The old-boys network is at it again.
That’s the only explanation for President-elect Donald Trump choosing Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
Now it’s up to the Senate to do its job and properly vet this intended nominee, just as it should all others.
U.S. senators are among the most powerful in this country. To be a senator, one of 100, is to hold one of the most vaunted and coveted offices in our constitutional system of governance.
Like its precursor, the storied Roman Senate of old, each senator has power in his or her own right to move, block or delay legislation. A motivated senator can block appointments and funds, and filibuster until he or she drops on the Senate floor. Senators also have another unique superpower granted under Article II, Section II of the Constitution:
He [the president] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.”
Come Jan. 3, the Senate will be led by Republicans. Will they honor their sworn oath? Or will they fold and allow President-elect Donald Trump’s troubled Cabinet nominees get through unexamined? That remains to be seen.
Case in point: Hegseth, a former National Guard officer who has been accused of sexual assault, excessive alcohol consumption and mismanagement at previous jobs. Hegseth has pledged that if he is given the top Defense job, he will not drink anymore. And, more interesting, he had his mother go on national television to defend him.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., one of just 26 female senators, called the allegations against Hegseth a “side issue” while lauding his ability to lead the Defense Department. Lummis said: “Again, they’re throwing disparaging remarks at someone who has earned a great deal of credibility. Are soldiers sometimes wild childs? Yeah, that can happen.” When asked whether the allegations concerned her, she said, “It is very clear ... at a time when Americans are losing confidence in their own military, in our ability to project strength around the world, that Pete Hegseth is the answer to that concern.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who will likely be the judiciary chairman in this new Senate, said, “Some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but you know some of this stuff is going to be difficult.… Time will tell.”
Graham seems to be in the know as reports started surfacing Tuesday that Trump is “teetering” on Hegseth and has started talking with none other than his old nemesis, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for the Defense job. (It’s probably no coincidence that DeSantis has the power to appoint a replacement for Trump’s pick for secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio. Many are suggesting Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, should fill Rubio’s seat.)
What bothers me — and millions of women, women of color and members of marginalized communities — is the way that Trump’s intended nominees have been given a pass time and time again for jobs that are of such national and international consequences. No one in the private sector would hire Hegseth with these allegations swirling around him. So, why is he a viable candidate to run the world’s largest military fighting force and the military-industrial complex?
Trump intends to stack his Cabinet with white billionaires and unqualified cronies. Never has any president-elect of any party announced such an array of controversial Cabinet picks, most with suspect character or qualification issues — or both.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor, said earlier this week she planned to have a “frank and thorough conversation” with Hegseth about the accusations against him. My Senate sources tell me that Ernst’s views will be determinative for many of her Republican colleagues as to whether or not they will support him. On Wednesday, Ernst said on Fox & Friends she was not yet a “yes” on Hegseth, and that the process would continue.
For me, however, and many of the 74 million Americans who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and the 90 million who did not bother to cast a vote this cycle, the bigger issue is not who the nominee ultimately is, but whether the Senate does its job without party loyalty or partisan considerations when it comes to the respective nominees’ qualifications to serve.
Come Jan. 20, that is the duty of the Senate, the only real check Trump’s crony impulses standing between this republic continuing or ultimately falling apart.
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