Many of the questions Trump Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth was asked by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) centered on Hegseth’s trustworthiness and conduct, as the Virginia Senator left questions about Hegseth’s executive experience and professional capabilities largely for others to examine.
[Even prior to Hegseth’s Senate confirmation hearings on Monday, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), the military veteran and astronaut, said while he didn’t expect any nominee to check “all the boxes,” Hegseth didn’t check “any of the boxes.”]
Kaine focused in on Hegseth’s admitted failings as a serial adulterer, asking if Hegseth — who is on wife #3 — whether he had “in each of your weddings, pledged to be faithful” and linking such unfulfilled pledges to the all-important oath a Secretary of Defense must make to uphold the Constitution.
Hegseth answered that he had “failed in things” in his life, but that “thankfully I’ve been redeemed by my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Kaine: 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? pic.twitter.com/b1hDLB93VZ
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2025
Kaine continued down the adultery path, also visiting rumors about Hegseth’s drinking habits, refuting the testimony by Hegseth that all such stories of his alleged drunkenness were “anonymous” and “false.” (Kaine said: “They are not anonymous. We’ve seen records with names attached to them.”)
Kaine: Many of your work colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk.
Hegseth: Those are all anonymous—
Kaine: They’re not anonymous pic.twitter.com/QjYswZ9YxG
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2025
Kaine tried to get Hegseth to say that the conduct of which he is accused (and which he denies) — including public drunkenness — would be “disqualifying” if it were true. Hegseth demurred.
Honing in on the serial adultery and the fathering of a child out of wedlock while still married, which Hegseth has not denied, Kaine repeatedly attacked Hegseth on the so-called “character issue.” (Hegseth’s confirmation is, in fact, another test of whether the character issue, long important in public life, is still relevant.)
When Hegseth declared to Kaine that he was “completely cleared” after a police investigation into sexual assault in California ended without any charges, Kaine objected to Hegseth’s characterization of “cleared.”
“That’s your definition of cleared?” Kaine asked, elaborating on Hegseth’s actions and questioning the nominee’s conclusion.
“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’re completely cleared. Can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child that had been born two months before? And you tell us you were completely cleared?”
One commenter, recognizing the fact that standards are — in real life — applied differently depending on one’s position in society, asked listeners to consider how these same answers would be received coming from someone other than the pale square-jawed Hegseth, a TV star.
What if a Black man, the commenter asked, gave these same answers about adultery and about fathering a child out of wedlock? Would that be disqualifying?
Now imagine if Pete Hegseth was a Black Man.
MAGA People would think this is completely indefensible.
— R. Saoirse (@razzli_) January 14, 2025
At the Bulwark, they also imagined the results of trying to confirm a slightly different Hegseth — a nominee more monogamous and conventionally ethical than Hegseth, but with the same qualifications for the job otherwise.
Instead of imagining Pete Hegseth as Black, the Bulwark asks readers to: “imagine that his character was sterling. That he was a fine, upstanding man, admired by all who know him. That he had dedicated his life to service and been judged to be as good a human being as Mister Rogers or Dolly Parton.”
If that were the case, would Hegseth get the job? Their conclusion: “Hegseth would still be a historically, hilariously, unfit nominee for secretary of defense.”