• lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    This is Pete Hegseth in his true form: slippery, defensive, wound-up. A handful of soundbites stacked up inside an ill-fitting suit jacket and passed off as a Secretary of Super Lethal War. Here is a man who cannot answer basic questions about what his decisions mean to the average American taxpayer; a man who is quick to call his fellow Americans adversaries and reluctant to talk specifics; a man who performs shockingly badly under pressure and becomes volatile in high-pressure situations. Just who you want in charge of the Pentagon.

  • Big T@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 days ago

    “My generation served in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Is a hilarious new form of stolen valor.

    Gonna try and get a military discount with that one…🤣🤣🤣 😅🤔😕😟😔 we are so fucked as a country.

    • CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      When I say this it’s because I’m talking about all my friends who killed themselves because they served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was against it then and I’m against it now, just waiting for people to start asking me “so you support terrorists??” again

      • luciferofastora@feddit.org
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        8 days ago

        just waiting for people to start asking me “so you support terrorists??” again

        Inability to constructively engage with nuance, complexity and contradicting goals is the worst blight on political discourse.

        My condolences for losing your friends.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Well, unfortunately in this case Hegseth isn’t lying. He actually did serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days ago

          Oh he was an officer so yes, his ‘service’ is not the same as some random enlisted. If I’m not mistaken he was more or less defined by his mediocrity.

  • Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    They need to give up the inline video player. It’s complete garbage. I tried a bunch of times and never got to see it.

    • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Even if you did, the video only shows one half of the outburst: Pete’s. The followup questions were omitted from the video, so it’s really not a great video. Just ends with Hegseth ranting about how unamerican every democrat is that criticizes the war.

  • CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    The headline doesn’t match the content. Is Hegseth an idiot and incompetent? Yes. Did that video clip show him unraveling? Not at all.

  • SaintNectar@lemmy.zip
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    9 days ago

    He is a propagandist anchor hired to vomit the government narrative to the idiotic MAGA base

  • Bieren@lemmy.today
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    8 days ago

    And nothing will come from it. This whole thing was pointless. No one will do anything.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    And, in perhaps the biggest humiliation: “I’m a fan of Pulp Fiction, too,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). Later, when asking a question about vaccines, Moulton added: “This is a softball one for you. Don’t screw it up.”

    Hegseth began to bare his teeth and shout. Asked about the length of the war, he pulled out manufactured outrage, talking about how his generation served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that was a quagmire, and “you stain the troops” by suggesting this war has been going on too long. “Who you cheering for?” he yelled, adding, “Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission!” In the quiet, unostentatious room, his words sounded flat, eerie, cult-like. They did not project the power he must’ve hoped that they would.

    And then Representative Carbajal asked him how American taxpayers would be affected economically by the war in Iran, and Hegseth got into a full shouting match with him as he simply asked random questions back rather than answering the question.

    “I get soundbites, but how about numbers?” Carbajal asked. Hegseth said something about the “horrible” management of California, the state that Carbajal represents.

    ‘Wish fulfillment is not a strategy,’ one congressman scolded Hegseth during the hearing(Getty)

    “It used to be that that stuff worked,” said Carbajal, unimpressed. It doesn’t any more, he continued, because the Trump administration is bleeding out supporters after a cost-of-living crisis caused by the Iran war.

    “I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad because you betrayed them,” he concluded.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Hegseth is a man who perennially channels the energy and integrity of a protein powder commercial