Raw Story: 'The last gasp': Pete Hegseth mocked for defiant comment as his nomination teeters

[Dennis Donovan]

Raw Story - 'The last gasp': Pete Hegseth mocked for defiant comment as his nomination teeters

Brad Reed
December 4, 2024 10:03AM ET

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the world's most powerful military, has come under fire after multiple reports have unearthed claims of drunken strip-club antics and multiple alleged instances of showing up to work while intoxicated.

All of this has put his nomination to lead the Department of Defense in serious doubt, but Hegseth issued a defiant post on X Wednesday morning informing his critics that he's not backing down.

"I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers," he wrote. "The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of Donald Trump -- and me. So they smear with fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, and neither will I."

Many observers, however, were quick to dismiss Hegseth's show of bravado given that damning new allegations about his behavior, including sources who have worked at both Fox News and the right-wing Concerned Veterans for America organization, keep leaking dirt on him.

"This is the last gasp, I think," observed journalist Chris Cilizza. "Feels almost over."

"We recognize the damage that the two of you can do, and we are repulsed by you," wrote X user Greg Camp. "Don't confuse that for fear of you."

/snip

[marble falls]

1. This should be all that's needed as if his drunken shenanigans and his violence against women weren't enough.

From Hegseth's Wiki page:

Hegseth was one of 12 national guardsmen flagged as a potential insider threat and removed from the group providing security for the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden.[19][20][21]

In 2020, he volunteered to be one of the up-to-25,000 Guard troops authorized by the Pentagon to be put on active duty to help safeguard the January 20, 2021, inauguration. On January 14, 2021, a fellow Guard member who was the unit's security manager and on an anti-terrorism team sent an email to the unit's leaders notifying them of a tattoo on Hegseth's bicep reading "Deus Vult", a phrase the security manager determined was associated with the Crusades and, in the 21st century, with white supremacists who use it to invoke the idea of a white Christian medieval past. Shortly thereafter, Hegseth was told to stay home from the event.[19]

Hegseth has said that his National Guard superiors removed him because of his Jerusalem cross tattoo,[20] a Christian symbol which they determined was connected to extremism.[22] He wrote in his fourth book that this caused him to resign in disgust, and his last day on active duty was March 31, 2021.[18]

[Dennis Donovan]

2. He's unfit to be in any military situation.

Uniformed or civilian. He's clearly unstable.

[marble falls]

3. He saw very little combat, if any as a platoon leader. He got his Bronze Star the same way Lindsey Graham got his ...

... a non combat unit citation. Lindsey for being a lawyer in a combat zone, Hedspeth for being a PR man in a combat zone.

The Pentegon awards these to members who don't get a chance to fire a round in combat. My ex-son-in-law Air Force Academy grad drone pilot got a medal for flying around Afghanistan from Missouri, and the Air Force sanctioned the general who complained how unfair it was his guys had no chance of collecting medals for action, and took the medals back from those who got them.

[Quiet Em]

4. "They are afraid of Donald Trump -- and me."

The con man gets away with a lot of sh*t. I don't understand why, but he does. But that does not carry over to other men who support him. They are all going to find that out. There is a long line of men who threw everything away for Trump. Hegseth is garbage. Good riddance.

[Vinca]

5. Please, please, please. If someone took a video of this character being dragged drunk off the strip club stage,

release it now!!!

[JohnSJ]

6. I sure wouldn't count on the thugs not to confirm him.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. If naming DeSantis as a replacement was a trial balloon, it hasn't been shot down

I think Hegseth's out by the end of the day.

[Demovictory9]

8. He is going to drink heavily on day trump dumps his azz