Tuesday brought us the confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth,
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. There
very many fiery and memorable moments between Hegseth and Democratic
senators, including Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was also Hillary
Clinton's running mate in 2016. Kaine, and other Democrats, voiced
concerns about Hegseth's private life, including his infidelity and his
previous marriages. Kaine even began by saying he had been "looking
forward" to such questioning.
The senator sought to bring up that infidelity in the context of
sexual allegations made against Hegseth, with the nominee stressing he
had been "falsely charged, fully investigated, and completely cleared."
With
a lecturing tone towards the nominee, Kaine wondered, "So you think you
are completely cleared because you committed no crime? That's your
definition of 'cleared?' You had just fathered a child two months before
by a woman that was not your wife! I am shocked," Kaine continued, as
he threw up his hands, "that you would say 'you are completely cleared,'
can you so casually cheat on a second wife, and cheat on the mother of
your child that had been born two months before, and you tell us 'you
are completely cleared?' How is that 'a complete clear?'"
Beyond
the gross and intimate line of questioning from the animated senator,
the sexual assault allegations are also separate issues from the
infidelity that occurred in Hegseth's previous marriages.
Once
the senator had taken a break from denigrating the nominee and his
family, Hegseth spoke up for that child. "Senator, her child's name is
Gwendolyn Hope Hegseth, and she's a child of God and she is
seven-years-old." That didn't stop Kaine from attacking Hegseth further,
though.
While Hegseth pointed out that "we're glad that she's
here," Kaine still interrupted to emphasis his points further. "And you
cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that
daughter was born, didn't you?"
"Those were false charges," Hegseth answered, keeping his cool,
repeating that he was investigated and cleared, as Kaine again tried to
speak over him. Even as Hegseth beckoned behind him to his wife,
offering he was "so grateful for this amazing marriage that I have to this woman behind me," Kaine still wouldn't let it go.
"No,
you've admitted," Kaine continued, wagging his finger, "you've admitted
that you had sex at that hotel on [sic] October 2017. You said it was
consensual," he insisted, demanding, "how do you explain your
judgement?" Even as the nominee continued to remind Kaine, multiple
times, that he had been cleared, Kaine didn't seem at all interested in
actually hearing Hegseth's answers, and instead wanted to keep
belaboring his points with uncomfortable questions.
Kaine suddenly shifted to asking Hegseth how, "if it had
been a sexual assault, that would be disqualifying to be Secretary of
Defense, wouldn't it?" Hegseth continued to assert his innocence,
insisting that the senator was bringing up "a hypothetical," as they
were speaking about his own personal instance.
"But you
acknowledged that you cheated on your wife, you cheated on the woman
who, by whom you had just fathered a child. You've admitted that?" Kaine
continued, still evidently looking to embarrass Hegseth further. As
Hegseth, in a humbled tone, offered, "I'll allow your words to speak for
themselves," Kaine added, "you're not retracting that today, that's
good," and went for an even more personal line of attack from there.
"I assume that at each of your weddings you've pledged to be faithful
to your wife," Kaine continued. "You've taken an oath to do that,
haven't you?"
Hegseth, to his credit, gave the perfect response.
"Senator, as I've acknowledged to everyone in this Committee, I'm not a
perfect person, not claiming to be," he offered, though Kaine insisted
he "just asked a simple question," one that was no doubt meant to
embarrass and shame him further, and also applied his marriage "oath" to
his oath to becoming Secretary of State.
"I have failed at things
in my life. And thankfully I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ," Hegseth continued, repeating what he had powerfully
communicated earlier, words which Senate Armed Services Committee
Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) pointed out would likely resonate with so
many Americans.
Kaine's line of questioning disgusted many, as evidenced in part by how such moments were a trending topic over X.
While reacting to the confirmation hearing on CNN. Scott Jennings--who predicts that
Hegseth will be confirmed, and that it's even more so likely due to
that "embarrassing" display from Democrats --emphasized that he was
"appalled" as one of his takeaways.
"Well, in short, I think Pete Hegseth kicked their asses today,"
Jennings offered, speaking about how it went overall. "It wasn't even
close. They didn't lay a glove on Hegseth, no mistakes, calm, cool,
collected." Referencing the radical, left-wing protesters who attempted to disrupt the hearing
just as it was kicking off, Jennings offered that such a "freak show"
is "the Democratic base... which probably explains why the Democrats on
the Committee acted in such a bizarre and unprofessional way!"
"I was appalled,"
Jennings continued, "at some of the ways these senators held themselves
and some of the lines of questioning. I mean, Tim Kaine sounded like a sex pervert in his questioning of Pete Hegseth!" Jennings had plenty more Democrats to go after when it comes to these "unhinged rants."
"They
made him look good today. It would be difficult for a Republican to
vote against Hegseth after the Democrats' unseemly mudslinging today,"
Jennings further stressed.
As if the line of questioning weren't bad enough all on its own, it
also reeked of hypocrisy. The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris,
Doug Emhoff, impregnated a woman when he was still married to his first
wife and the mother of his children, with the marriage later dissolving.
The woman did not have that child, and may have had an abortion or
miscarriage. Harris and Emhoff are members of Kaine's own party, though,
so that's likely different for reasons.
Amy Curtis at our sister site of Twitchy highlighted how users over X went after Kaine for campaigning with Emhoff.
The
hypocrisy goes even deeper from there, though, given Kaine's closeness
with the Clintons. Former Bill Clinton had an affair with an intern in
the Oval Office when he was president, and has been accused of sexual
assault and even rape by other women. His wife, whom Kaine ran on the
same ticket as, not only defended her husband, took part in smearing
those women making the allegations, as even Vox went after her for.
