The Hegseth Hearing
Did Sen. Tim Kaine overdo the questions about infidelity?
I’m typing this on the train for a quick trip to DC for the first of many Inauguration parties. (I’ll be returning there Saturday for the full immersion.)
Steve Bannon, Erik Prince, and Sean Ryan are all speaking at tonight’s party, and having tuned in to Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing this morning, there is likely to be plenty to talk about.
The one thing I found jarring about this morning’s back and forth was when Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia - whom I mistakenly remembered as a mild-mannered milk-toast politician when he was Hillary Clinton’s running-mate - lit into Hegseth like a Rottweiler.
He pressed Hegseth about the now infamous extra-marital affair he had in Monterey, California, while he was still married to his second wife - and had just had a baby daughter with the woman who would become wife number three.
It was a brutal exchange.
Sen. Tim Kaine: You acknowledge that you cheated on your wife and that you cheated on the woman by whom you had just fathered a child? …you have admitted that.
Pete Hegseth: I will allow your words to speak for themselves.
T K: you're not retracting that today? That's good. I assume that in each of your weddings you've pledged to be faithful to your wife. You've taken an oath to do that haven't you?
P H: Senator, as I've acknowledged to everyone in this committee I’m not a perfect person, not claiming to be but—
T K: No, I just asked the simple question. You've taken an oath like you would take an oath to be Secretary of Defense at all of your weddings to be faithful to your wife, is that correct?
P H: I have failed in things in my life and thankfully I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As I’ve written here, before, I don’t know anything about Pete Hegseth other than second-hand gossip from a friend of his first wife, and what I read.
Obviously, the details of that unfortunate night in Monterey which resulted in a criminal complaint against him (which he has said was false and a smear campaign) and ended in a private settlement is a key component of the arguments about Hegseth’s character made by the many people who feel he is not qualified to be Defense Secretary - but what’s at stake, surely, is the question of assault, not infidelity.
(I thought Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut who focused on Hegseth’s track record as the CEO of a non-profit from which he was fired, was much more on point with his questioning. It was hard to disagree when he told Hegseth that he’d have no problem if Hegseth was being appointed head of communications for the D.O.D, but questioned if he had the right track record to run the vast D.O.D budget.)
But when Sen. Kaine pressed on and on about Hegseth’s marriage vows, implying that since he broke those, then he lacked the integrity to be sworn into public office - I felt this was a bridge too far. Studies show that we are way beyond the point where most people, including Christian voters, correlate personal morality to integrity in office. The majority of American voters, after all, know all about Donald Trump’s serial breaking of his marriage vows and think it doesn’t matter a jot.
And what about the infidelity of the husband of Kaine’s one-time running mate, Hillary Clinton?! That it was Kaine, of all the Democrats, posing these questions, seemed deeply ironic.
It’s also true that Donald Trump got to wife number three when he was age 58 - a more socially acceptable age than Hegseth’s youthful 39. And it doesn’t help Hegseth that he looks young for his 44 years. That he’s already gotten such a busy track record maritally behind him, in such a short space of time, is an interesting detail for cocktail party chit-chat - but is it anything more than that?
As always when I’m noodling ethics and morality issues, I phoned my friend Richard Painter, the Bush White House Czar for his thoughts.
“I’m all for fidelity. My wife would certainly agree,” he said with a chuckle.
But he also doesn’t think the topic of Hegseth’s sex life belonged in today’s confirmation hearing.
“After the Democrats defended Bill Clinton…to be bringing all that, it looks hypocritical,” he said, also marveling that it was Tim Kaine who pushed the issue.
“They ought to focus on the important things, like financial conflicts of interest and the weaponization of the Justice Department…but to be getting into his sex life…it’s not a classy way to go.”
So cute that Richard Painter said it wasn't classy! MAGA Trumpers shredded "classy" years ago. And even at his most aggressive, Senator Kaine was still a gentleman. But yes, it is really uncomfortable that Hegseth has so much personal and professional baggage that we can quibble over which way to go in the questioning! That's on Hegseth, not Kaine.
It is Hegseth, not Hegesth (you may have edited it by the time my comment posts). I agree with your friend Richard. It is entirely hypocritical and quite ironic that milquetoast Kaine found his balls and decided to use them for this particular line of questioning in light of his own disregard for Bill Clinton's marital affairs (numerous, and also many settlements - at least 2 to my knowledge) AND the way he (Kaine) campaigned for Kamala alongside her cheating husband Doug Emhoff (who impregnated the nanny!) RICH for sure. Sen Mullen's follow up calling out the hypocrisy was beautiful.