Update…
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“Donald Trump’s transition team scrambled Thursday after Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was presented with an allegation that former Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to be Defense Secretary, had engaged in sexual misconduct,” Vanity Fair reports.
“According to two sources, Wiles was briefed Wednesday night about an allegation that Hegseth had acted inappropriately with a woman. One of the sources said the alleged incident took place in Monterey, California in 2017.”
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A former US Army Officers voices his concerns about the Trump choice of Pete Hegseth for US Sec of Defense….
I’ve been trying not to get too wound up every time Donald Trump announces a nominee for a position in his new administration. We knew his choices would be absurd. We knew most senior officials in his last administration endorsed Kamala Harris. We knew it would cause him to scrape the bottom of the barrel for sycophants and grifters this time. We knew it was coming.
And yet. Trump’s selection of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as secretary of defense is gum-in-your-lap shocking. This is worse than the time Trump floated Sarah Palin as a potential secretary of veterans affairs.
His views are even more troubling.
Where to begin? Let’s start with the big one: Hegseth is not qualified for this role. He has no particular experience or expertise that would lead any sane person to put him in charge of America’s military, including the largest governmental bureaucracy in the world.
Hegseth began his career as an analyst at Bear Stearns while serving as a junior officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard. He did basic things all young service members of that era did: A rotation at Guantanamo Bay in 2003. A tour in Iraq in 2005. Then another tour with his Guard unit to Afghanistan in 2012.
In between, Hegseth got involved in politics, working first for an organization called Vets for Freedom (a group founded to support George W. Bush’s escalation of the war in Iraq) and, later, Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative-leaning veterans group. Hegseth did a lot of fundraising, made many TV appearances and generally ingratiated himself to Republican Party leaders.
Being well-spoken, telegenic and politically connected — rather than any particular experience in the military — landed Hegseth the gig that would make him known to millions of Americans: He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014, and currently co-hosts “Fox & Friends” on weekends.
And that’s it, my friends. That is your nominee for secretary of defense. No experience in government outside the military. No experience running a large organization. The Defense Department has nearly three million employees. It has an annual budget of $842 billion….
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