New allegations against Pete Hegseth damn the GOP

Republican Senators’ incuriosity suggests their surety of the troubled nominee's guilt.

Fox News morning show host and Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s “ex-sister in law,” a designation which would only roll off the tongue of the frequently divorced, swore in a statement to the Senate that, during one of his drinking binges, his second ex-wife Samantha Hegseth had to hide in a closet from him.

This is not a typical scenario encountered in healthy marriages, although perhaps today’s Republican Party is comfortable with it. In which case, hide their wives and children. It seems more likely that they are comfortable with it than they disbelieve outright, because I suspect if these senators were merely skeptical of the affidavit (which, to be clear, suggests that Mr. Hegseth’s FBI background check was inadequate and hints there will be more depravity to learn) they would pause the confirmation process until they had the opportunity to clear their boy’s name. A man does not outright ignore such allegations if he merely doubts them—he would at least stall for time to create the illusion of scrutiny.

I can only conclude from this rigid incuriosity that the Senate GOP hopes never to learn the answers to legitimate questions about Mr. Hegseth’s character, which makes sense only if they believe he is so guilty that he could not handle an honest accounting. Indeed, why else would they schedule a vote to confirm immediately after learning “on one occasion between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Hegseth’s second wife… ‘hid in her closet from [him] because she feared for her personal safety.’”

Senator Lindsay “Little Ladybugs” Graham (R-SC) said:

“Why should I trust her word? He said no. Seems like there’d be other people out there if he was stumbling down falling drunk all the time.”

Mr. Graham, the most consistent reporting has been that Mr. Hegseth was “stumbling down falling drunk all the time.” I fear the wraith who has replaced the once-Honorable gentleman from South Carolina is no longer paying attention, presumably to avoid pangs of conscience resulting from his debasement and subjugation to the same President Donald Trump he once accurately called a “jackass” who “should not be Commander-In-Chief” and should instead “go to Hell.”

We risk having a Secretary of Defense who will drink on the job and rape and abuse women because Republicans are now so scared of “virtue signaling” that they rid themselves of virtue altogether. Any man among them still in possession of courage or decency ought to resign in disgrace. I understand it is no longer fashionable to suggest that character matters for much in America, but I take very seriously the novelist Herman Hesse’s warning that “fate and temperament are two words for the same concept.” Unless we are given some reason to expect that Mr. Hegseth is no longer the same man who menaced women until recently, we should brace ourselves for his conduct repeating.

These MAGA Republicans would probably confirm the man if he were currently inside a drunk tank. That is who they are now, and they have become so brazen that they must believe there will be no consequences to this promotion of villainy. This is not so. A truly mean Democratic strategist who wanted to end this farce of a nomination would send a bottle of mid-shelf gin to this man’s hotel room tonight, and videotape the results.