Pete
Hegseth's confirmation hearing was a sham
Tuesday’s hearing was supposed to be a chance to examine Hegseth’s
qualifications and character to be Defense secretary, but it was a preen-fest
for senators who clearly didn’t care about the assignment.
By S. E. Cupp
Jan
15, 2025, 2:37pm CST
On Tuesday, the Senate began its
confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet, starting with
one of his more controversial picks, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary.
The roughly four-hour performance was
an utter waste of time, having accomplished nearly nothing, save the
embarrassment it cast on the whole of American politics today, which seems to
be in a race to continually lower our standards.
It goes without saying that Hegseth is
unqualified to oversee a department of 3 million people and a budget of $850
billion. But you’d suppose qualified candidates would at least have experience
running giant organizations. He does not.
His character is also in question,
having been accused of drinking on the job and of sexual assault — which he
denies — and having admitted to infidelity. Character should matter in every
post, but especially in one overseeing national security.
The hearing was supposed to be an
opportunity to cross-examine Hegseth on those two points — qualification and
character — not to embarrass him, but to arrive at a conclusion about his
readiness and suitability for the very important job he’s up for.
Instead,
it was a preen-fest for senators who clearly did not understand, or care about,
the assignment.
No one is surprised that Republicans
asked Hegseth no hard questions, but that’s an indictment of the state of
affairs in and of itself.
It was just as much the duty of GOP
senators to suss out Hegseth’s qualifications as it was of Democrats, but
instead they performed various acts of self-aggrandizement, Trump worship, and
gaslighting.
They spoon-fed Hegseth
statements-disguised-as-questions meant to flatter him and Trump, or to dunk on
the left and wokeism.
“Fill
that place with drunks, cheaters and incompetents”
After Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary
Peters insisted Hegseth couldn’t get elected CEO by a board of directors,
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin decided the best counter was to … agree, and throw Congress under the
bus.
“There’s a lot of senators here I
wouldn’t have on my board because there’s no qualifications except your age,
and you’ve got to be living in the state and you’re a citizen of the United
States to be a senator,” he said. "[Y]our qualifications aren’t any
better. You guys aren’t any more qualified to be the senator than I’m qualified
to be the senator, except we’re lucky enough to be here.”
From that bizarre self-own, he excused
Hegseth’s drinking on the job (despite Hegseth insisting those were anonymous
smears) and his infidelity by asking, “How many senators have showed up drunk
to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from
their job? And then how many senators do you know have gotten a divorce before
cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, but it’s for show.”
So, for those playing at home, the
GOP’s argument for confirming Hegseth is:
“This place is full of drunks,
cheaters and incompetents, so let’s fill that place with drunks, cheaters, and
incompetents, too.”
This, at a hearing in which Hegseth
and Republicans are insisting with a straight face that it’s woke Democrats who
are lowering the standards at Defense.
Over on the left, the performances
weren’t much better. It seemed the main point for Democrats was to try to
embarrass Hegseth. Of course, Trump means never having to say you’re sorry, and
the new right doesn’t get embarrassed anymore.
So Hegseth deftly and defiantly
filibustered and dodged Democrats’ statements-disguised-as-questions, and they
let him, over and over again, content, it seems, just to make their preening
points for cameras.
While all parties obsessed over quotas
and affirmative action inside the military, there were very few questions about
actual policy or what Hegseth knows about the job. Where were questions about
Syria, Iran, Yemen or Saudi Arabia?
As Mark Cuban put it on Bluesky:
“I’m sorry but the Dems are
ridiculously bad at their Hegspeth [sic] questions. IMO, if you want to prove
someone is incompetent, you ask them the hardest strategic questions they will
have to know to succeed at the job.”
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.,
was similarly unimpressed:
“Honestly, the Dems questions today
for Hegseth seemed weak, and they let him get away with too much. They need to
do better.”
The system has totally broken down —
Republicans shirked their responsibilities and Democrats botched theirs.
Hegseth, meanwhile, exploited both to cruise to certain confirmation.
There’s literally no point to any of
this Kabuki theater, and with every passing minute it seems we keep lowering
our standards. If character and qualifications don’t matter anymore, what does?
