See below for video and a partial transcript of Sen. Tim Kaine questioning Donald Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who for a gazillion reasons – including all of the ones mentioned by Sen. Kaine, combined with Hegseth’s wild dishonesty – isn’t even remotely suitable to serve in that role!
Sen. Tim Kaine to Hegseth: “So you think you were 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 that you would stand here and say you were completely cleared – can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child who had born two months before, and you tell us you were completely cleared? How is that a complete clear?…And you cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that daughter was born, didn’t you?…You’ve admitted that you had sex at that hotel on October 2017, you said it was consensual, isn’t that correct?…How do you explain your judgement?…You have admitted that you had sex while you were married to wife 2 after you just had fathered a child by wife 3, you’ve admitted that. Now, if it HAD been a sexual assault, that would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense, wouldn’t it?…If it HAD BEEN a sexual assault, that would be diqualifying to be Secretary of Defense, wouldn’t it?…So you can’t tell me whether someone who has committed a sexual assault is disqualified from being Secretary of Defense?…were there non-disclosure agreeements?…Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives?…But you would agree with me that if someone HAD committed physical violence against a spouse, that would be disqualifying to serve as Secretary of Defense, correct?…You would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?…I don’t think it’s a hypothetical; violence against spouses occurs every day. And if you as a leader are not capable of saying that physical violence against a spouse should be a disqualifying fact for being Secretary of the most powerful nation in the world, you’re demonstrating an astonishing lack of judgement…Do you maintain that you were blackmailed?…You didn’t reveal any of this to President Trump or the transition team as they were considering you to be nominated for Secretary of Defense…why didn’t you inform the Commander in Chief…of this very relevant event?…You chose not to reveal this…because you knew it would hurt your chances…rather than trying to be candid with the future president of the United States…Many of your work colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk…you agree with me that if that was the case, that would be disqualifying for somebody to be Secretary of Defense…They’re not anonymous…we’ve seen records with names attached to them…One of your colleagues said that you got drunk at an event at a bar and chanted ‘kill all Muslims’…you were drunk, you tried to dance with strippers…one of your employees in that event filed a sexual harrassment claim as a result of it…Isn’t that the kind of behavior that if true would be disqualifying for somebody to be Secretary of Defense.”
Sen. Tim Kaine to Hegseth: “You claimed that this was all anonymous. We have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother. So don’t make this into some anonymous press thing. We have seen multiple names of colleagues consistently throughout your career that have talked about your abusive actions…”
UPDATE 4:10 pm – See below for video of Sen. Kaine’s press availability following the Hegseth hearing today.
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