A Sunday circuit of smears had one senator sounding off on the service record of President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee as “a pretty low-ranking guy.”
(Video Credit: CBS News)
Having failed to successfully fearmonger the public into voting against Trump’s return to the White House, corporate media turned their attention to demonizing his staffing decision. This included attacks against Pete Hegesth’s nod to lead the Defense Department, which Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D) piled onto Sunday as she argued he was “inordinately unqualified.”
The first American female double amputee from the Iraq War, Duckworth was presented with a snippet of Hegseth’s remarks on “The Shawn Ryan Show” where he voiced his opposition to women serving in combat as CBS News “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked, “Having served in combat yourself, what do you think of the idea that women make fighting more complicated? That was specifically what he focused on.”
In response, the retired lieutenant colonel of the Illinois Army National Guard, whose rank placed her only one level above Hegseth as a major in the Minnesota Army National Guard, argued, “Well, it just shows his lack of understanding of where our military is. You know, he was a pretty low-ranking guy in the military and he never had a command position. He was a platoon leader, I think, once or twice, but he never even commanded a company.”
“And so this is a man who is inordinately unqualified for the position,” the senator continued.
“Remember that the Pentagon is 3 million servicemen and women and civilians. It is an over $900 billion budget. He’s never, you know, run anything anywhere near to that size,” said Duckworth. “And, frankly, women actually make our military more effective.”
Left out were Hegseth’s criticisms of altered standards for women in combat of which he’d said, “Which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit. If you say you haven’t, you’re a liar because everybody knows between bone density, and lung capacity, and muscle strength, men and women are just different.”
Equally crafted was Brennan’s representation of sexual assault allegations from 2017 as she asserted, “The question of character has also come up in regard to this leadership role.”
“Mr. Hegseth has acknowledged that he paid a woman back in 2017 to quiet her accusations of sexual assault. He claims it was consensual sex,” the host described a settlement agreement without noting that Hegseth was not charged for the incident. “I’m sure you read that Monterey police report, as we did here. It refers to the offense code as ‘rape: victim unconscious of the nature of the act.’ It details both the accuser’s and Hegseth’s version of events.”
“Is the committee going to speak with the victim to ask if this was a misunderstanding?” she asked her guest.
“Well, that’s — that will be the decision of the Republican chairman of the committee next year. I hope that we will. But I suspect that they, again, will roll over for Mr. Trump,” responded Duckworth, also ignoring the lack of charges and apparent evidence that there was no there there.
“Frankly, I will make — raise those questions. Remember that we’ve just fought over a decade of fights and — and overhauled the military and its treatment of military sexual trauma,” she went on. “It’s frankly an insult and really troubling that Mr. Trump would nominate someone who has admitted that he’s paid off a victim who has claimed rape allegations against him. This is not the kind of person you want to lead the Department of Defense.”
Duckworth was equally critical of Hawaii Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard who was nominated by Trump to serve as Director of National Intelligence.
On that front, the senator advanced claims that Gabbard was somehow an asset of Russian President Vladimir Putin, contending, “I think she’s compromised.”
One reaction to Duckworth’s disfavor for Hegseth’s nomination in particular interpreted her objection as, “*which means he isn’t a corrupt politician.”
*which means he isn’t a corrupt politician.
— Victory Gin Woodworker (@DrunkWoodworker) November 25, 2024
