Some of America’s vilest creatures pile on to a patently decent man.
How bizarre it was to watch Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, being abused at his confirmation hearing by the Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Until Trump picked him for his cabinet, I didn’t really know anything about Hegseth and had never watched his show on Fox News. But since his nomination, I’ve looked into him. I’ve heard his former colleagues speaking about him, without exception, in glowing terms. And when he sat there for hours in the committee room on Tuesday, he was not just highly articulate and well-informed on military matters; he exuded sincerity and decency. It was clear that whatever his past peccadillos, this is a man who genuinely loves America, who is dedicated to the idea of a strong military, and who cares about the men and women who wear the uniform of the American armed forces. For heaven’s sake, he comes off like something out of another era — a good, old-fashioned, corny, foursquare patriot of the kind that might have been played in an old movie by Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper.
