Expect the session following exit of the CSPAN cameras and attention to be one of how to cover for Trump's nomination of Hegseth with there being reporting of Hegseth having a drinking problem. This Senator is a strong Trump supporter. But if he has strong concerns about a nomination, the nomination is not doing as well as it might.
___________UPDATE__________
Video of Hegseth at CPAC 2020. FOX viewers might already be familiar with his speaking manner, but not being a FOX watcher, and there being others, it was helpful for me to see his manner and attitudes when a partisan speaker at a public event.
FURTHER: A video segment of Hegseth being interviewed by a friendly alternate news outlet person. Is this the man to run the entire Defense Department, and yes, there would be subordinate officials to balance him and his enthusiasms and ways of conducting himself. If confirmed. (The interview is from a few years ago.)
He wears his tie very long. They both do.
FURTHER:
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| Salon link - published today |
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It would be unfair to leave it there, as the Salon item is a hit piece. But is it true?
And as noted earlier the man is incompetent or disdainful in handling money.
First, start here. It is a YouTube CBS item, first harsh on Hegseth, then transiting to Pam Bondi love and kisses. So, Gaetz as a lightning rod, Bondi getting a pass, it worked, and is Hegseth next for such a ploy?
Now, in fairness, the church Hegseth has chosen, online there is:
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/11/21/trumps-defense-secretary-nominee-has-close-ties-to-idaho-christian-nationalists/ Where Moscow, ID is the center, not Moscow, Russia.
https://religionnews.com/2024/05/31/the-second-coming-of-doug-wilson/
https://baptistnews.com/article/antioch-declaration-exposes-a-rift-among-neo-calvinists/
and two Wikipedia items
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_(Moscow,_Idaho)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Wilson_(theologian)
From those links, some from sites expected to be Hegseth allies, and they are, show that his Christian Nationalism is fine with the like-minded. I am not one, I worry about him, so
search = pete hegseth religious extremism worry --
that uncovers --
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/11/pete-hegseth-outlines-how-create-christian
https://baptistnews.com/article/its-pete-hegseths-theology-that-ought-to-concern-us/
We do not need any of that garbage. DoD is a secular death machine, not a foothold for overtaking a nation to put a Christian straitjacket on which is distant from the Sermon on the Mount and/or the Golden Rule. And there's the drinking problem.
So spin a bit more, have Petey withdraw, and do a Bondi bait-and-switch.
It's overdue.
End of story. Except, with Hegseth as bait, who is the welcomed and unquestioned switch?
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AP Dec. 3, 2924 reporting notes the New Yorker item and some Senators voicing opinions -
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said some of the reports are “disturbing.”
“I want to make sure that every young woman that joins the military feels respected and welcomed,” Graham told CBS News.
The South Carolina lawmaker told the AP later that he doesn’t know whether to believe the allegations, and Hegseth “has a chance to say that’s true or not true.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he’s seen the reports. “I’ll get the chance to talk to him, and I’m sure he’ll address them,” he said. “But my view is, have the hearing.”
Before he was tapped to serve as a weekend host of “Fox & Friends,” Hegseth served at two veterans advocacy groups, Concerned Veterans for America and Veterans For Freedom.
In new allegations this week, the New Yorker cited what it described as a whistleblower report and other documents about his time leading CVA that alleged multiple incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement.
Possible alcoholism in particular is drawing attention -
NBC News reported that several unnamed current and former Fox employees who worked with Hegseth that his drinking habits raised concerns, including some who said he would show up smelling of alcohol.
The Associated Press spoke to four people who had either worked at CVA or were familiar with Hegseth’s time there who insisted on anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media or had signed nondisclosure agreements.
While the group’s all-day conferences could run late and often wind up at a nearby bar, three of the four said they had not seen Hegseth intoxicated at events.
One person who had been connected to CVA told the AP, however, that some employees had raised concerns about Hegseth’s alcohol use but said that his departure from the group was more connected to growing ideological differences between him and the network of conservative nonprofits funded by billionaire donors Charles Koch and his late brother, David Koch.
With present allegations, should the Hegseth nomination fail, Rupert Murdoch has been known to cut people loose from jobs, over stuff. Hopefully Hegseth still will have that fallback opportunity at FOX because none of the allegations suggest his handling that job was negligent or deficient. Stupidly opinionated, yes, but being stupidly opinionated is FOX's bread and butter.
Rupert may go on appearances, however, with that likely tomorrow's question. Image concerns at Rupert's FOX network are something of a joke, given it's overall blatant lack of quality. Opinions of that vary, obviously, but it is my blog, and I can inject opinion if I choose. Whether Koch past severance of Hegseth and/or FOX possible retention if the nomination fails might be in part ideological, those are fact questions, where two largely unproductive searches were tried:
search = koch brothers christian nationalism
search = Murdoch FOX Christian nationalism
A ProPublica item about Texas affairs was found as the closest to informative, indirectly -
Like the Koch brothers, the Mercer family and other conservative billionaires, Dunn and Wilks want to slash regulations and taxes. Their endgame, however, is more radical: not just to limit the government but also to steer it toward Christian rule. “It’s hard to think of other megafunders in the country as big on the theocratic end of the spectrum,” says Peter Montgomery, who oversees the Right Wing Watch project at People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group.
A better informed person - Peter Montgomery - is noted and quoted, and in all honesty, no savvy business person is going to admit sacking anybody over religious belief, as that would be walking into a lawsuit. So if Hegseth is not confirmed and FOX does not take him back, expect other explanations than his whacky faith and related butt-ugly tattoos.