LIVE: Pretty Early In The Morning For A Confirmation Hearing! Is Pete Hegseth Sober?
We are just asking.
We shouldn’t even be here, but here we are.
Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified secretary of Defense nominee in human history, who’s been credibly accused of rape by one person that we know of; who has a Newsmax host calling for his withdrawal because the payoff of that rape accuser shows how susceptible he is to blackmail; whose FBI background check wasn’t that bad but maybe that’s because they didn’t talk to his ex-wives or the woman who accused him of rape; who in the words of combat veteran and Senator Tammy Duckworth isn’t even qualified to run a fucking Applebee’s; who has reportedly made quite a name for himself around the Fox News HQ for showing up to his hosting duties on “Fox & Friends Weekend” totally fucking drunk; who swears he’ll never drink anymore ever again if you just give him one more chance to RUN THE GODDAMNED PENTAGON; whose body is covered with the kinds of tattoos that make white supremacists and Nazis cream themselves; whose Grrr Argh Time To Declare Literal Civil War On The Wokes! books sound like they were written with one hand while the other hand jerked the author off to some kind of pussy ass make-believe Braveheart fantasy version of the Crusades …
That guy. That guy’s Senate confirmation hearing in the Armed Services Committee is today. If these Democratic senators aren’t prepared to kick this loser’s ass, they’re good for nothing.
Let’s see!
Refresh the page regularly to see if I have added anything: That is how we liveblog. Starting now!
9:33: Oh hello, good morning, welcome to this appalling spectacle. Punchbowl reports on the Democrats’ strategy for this morning. Hopefully the Democratic women on this committee have a plan to humiliate this loser, who should be excessively easy to humiliate, and remarkably easy to get a rise out of.
9:36: GOP Senator Roger Wicker is introducing the hearing by describing growing numbers of threats around the world and he’s listing so many countries! Wonder how many of those countries Pete Hegseth has heard of, maybe he might have heard somebody talk about them on the radio in the car on the way from the club to the Fox News studios for his important job hosting “Fox & Friends, JV Edition.”
Wicker says the nominee is “unconventional.” This is highly coded language for moron, except it’s Wicker, who is also a moron, so.
9:39: DRINK, Roger Wicker said “DEI.” If you are not aware, “DEI” is the current Republican dogwhistle that means “N-word,” but unlike earlier Republican dogwhistles, it also means “LGBTQ people slurs” and “women slurs.” It is a handy word for them that means everything, like “Marxist” and “Smurf.”
9:41: Oh, Roger Wicker says that in his personal conduct, Pete Hegseth has “fallen short, as we all have,” but notes that the accusations came from anonymous sources, which means they do not count! (You know, because they’re not willing to have their lives terrorized or otherwise ruined by MAGA in order to speak out against Hegseth on the record.)
Got that? Pete Hegseth is a sinner, but so are we, and we think the rest of that can be translated as “anonymous bitches be lyin’.”
Anyway, Jack Reed, the Democratic ranking member, it is his turn.
9:44: Reed notes that running the Pentagon is a big, big job. Notes that the secretary needs to have character and be trustworthy. The subtext is that angry GRRRR dumbasses like Pete Hegseth and their sexual assault allegations and their obvious masculine insecurities, who aren’t ready to manage their ass with both hands, are not qualified. Also Jack Reed just said it out loud, so it’s not really subtext.
9:47: Reed says actually the military is more diverse and more lethal than it’s ever been. Actually.
Reed is disturbed, he says, by Hegseth’s history of always taking the side of whatever white supremacist in the military with anger issues who’s currently on trial for murder or torture or other war crimes.
Reed says he’s also concerned by Hegseth’s history of mismanaging the funds of and driving into the ground the two lemonade stands he’s run, we mean conservative veterans’ organizations he’s run, directly into the ground.
Because again, the Pentagon is big and has even more than one checking account!
9:51: Reed says it’s “unacceptable” that Hegseth didn’t meet with any Democratic senators besides Reed. It’s probably because Pete Hegseth is scared of them, AKA a coward.
9:53: REED: “You lack the character, composure and competence” to be secretary of Defense.
Wicker now introducing former Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who you might not remember because who gives a fuck, and also Mike Waltz, the unqualified hack who will be Trump’s national security advisor. These are the losers doing the sherpa-ing of Hegseth around the Senate. They are here to “vouch” for Hegseth, a word that’s doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting.
“He has struggled and overcome great personal challenges,” says Coleman. This bullshit clownfuck redemption story is going to be a large part of their defense, because Republicans love bullshit clownfuck redemption stories. Don’t be fooled by it, and don’t take their word if they say Jesus has forgiven him. Let Jesus say that on the record.
10:03: Here we go with Hegseth’s opening statement, let’s see if he’s already SO MAD ANGER ISSUES GRRR ARGH.
He thanked his third wife and his seven children and said he loves Jesus, DRINK.
10:08: Hahahahaha, he called Donald Trump “selfless.”
10:09: There are some protesters. Unfortunately they’re trying to say too many words so people on TV can’t understand them. They should stick with short and punchy things like “red flag” and “cover your drink,” allegedly, at least that’s what we’d say if we were going to do a protest.
Anyway, they’re frustrating Roger Wicker.
10:11: Hegseth says all troops will be “equal” not “equitable.” This is part of their DEI woke dogwhistle belief that anybody who isn’t a white straight conservative man with anger and masculinity issues isn’t qualified.
10:16: Wicker says he wants to give Pete Hegseth a chance to respond to the “allegations” from “anonymous sources in liberal media publications.” Wait, was it the liberal media who said Pete Hegseth raped them in a hotel in 2017 when he was the speaker at a conservative conference? Was it the liberal media who said goddamn, this man keeps coming to work drunk at Fox News? Was it the liberal media who said they were extremely disappointed in the way their son abuses women?
No that was his mom on that last one.
Anyway, Pete Hegseth says “smear campaign” and “left wing media doesn’t care about the truth.” He says they want to destroy him because “change agent” and yadda yadda, wank wank wank.
Oh you guys! Pete Hegseth has been “saved by the grace of God, by Jesus and by Jenny!” That there is what is known as the Holy Trinity!
It now includes Jenny!
10:23: Roger Wicker is now done. We’ll have Jack Reed the Democrat next. He wants questioners to have two rounds of questioning, as opposed to simply the seven minutes per senator Wicker wants. Wicker thinks seven minutes is enough for them to rubber-stamp Hegseth and lick Trump’s grundle the way he wants for his nominees.
Reed also notes that the FBI investigation into Hegseth was insufficient (they didn’t talk to literally anyone they needed to talk to, like women Hegseth has been accused of abusing), and that all senators should have access to it. Wicker does not like that idea either.
10:27: Reed reads threatening emails serving troops are receiving saying that when Trump comes in, they will be fired because they support “woke” and “DEI.” Does Hegseth support troops getting these threatening emails, and threatening their spouses? Hegseth starts babbling warriors and not answering the question. Also whining about DEI.
Again, DEI is just a way conservative white people say the “N”-word. They think they are being clever. They are not very clever boys.
10:31: REED: You’re instrumental in getting war criminals pardoned. Why do you love war crimes so much, as opposed to not loving them?
HEGSETH: I have been in combat. These rules are fuckin’ bullshit, dude!
(Paraphrase.)
REED: Actually you’ve disparaged the Geneva Conventions in writing. How can you lead a military like that? Also what is a “JAG-OFF?” Oh, you don’t want to answer that.
HEGSETH: It’s a JAG officer who’s fuckin’ bullshit, man!
(Paraphrase.)
Now we have Republican Deb Fischer from Nebraska.
10:36: Fischer’s questions are boring and process-y and technical, almost like they seem designed to bore the shit out of everybody and make them turn the TV off before the Democratic women get going. Talking about the “Production Act” and such and drowning viewers in word salad.
He doesn’t even know half the things she’s asking about. Says he’s excited about getting the opportunity to look “under the hood” at the Pentagon. Oh, is this mouthbreather gonna tinker around?
“What is your plan to revitalize the industrial base in this country?” That’s an actual question. And his answer is bullshit corporate speak. They planned this.
We see you, Deb Fischer.
10:42: OK, now time for Jeanne Shaheen from the Democratic side. She’s pissed no one followed up to meet with her before the hearing. “Do you understand … that you will have a responsibility to meet with all members of this committee, not just Republicans?”
Says she’d really like to meet with him so she can understand his real views on women in the military. Like back in November, when he said women shouldn’t be in combat, on a wingnut podcast. But that was before he was nominated.
10:44: She’s reading from one of his idiot books about our unnatural obsession with women warriors. Does he think the women on this committee who have served didn’t serve honorably or whatever?
He says this is just about STANDARDS, not about him not liking women.
Shaheen wants to know why women should believe they have a fair shot in the military if he were secretary of Defense. Also why he changed his views on women in the military after he was nominated.
10:47: Shaheen says she appreciates Hegseth’s “11th hour conversion” on women in the military, and enters into the record a chapter from one of his angry white man masturbation manifestos, The War on Warriors, called “The Deadly Obsession with Women Warriors.”
10:49: Hegseth tells Shaheen he’ll totally review some little policy about women to make sure it goes along with his feeling. Roger Wicker has some letters from women in the military who were willing to write on paper that Pete Hegseth is awesome.
Now it’s Tom Cotton, who wants to reframe this conversation about women in the military.
Hegseth says the guns and the rucksacks they have to carry are very heavy, and as long as everybody can carry the same stuff it’s fine, but if they’re letting women in to meet “quotas,” then that’s not OK!
Tom Cotton agrees that there is a lot of heavy stuff in the military. Can girls even carry things the way big strapping Tom Cotton of Dardanelle, Arkansas, carries things?
10:55: Tom Cotton wants to give Pete Hegseth an opportunity to respond to the critics, like for example about his Christian extremist beliefs, but like not really. He is giving him an opportunity to respond to whatever Code Pink screamed while disrupting the hearing. That’s not exactly a good representation of the problems with his Christian extremist beliefs.
Now we have Kirsten Gillibrand.
10:59: Gillibrand emphasizes that Hegseth’s most recent disrespectful statements about women were in November. Notes that Tom Cotton was lying a minute ago when he suggested that our current standards for infantry are so woke that you only have to run two miles in 22 minutes.
Anyway, Hegseth is babbling now about how he’s found some weirdos in the military like him who say the military has been destroyed by woke and quotas.
“Commanders. Do not. Have to meet a quota for women in the infantry. That does not exist!” Gillibrand is pissed.
Also pissed that Hegseth wouldn’t meet with her before the hearing.
Notes that Hegseth denigrates LGBTQ people, that before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, we lost some of our most valuable servicemembers because of a stupid political policy, that he denigrates women in combat who are moms.
Does he agree that anybody should be able to serve in the military if they meet the standards? Does he believe LGBTQ people, moms, leftists should be able to serve?
He is whining that he was not allowed to serve on Joe Biden’s inauguration because he was flagged as an extremist for a “Christian” tattoo. It just happens to be the kind of “Christian” tattoo only Christian nationalist fucking losers get inked on their bodies.
Now we go to Republican Mike Rounds for some BS.
11:10: Mike Rounds is asking highly technical and questions that he admits are weedsy and boring. Stuff about the “electromagnetic spectrum” that absolutely nobody in the military knows about. Is this what they planned in their meeting when Hegseth wasn’t meeting with Democrats? And again, was this planned so that people would turn off the TV before Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono start beating the shit out of Hegseth?
11:13: Here is Richard Blumenthal, let’s see if he’s boring.
11:15: Blumenthal is asking about the conservative veterans’ organizations Hegseth ran into the ground, but he’s asking about it boringly.
Hegseth says he’s very proud of the work he did at those organizations, and he has some letters from people who say he’s great.
Blumenthal enters the tax returns from the organizations into the record, boringly. All of this was handled in painstaking detail by Jane Mayer.
Hey Democrats, love you and stuff, but shouldn’t “LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT CREDIBLE RAPE ACCUSATION AND ALL THE REPORTS OF YOUR DRUNKENNESS” been at the top, before people started tuning out?
11:20: LOL Blumenthal says he’d vote for Hegseth for Pentagon spokesperson, said his communication skills are fine. Ooh, like maybe if there was a “Fox & Friends Weekend” show for the Pentagon!
Said he’s sure Hegseth would submit to a real FBI background check that included all the abuse allegations, yes? Hegseth says he’s not in charge of such things.
11:21: Oh, let’s see how much of her own remaining integrity Joni Ernst does away with here. She’s starting by entering into the record letters that say Hegseth is fuckin’ great, so we’re going to guess she’s going to do away with her integrity entirely.
11:24: Joni Ernst assures us all that she and Pete Hegseth have had frank conversations, wouldn’t you agree that they’ve been frank? No nonsense from Joni Ernst here, no siree, you betcha.
11:27: Ernst sets up the question for Hegseth about women in combat roles. As long as they make sure the standards are very high and not woke or DEI, then women can be in combat. She basically fed him every word.
Oh by the way in the last 45 seconds, Joni Ernst wants to ask this guy who has been accused of rape and a pattern of abusing women if he’s going to fight all the sexual assault in the military. Will he appoint a senior-level official to fight sexual assault? He says yes.
That was not productive.
Here comes Mazie Hirono.
11:30: HIRONO: Have you ever done sexual assault?
HEGSETH: I was falsely accused and completely cleared!
HIRONO: Yeah no that’s not accurate to say you were “completely cleared.” Also you made her sign an NDA.
(Here’s more on that police report.)
HIRONO: There have been lots of reports about you being drunk at work at Fox News. Do you know it’s not allowed to be drunk at work in the military?
HIRONO: You promised that you will stop drinking if you become secretary of Defense? Will you resign if you drink on the job?
He’s babbling, and when he doesn’t answer her questions, she moves on. This is fun.
HIRONO: Do you understand that you swear an oath to the Constitution, not Trump?
He says he does.
HIRONO: Would you carry out illegal orders for Trump, like when he asked Mark Esper to shoot protesters in the legs?
He starts babbling about how bad those protesters were. She basically says fuck off, says she’s taking his babbling as confirmation that he’ll do illegal things for Trump.
HIRONO: Will Hegseth use military force to invade Greenland or Panama or another ally?
He starts babbling about how many people voted for Trump. She doesn’t give a fuck.
11:35: Hirono confirms that Hegseth doesn’t want the Pentagon to help people who need abortions access them. He admits it.
“You are no longer on Fox & Friends, Mr. Hegseth.” If confirmed, his words will actually matter, she says.
“I hardly think you are prepared to do the job.”
He doesn’t get to respond because it wasn’t a question.
Now Dan Sullivan from Alaska.
11:38: Sullivan’s first question is literally asking for a commitment from Hegseth to come to Alaska with him. Is this speed dating?
11:39: Sullivan is now giving examples of Joe Biden’s “woke” military.
He whines that Joe Biden is always acting like our military is full of racists and extremists. (It is indeed a problem. Hegseth was part of it, and will be the biggest problem if he’s confirmed.)
11:43: Ha ha ha, Hegseth agrees that his secretary of the Navy isn’t going to care about a fake thing like climate change, ha ha ha!
Hegseth is very sure that if they stop the wokes in the military, the military will have one million orgasms and everybody will sign up to be part of the non-woke military.
High-quality Christian extremists like Pete Hegseth!
11:49: Now it’s time for Tim Kaine to ask more about the rape allegations. Kaine notes that Hegseth cheated on his second wife just after he had fathered a child with the person who would become wife number three. Hegseth keeps bitching that the rape accusation was a “false claim,” and lying and saying he was fully cleared.
“I assume that in each of your weddings you’ve pledged to be faithful to your wife,” says Kaine.
“I am redeemed by my lord and savior,” says Hegseth, oh go fuck yourself, that is not an answer a real adult man gives.
“Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives?” asks Kaine.
Would Hegseth agree that doing that, or physical violence against spouses, would disqualify somebody from being secretary of Defense? Hegseth can’t seem to affirm that.
Kaine notes that in California there was a payoff and a nondisclosure agreement, from the rape allegation. Kaine notes that Hegseth has said he did that because he was worried about his “Fox & Friends” career. Notes that he didn’t disclose this to Trump.
Anything else he’s forgotten to reveal?
11:52: HEGSETH: I’m an open book!
KAINE: With nondisclosure agreements LOL.
KAINE: If somebody shows up drunk to work all the time, that’s disqualifying, yeah?
HEGSETH: All that was anonymous accounts!
KAINE: One of your colleagues said you got drunk at a bar and yelled “Kill all Muslims!” Another said one time you jumped on stage with strippers. Isn’t this all disqualifying?
HEGSETH: Anonymous, false!
KAINE: Nah, not anonymous. Is your mom anonymous?
Again, read that Jane Mayer.
11:53: Kevin Cramer thanks Hegseth for loving Jesus so much, because that’s what a serious person says. LOL go fuck yourself.
Now Kevin Cramer wants to talk about Hegseth’s extremist tattoos. Hegseth begins by lying and saying the Jerusalem Cross on his chest — which extremists love — is why he was flagged as an extremist and kicked out of working the Biden inauguration. For some reason this is a lie Hegseth loves to tell. The tattoo he was flagged for was the “Deus Vult” underneath his bicep, which is HUGELY popular with extremists.
This is giving Hegseth a soapbox to bitch about troops getting kicked out for refusing to take an “experimental vaccine” during COVID, and for acting like white guys like him are the real extremists. Kevin Cramer is yelling that the people who would call Pete Hegseth an extremist are the REAL extremists.
11:58: Kevin Cramer, again not a serious man, asks Hegseth to please tell him where the wokeness comes from. Hegseth says the wokeness comes from the politicals, not inside the military.
Jesus fuck, these guys are losers.
Now we have Angus King from Maine, who reads from one of Hegseth’s books — the one last year — where he says he only believes “boys” should get to fight in wars.
12:03: Pete Hegseth just really does not like all thse rules of engagement they have to follow. He does not like America having to follow the Geneva Conventions.
Hegseth babbles out an answer, it’s amazing how out of his league this dude is.
12:05: KING: Do you like waterboarding?
HEGSETH: The law says it’s not legal.
KING: Are we going to abide by Geneva or not?
HEGSETH: Those are the rules, but also America First!
Now another very serious person, Rick Scott of Florida.
12:09: Hey you guys, surprise, but Rick Scott is going to talk about Woke, because that’s what serious men who are not a joke talk about.
Hegseth lies and says that under Obama there was a “minor incursion” into Ukraine — it was an invasion and Putin stole large quantities of land — and suggests that somehow the fact that Putin didn’t invade Ukraine until 2022 had something to do with Trump’s leadership.
Now Hegseth is babbling about DEI and Critical Race Theory again. Remember, when white Republicans say that, it’s code for the “N”-word.
12:14: SCOTT: Why do you want this job?
HEGSETH: For the war fighters! I’m not just a TV host! I love Jesus and Jenny and I hate woke!
Now Elizabeth Warren will fix this shit.
12:15: WARREN: I’ve been trying to get answers from you but you wouldn’t meet, so let’s do it now! In January 2013, you said women can’t live up to the standards of men in combat. You said it in 2015. You said it to Ben Shapiro in 2024 that “women shouldn’t be in combat at all.” You said it in your book. You said moms shouldn’t be in combat. You said 10 weeks ago “I’m straight up saying we should not have women in combat roles.”
HEGSETH: Gonna try to lie about what I said.
WARREN: Nope.
She asks what TOTALLY changed over the last 32 days since he last said these extremely misogynistic things. He continues to try to lie and say it’s all been about “standards.”
Warren is like nah fuck off, you got nominated and now you’re just full of shit.
12:22: Hooray, Tommy Tuberville, the very stupidest senator in human history! We are sure he’ll contribute something to the hearing.
Tuberville, you should know, believes every white supremacist conspiracy theory about how the military cannot recruit people because of “woke.” Again, Tuberville is a mouthbreathing dipshit.
He just said “DEI.” Hey you guys, do you know what “DEI” is code for, especially when a southern PE major like Tuberville says it?
12:28: Lotta whining about woke left-wing professors, and Hegseth literally just said out loud that he thinks the recruitment will come back if they get rid of the woke. How embarrassing for this country.
12:31: Gary Peters just asked if there was something Hegseth was specifically scared of in meeting with Democratic senators before this hearing. Hegseth said there was just a lot going on!
12:33: Peters says he doesn’t know of any corporate board of directors that would hire somebody who had never managed dick to run a company with three million employees. Peters is asking him about all the serious experience he got in the veteran’s orgs he ran into the ground LOL.
12:36: LMAO!
Peters asks if Hegseth really thinks the way to raise the STANDARDS for the military would be to lower the STANDARDS for the qualifications for the secretary of Defense.
That’s a good fuckin’ line.
Hegseth bless his fucking heart says he’s honored to be hired by “one of the most successful CEOs in American history.” Which is … not what Donald Trump is.
Trump went bankrupt in casinos.
Poor man’s idea of a rich man, etc.
Anyway, time for that pigfuck redneck Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
12:39: Markwayne Mullin’s line of questioning seems to be intended to show that actually any old unqualified pigfuck actually has the qualifications to be secretary of Defense.
Seems to say it’s OK to show up drunk at work as the secretary of Defense because … senators have shown up drunk for votes.
“You want to stand here and say he’s not qualified? Give me a JOKE,” is what Mullin said literally.
Now they’re all going to cry together about how they are changed men who are only here because their wives love them and their lord and savior love them (citation needed).
MULLIN: WHAT DO YEW LOVE ABOUT YOUR WIFE?
HEGSETH: She is pretty and smart and all the things!
MULLIN: You have to say something about your kids!
Now they are going to discuss how it’s fine if Hegseth has no qualifications because the Pentagon has lots of staff who can do his job. This is exactly what incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles said in response to a question about how this loser who isn’t qualified to manage an Applebee’s is going to run the Pentagon: “That’s what staff is for.”
Again, cannot imagine admiring these sorts of men. They’re just all such jokes.
12:45: DUCKWORTH!
KICK HIS FUCKING ASS.
12:46: Duckworth notes that America is at risk during transition times, when our enemies can see people who aren’t ready to lead, and says he is definitely not ready.
DUCKWORTH: Have you led an audit of any organization?
HEGSETH; We were fiscally responsible in all the organizations I ran into the ground!
DUCKWORTH: Yes or no? YES OR NO? You never have. Shut up. Moving on. What is the highest level of international negotiations you’ve ever been involved in? Can you name anything that the Secretary of Defense does? Do you know about security agreements? You talked about the Indo-Pacific. Can you talk about the nations in ASEAN? You just listed three countries that aren’t in ASEAN.
She hates him so much.
“You, sir, are a no-go at this station.”
12:55: So apparently the new propaganda is that people are now rushing to join the military because Donald Trump won. CITE SOURCE?
1:00: Ted Budd was boring. Jacky Rosen from Nevada now. Adds her name to the list of Democrats pissed Hegseth was too much of a coward to meet with them.
Five senators left after this, by the way. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin on the Democratic side. Some extremely sick morons on the Republican side.
1:05: ROSEN: Do you really think NATO is a relic, like you wrote in your book?
HEGSETH: Our allies have had no better friend than Donald Trump!
ROSEN: That has nothing to do with my question. Is Trump going to stand by Ukraine? Are you? Is there a plan to end the war, like he always says? Is his plan going to require Ukraine to give it all to Russia?
Hegseth with some non-answers.
Eric Schmitt from Missouri.
1:09: Eric Schmitt would like everyone to know that “DEI” is “cultural Marxism” and that people do not like “woke ideology” because he is playing wingnut bingo and if he gets five in a row, he wins a shiny new pair of MAGA panties.
SCHMITT: The Navy touted a DRAG QUEEN INFLUENCER!
HEGSETH: [closes eyes and nods because he knows how bad this was and how much it hurt him personally]
These people are suuuuuch fucking joooooooookes.
Surprise, Pete Hegseth is now making another white Christian extremist speech about getting the woke out of the military.
Eric Schmitt wants a commitment that Pete Hegseth will recruit BACK all of the inferior losers who were kicked out of the military because they refused the Covid vaccine. Pete Hegseth will bring those shitty troops back, and he will kiss them on the mouth!
Now Captain Mark Kelly, a real person and a real senator, unlike these dishonorable Republican buffoons.
KELLY: I want to understand whether you bring ANYTHING to the table.
1:17: KELLY: True or false, you had to be carried out of all these veterans events drunk.
HEGSETH: Anonymous smears!
KELLY: Different time you had to be carried out.
HEGSETH: Anonymous smears!
Man, this Pete Hegseth guy sure doesn’t take responsibility for his actions. Not a very good role model for a young man to look up to.
It would be funny if Pete Hegseth had to pee or something and Brett Kavanaugh came and did five minutes of the hearing, since they’ve both been credibly accused of sexual assault.
1:21: Hegseth gets really mad when it’s pointed out again and again all these allegations about constant drunkenness and sexual assault.
Jim Banks from Indiana.
1:23: Banks says it’s INCUMBENT on the committee to confirm Hegseth, because he’s been so impressive today!
Banks also says that “counterextremism training” — rooting out threats like white supremacist Christian nationalist terrorists and extremists — is “woke.”
Surprise, Pete Hegseth just said DEI and Critical Race Theory and Climate Change, because he’s a real man with a real brain with something valuable to contribute.
1:30: Getting bored with all these Republicans saying the same three words, glad it’s almost over. Elissa Slotkin is next, hopefully she’ll be good as the last Democrat.
SLOTKIN: No presidnet has the right to use the military for their own political purposes. We don’t use the military within the United States. We don’t attack Americans. If Trump wanted to give an illegal order, you would get that call. Do you understand the concept of an illegal order?
HEGSETH: I reject the premise that Donald Trump would do that!
Fuck off, idiot.
“I understand, you’ve done your genuflecting,” said Slotkin LOL.
1:35: SLOTKIN: If Trump asked you to use the 82nd Airborne for law enforcement purposes, would you do that? Do you want to use the military against American people?
HEGSETH: Random words about border!
He is physically incapable of answering a question, because the answer is ABSOLUTELY he is the guy who would obey illegal orders for Stupid Hitler. Fuck.
1:37: SLOTKIN: “I get it, you’re filibustering, I get it.”
1:40: It ends with Tim Sheehy, the full-of-shit embarrassment who is now the senator from Montana.
SHEEHY: How many genders are there?
HEGSETH: Two!
SHEEHY: I know, because I am a Shee-hee!
Yes, that really happened. (Get it?)
Pete Hegseth laughed VERY HARD at that, because that is a joke for people like this.
SHEEHY: How many pushups can you do?
HEGSETH: I did 5 sets of 47 this morning!
SHEEHY: How big is this gun? What kind of batteries go in your night vision goggles? How excellent is your penis?
This is a joke.
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And that’ll be it. Democrats have been asking for a second round of questioning, but they’re not getting it. The end!
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Not watching, but I'm certain Hegseth is sober now. I wish he were a total day-drinking, whisky-in-his-coffee, 24/7 blackout-drunk stumblebum, but he's not. He's a garden-variety problem drinker who can turn it off for a couple of days while he gets shit done, and then he'll go right back to it.
Don't ask me why I'm so familiar with this.
What are the odds he gets angry and weepy saying “THE LORD HAS FORGIVEN ME!”?