Will Hegseth get by? Pete Hegseth, present Fox Information anchor and doable future protection secretary within the Trump administration, will face senators in his affirmation listening to later at this time.
“Hegseth is a embellished fight veteran who was deployed in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan,” reports CNN. “He has earned two Bronze Star Medals for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Since 2014, he is labored for Fox.
Hegseth has come below loads of scrutiny for his string of divorces, salacious particulars of his private life, and even a sexual assault allegation. These items, and his normal inexperience—which may give one pause as as to whether he can lead an $800 billion division and three million staff—would possibly tank his affirmation.
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As for the purported assault: “Hegseth was accused by a lady of sexually assaulting her in October 2017 following a talking engagement at a convention held by a Republican girls’s group in Monterey, California,” experiences CNN. “In response to a police report obtained by CNN, the lady instructed police that Hegseth bodily blocked her from leaving a lodge room, took her telephone after which sexually assaulted her despite the fact that she ‘remembered saying “no” quite a bit.’ Hegseth instructed police that their encounter was consensual and that he had repeatedly made certain the lady ‘was snug with what was occurring between the 2 of them.'” Hegseth was by no means charged with any crime, and through the #MeToo years, he paid the lady some settlement cash for her to maintain quiet about this, ostensibly fearing the allegations would tank his profession.
He is been married and divorced a number of occasions, conceiving a baby with a Fox producer whereas nonetheless married. (Affairs additionally reportedly led to his first divorce, in addition to his second.) His mom, through the proceedings for his second divorce, wrote an e-mail to him later made public by the press, together with sentences reminiscent of “I’ve no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps round and makes use of girls for his personal energy and ego. You might be that man (and have been for years) and as your mom, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, however it’s the unhappy, unhappy reality.” She later disavowed this, noting that she’d scribbled down such phrases in a second of rage.
As for his precise views, they’re mainly what you’d anticipate from a Donald Trump choose. Hegseth has called the United Nations “a totally globalist group that aggressively advances an anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-freedom agenda. Here is one algorithm for america and Israel, one other for everybody else.”
“Nato is just not an alliance; it is a protection association for Europe, paid for and underwritten by america,” he wrote in his 2020 guide, American Campaign. “Europe has already allowed itself to be invaded. It selected to not rebuild its militaries, fortunately suckling off the teat of America’s willingness to truly battle and win wars.” (More excerpts from The Guardian.)
Some senators, like Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, have telegraphed their skepticism of Hegseth from a personality standpoint. Others are involved that he is “by no means made national-security coverage, served in a senior army position, labored in protection acquisition, or led a corporation bigger than a nonprofit advocacy group,” as Protection One puts it. On the similar time, among the media-class condemnation of Hegseth is a bit overheated and sensationalist, with one Politico headline studying “Pete Hegseth’s Campaign to Flip the Navy right into a Christian Weapon,” a reference to American Crusade. (The Politico piece goes on to talk critically of the church Hegseth is a member of, the spiritual beliefs he professes, and the lead pastor there, Doug Wilson.)
For what it is value, I do not suppose the problem is that Hegseth would flip the army right into a “Christian weapon”; I believe it is that this can be a division with a large finances and an enormous variety of personnel. Somebody with a bit extra expertise at main such a corporation (or…slashing such organizations…) could be a greater choose than this neocon-turned-MAGA TV information commentator who’s been spending an terrible lot of time on the entrance strains of the tradition struggle.
Scenes from New York: Brad Lander, the mayoral candidate at the moment serving as metropolis comptroller, appears to be crafting an entire campaign round taking threats to public security significantly and ending homelessness. He desires to broaden subway outreach groups, get homeless folks out of the prepare vehicles and into social providers that might assist them, and make the most of a “housing first” mannequin. “The plan would value about $100 million within the first yr, and roughly $30 million per yr thereafter, with about half going towards renovating vacant single-occupancy flats that would offer an array of on-site providers,” reports The New York Instances. My query for him is: The place is the prevailing $4 billion we spend on homeless providers going? Why do we have to shell out an extra $100 million to see actual progress on this problem? And can a “housing first” strategy really serve to get folks clear, in circumstances of drug habit, or sufficiently handled, in circumstances of psychological sickness?
QUICK HITS
- Please subscribe to Just Asking Questions! This week’s episode will likely be with The Unspeakable‘s Meghan Daum, who simply misplaced her home within the Altadena fireplace.
- What’s going to occur to the various, many Los Angeles residents whose wealth was tied up of their now-destroyed properties? The Wall Avenue Journal reports.
- Now that Donald Trump is about to be again in workplace, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow goes from airing her present as soon as per week to…daily! Simply what we wanted. What would we do with out her!
- “The U.S. Securities and Change Fee should now totally ‘clarify itself’ for refusing to grant Coinbase’s formal request that the company write laws for a way the trade ought to assess whether or not crypto property are securities or not, in response to a circuit-court ruling on Monday,” reports CoinDesk. “A 3-judge panel for the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in a authorized rebuke of the securities regulator, partially sided with Coinbase’s effort to get the company to supply authorized readability by writing crypto laws.”
- That is in all probability a superb factor:
NEW: Marc Andreessen has been recruiting and interviewing folks for positions throughout the Trump administration, together with posts at DOD and intell companies.
It is a signal of the immense affect VCs are having on the transition, as they advance a “Little Tech” agenda. w/…
— Cat Zakrzewski (@Cat_Zakrzewski) January 13, 2025
- As soon as once more for the folks within the again: Costs convey helpful details about how a lot provide is offered. Whenever you crack down on so-called “value gouging,” you make it more durable for folks to obtain that data. Worth controls are dangerous!
We’re launching a brand new, easy consumption system to report value gouging — name @MyLA311 to report illegally hiked rents and costs.
We’ve no tolerance for it.
— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) January 13, 2025
- First Mark Zuckerberg, now Paul Graham….The tide is popping.
it is amusing to see tech folks stealing valor and denouncing wokeness now that it is fashionable. paul graham is an attention-grabbing instance since he did not shrink back from DEI at YC and is fairly woke himself – evidenced by his antipathy in the direction of israel for example.
— nic carter (@nic__carter) January 13, 2025
This is identical as when folks get pissed off about wealthy folks sending their children to non-public college, when in actuality such folks *paid twice*––as soon as through their tax {dollars} for his or her native public colleges, and second through their very own {dollars} for college tuition for his or her children. https://t.co/LcZisOwz5R
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) January 13, 2025
