Fox host Hegseth deserves a confirmation hearing before Defense nomination is heckled | Opinion
The story of Donald Trump’s secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth will be written in the flip-flops of his detractors, many of whom are now dismissing him as the unqualified and hunkily vapid host of a Fox News morning show.
“A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense,” wrote Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on X within minutes of a report on CNN. “Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.”
A cavalcade of MSNBC pundits, snide tweeters and others piled on. “The View’s” Whoopi Goldberg, a TV show co-host herself, dismissed him as weekend TV host, not even a “regular” host, who “clearly doesn’t know anything about the military.”
That’s not fair to a man who has twice been at the tip of the military spear — in tours as an infantry officer in Iraq and a counterinsurgency trainer in Afghanistan. The least the man is owed is the consideration due to anyone who has served in the National Guard for decades and twice won the Bronze Star for his acts under enemy fire. Perhaps we could give him an hour or maybe a day before jumping to a partisan conclusion? Or even the scrutiny of a normal confirmation hearing.
I say this because only a few weeks ago the same people were telling me that the man with 24-years in the Army National Guard but not a day in combat was a stellar choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. You remember him? Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the guy who kept exaggerating his military experience?
“Wooooooooow,” said Warren when asked of Walz’s nomination and then going on to laud him for spending “his life in service.” Goldberg gave him a gushing introduction when he appeared on “The View.”
Hegseth knows something about epic flip-flops. A long, long time ago in 2016, before spending years on TV as a reliable pro-Trump voice, Hegseth’s views on Trump were slightly different.
“Donald Trump’s attacks against Senator (John) McCain today are the height of arrogance and reveal that he has no understanding of what our Vietnam POWs endured and the honor they displayed during their captivity — Senator McCain among them. A man who received four student deferments to avoid service in Vietnam has absolutely no credibility to attack someone like John McCain who volunteered to serve his country and suffered 5 ½ years of torture as a result,” Hegseth said as CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.
I guess, over time, the maybe future defense secretary has walked that back just like Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has walked back his comparisons of Trump to Adolf Hitler. People around Trump seem to do that a lot.
But a history of flip-flopping on Trump is no bar to service as a member of the cabinet. Indeed, nearly every member of the Cabinet who served under Trump during his first term also changed sides on the question of our president-elect’s fitness for office.
When it does come time for a serious examination of Hegseth for this consequential role at a time of great global peril, there are two critical issues to be examined.
The first is whether the nominee’s lack of knowledge about the inner workings of the Pentagon will hamper his leadership, or perhaps enhance his ability to bring a fresh approach to the military, informed more by his time taking orders than by decades of experience giving them.
The second is around Hegseth’s advocacy of clemency for several convicted American war criminals who committed appalling acts of savagery in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a longtime advocate for veterans keenly aware of the mental toll of combat, Hegseth can be forgiven for taking the soldier’s side as long as it does not reflect a tolerance for disobeying orders and breaking the laws of war.
Like nearly everything Trump does, nominating Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense is at once a provocation and a shrewd effort to disrupt the way business is done in Washington. He should be given a chance to make his case before the Senate.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 5:06 AM with the headline "Fox host Hegseth deserves a confirmation hearing before Defense nomination is heckled | Opinion."
