Erick-Woods Erickson
A gunman murdered UnitedHealth Insurance CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in New York City yesterday morning. The murderer used a suppressor on a gun and seemingly fired subsonic ammunition. Whether an angry individual or a hitman, he seems to have known what he was doing, both in how he killed the CEO and how he disappeared afterward.
Progressives, purportedly aggrieved with the nastiness of Twitter, have fled to a new social media site called BlueSky, where many of them are celebrating the killing and making jokes about the murder of a forty-nine-year-old husband and father.
It is not a coincidence that many of these very same progressives cheering on the murder and joking about it are also Hamasnicks. They have cheered Hamas against Israel and the murder of Jews and have protested in favor of genocide against Israel. These are terrible people.
Among them is Taylor Lorenz, who, after the murder, put up a picture of another insurance CEO. “And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” she tweeted before posting a picture of Kim Keck, the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Lorenz is a one-time journalist who suffers from serious mental issues. The other day, she attacked Americans who are not wearing COVID masks as “raw dogging the air,” claiming her superiority for still masking in 2024.
The New York Times and the Washington Post both had her on the payroll, suggesting their management confused insanity with genius, which explains so much about both institutions. All this leads to Pete Hegseth.
People cheering on Hamas or the death of a CEO should not get a heckler’s veto on Hegseth. And many, many screams against Hegseth are coming from that crowd.
There are legitimate problems with Hegseth.
First, he failed to disclose an incident with police to the Trump team that related to a purported sexual assault. It seems clear there was no sexual assault, but Hegseth should have raised it and did not.
Second, his tenure in charge of non-profits and their condition at his departure raise questions about his ability to manage the most complex and unwieldy bureaucracy in the United States. The Pentagon needs a change agent, and Hegseth’s past does not necessarily suggest he is capable.
But those are the problems.
Instead, what people are focusing on is Hegseth’s past.
He was a serial adulterer, cheating on his first wife repeatedly. He also cheated on his second wife. At some point, he had sex in a hotel with a woman who then filed a police report against him.
Hegseth’s mother called him out in an email.
But it also appears that his behavior is in the past. Hegseth joined a church. He apparently has worked on his relationship with his third wife. Together, they have several children. Those in his church attest to his involvement. It seems he has battled his demons and repented, though I have not heard him say so publicly.
If that’s the case, there is no reason to bind him either to his past life or to anonymous allegations about his drinking while at Fox News—multiple Fox News employees, from producers who worked with him to his fellow on-air talent, refute all those allegations about his time at Fox News on the record.
Hegseth’s mother now defends him, saying he cleaned up his life. She has been making calls on his behalf. One must wonder how someone got ahold of her email to Hegseth. It has been years since she wrote that email.
MAGA supporters are blaming Joni Ernst and Lindsey Graham. There is no evidence they are trying to sabotage Hegseth. The attacks on Ernst, in particular, seem designed to stop her from being Hegseth’s replacement if he should drop out, and Graham is always one of their favorite targets.
For now, Hegseth says he will not withdraw himself from consideration.
He should not.
He is being maligned for past sins that are documented and present rumors that no one is brave enough to lend their name to.
There are questions about the appropriateness of his nomination to lead such a massive bureaucracy based on his past business experience, but no one really wants to discuss that.
My personal belief is based on conversations with Republican Senators.
Because of his background, Hegseth lacks the votes in the Senate. However, the personal attacks on his character are more salacious and more likely to push him out of the running. Senators do not want to vote against Donald Trump’s defense secretary nomination, so some are trying to drive Hegseth out with character attacks in the press.
Concurrently, some on the Trump transition team are also trying to push Hegseth out. President Trump might want him, but those around Trump want to push Hegseth aside. My personal but informed view is that the NBC News story about Hegseth at Fox comes from those in Trump’s orbit, not the Senate’s orbit. Ernst and Graham, in particular, tend not to plant stories there, but several people in Trump’s orbit use NBC News to seed stories.
Hegseth seems like a good redemption story to whom we should show grace on his past. We’re all sinners, and he seems to have worked on those sins. But that’s now how Washington works. Instead, we’ll watch the spectacle of character assassination as various interests try to get him shoved aside.
If Trump supports Hegseth, as he did with Kavanaugh, Hegseth might be able to earn the votes of Senators through frank conversations. We should let him try it.
And we should ignore the opinions, objections, and concerns of the people who’d defend the Hunter Biden pardon or cheer on the murder of an insurance executive.
