And just like that, we’re back in Trump World again.

Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Tuesday was partisan in the extreme, predictable as a sunrise and absolutely nutso TV. 

Donald Trump has nominated the veteran and former Fox News host to be his secretary of Defense, a nomination that has come under fire for Hegseth’s lack of managerial experience as well as his personal behavior, including allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault. (He has both denied the assault and said he is now a changed man — which, as Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly pointed out during his questioning, is something of a contradiction.)

Hegseth blamed the usual enemy: The media

“All in all a pretty partisan showing for a role that has not always been that way,” CNN’s Dana Bash said afterwards. John Roberts was more specific on Fox News: “Obviously he came in for very friendly questioning from Republicans on the committee. He came in for a lot of tense questioning from most Democrats who are on the committee. Some of them seemed very confrontational.”

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You don’t say. Basically Democrats asked questions along the lines of when did you stop beating your wife, while Republicans asked him why he is so exceptionally well qualified for the job. Of course, to pretend Trump and Hegseth didn’t set out to make this a partisan affair is disingenuous. As Claire McCaskill, the former U.S. senator and MSNBC contributor, pointed out, Hegseth declined to meet with Democrats on the committee, aside from the ranking member, defying custom.

“That’s just mind-boggling,” she said, adding, “They are asking for this to be a partisan military by the way they’ve conducted this confirmation process, and that is very depressing.”

Early on Hegseth and the Republicans on the committee decided on a well-worn defense, one that they often find useful for anything (in fairness, as do Democrats): blame the media.

“Our left-wing media in America today sadly doesn’t care about the truth,” Hegseth said. Presumably this is because of reports about his alleged excessive drinking on the job, as well as alleged sexual misconduct, but also his on-the-record comments about women in the military. And presumably he is more forgiving of media outlets that have been less aggressive in their pursuit of, yes, the truth about the allegations.

If there is one enemy greater than the media, it is the “woke” agenda that President Joe Biden’s military is infected with — or so Hegseth and the Republicans claimed. This led to questions such as — I am not making this up — “How many genders are there?” And how many push-ups Hegseth can do.

Mark Kelly said Hegseth was ‘not being honest with us’

The whole thing took 4 hours and 15 minutes, so it’s impossible to recount all of the craziest moments. Let’s settle for a few, like Kelly laying out specific allegations of misconduct, and Hegseth answering each with, “Anonymous smear” as if he were invoking the Fifth Amendment of something. “It’s clear to me that you’re not being honest with us or the American people because you know the truth would disqualify you from getting the job,” Kelly said.

Or Sen. Elissa Slotkin interrupting Hegseth as he brought up Trump for the umpteenth time, “I understand, you’ve done your genuflecting.” Or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on Hegseth’s seeming recent change of heart about women serving in the military, “I’ve heard of deathbed conversions, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a nomination conversion.”

Or Sen. Tim Kaine asking Hegseth if drinking on the job or assaulting women would be disqualifying for the job, and Hegseth declining to answer — and then Sen. Markwayne Mullin asking Democrats if they’d ever seen any senators come to the chamber drunk at night to vote on a bill.

Sen. Gary Peters asked Hegseth about how much innovation he was responsible for. Fox News’ Roberts must have liked Hegseth’s answer, because after the hearing he replayed a clip and said, laughing, “Peters realized that hand grenade blew up in his face and he quickly got out of it and turned to something else.”

When will the Senate vote on Pete Hegseth?

And so it went, and went and went. Hegseth’s confirmation is considered a test of the sway Trump holds over Republicans in the Senate to push through his more, uh, nontraditional nominees. The committee is expected to vote on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate on Monday.

If Tuesday is any indication, his influence is complete, but there are going to be some wild times ahead. In other words, stay tuned.

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Subscribe to the weekly Watchlist newsletter.

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