years ago plus. OK. How many of these guys actually have seen combat? Alright. The minority, the minority. Let's see here, the average age of a secretary of defense is 61. Pete is — how old is Pete? Pete's 44 or so. Alright.
Now here's what I'm talking about. There is time for Pete to make a big, valuable contribution to this country. Life is long, but now is not the time. I'm sorry. The stakes are way too high now. Now, Donald Trump likes Pete Hegseth, respects Pete Hegseth, and that's amazing. But there are things about Pete Hegseth that he has got to deal with. And I'm going to briefly deal with them. And I know there are people like, why are you doing that? Well, I'll tell you why I'm doing that. Because the left, that's what they do. They pretend things like the Hunter Biden laptop doesn't exist. They pretend that money wasn't going from China to Hunter to the brother to the president himself. I can't ignore certain things.
Pete Hegseth’s mom has some things to say or has some things to say about Pete Hegseth. Texts of the email that Pete Hegseth mother sent to him. I am not going to go through the entire thing, but if his mother said this even at one point, got a problem. Doesn't mean can't be secretary of defense, but not now. And I'm sorry to do this. “You're an abuser of women. That is the ugly truth. And I have no respect for any man that belittles lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.” She goes on and on. She also says that she and her husband, they love Pete, they are praying for Pete, and they want him to get some help and take an honest look at himself. This is all the way back in 2018. It just came to light. Country needs some time to absorb this. Pete can make a contribution, a big one, unlimited, quite frankly, but not right now.
We repeat: This happened, on last night’s edition of Greg Kelly’s show. We watched it. Greg Kelly said Pete Hegseth can’t be secretary of Defense, at least not anytime soon. He read Hegseth’s mom’s email out loud to Newsmax viewers.
The same Greg Kelly who once said Donald Trump couldn’t have committed serious crimes stealing America’s secrets because he was drinking Diet Coke at the time.
The same Greg Kelly who … is this guy. Who is also this guy. (Click the links below for fun!)
We include those stories for context, not to enhance Greg Kelly’s credibility obviously, but to drive home that this isn’t Newsmax’s token liberal or something. This is one of their star bugfucks.
And he’s saying this.
And, uh, well, reckon he’s not wrong. (Except when he starts blathering about Hunter’s laptop and China, but whatever.)
Could this matter?
We’ll see if it matters, or if Cynthia Lummis up there is right when she says military boys are sometimes just “wild childs,” who get credibly accused of rape and whose moms write them long emails about their years upon years of abusing women.
Not getting our hopes up, but … maybe?
Who fuckin’ knows with these garbage people.
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Is anyone bringing up that there are a lot of soldiers that don't rape women, steal from other soldiers, and spend what sounds like a serious amount of time blind drunk? Because despite the blah-blah-blah boys-will-be-boys bullshit, this doesn't sound like the veterans I know. And yeah, they aren't saints, but they also weren't 'keep the women and children locked away' lunatics.
“Too rapey for credibly accused rapist Greg Kelly” sounds pretty bad.