Fox’s Maria Bartiromo and Gianno Caldwell helped push a new unqualified candidate with a questionable history to become the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs: colleague and host of Fox & Friends, Pete Hegseth.
Although Donald Trump reportedly talks to Hegseth regularly and even interrupted a meeting with then-VA secretary David Shulkin to get advice from Hegseth, Trump would have to be even more incompetent and foolish than we thought (almost an impossibility) to nominate Hegseth for the job. He is every bit as unqualified as Dr. Ronny Jackson, who just withdrew as nominee for the job in disgrace. There are also troubling questions about the meager management experience Hegseth does have.
As NewsHounds wrote last month, Hegseth’s management history includes nepotism, putting unqualified personnel in high positions, and questionable spending. That’s on top of his “family values” hypocrisy. Republicans have already suggested he would be difficult to confirm.
But today, on the Fox Business Network, host Bartiromo promoted Hegseth for the job. In a discussion about Jackson’s withdrawal, she said to Hegseth, “Your name has been floated out there.” Then, she asked, “Would you want the job?”
Clearly, Hegseth does. He replied, “If the president asks me to serve, great. But he hasn’t until this point, so we’ll see.”
Later, Fox News political analyst Caldwell was more blatant. He said he was sorry to see Jackson withdraw but, he added, “I know that there’s some other good people that can step in his place. I think an excellent candidate would be Pete to be the new VA Secretary.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Bartiromo replied.
Watch Bartiromo and Caldwell try to get Hegseth a job he is not qualified for below, from Fox Business Network’s April 27, 2018 Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, via Media Matters.
From Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth
He is a former military officer and former executive director of the political advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. He was in consideration to head the United States Department of Veteran Affairs in the incoming Trump administration, but major veterans’ groups objected, and in January 2017, David Shulkin was selected instead.
Also from wiki:
While Hegseth was the chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, he hired his brother Philip to work for the non-profit and paid him $108,000 according to tax records from 2016 and 2017.7
While Hegseth ran the political action committee (PAC) MN PAC, he spent one third of the PAC’s resources on Christmas parties for families and friends.7 Less than half of the PAC’s resources was spent on candidates
- Fox News pundit … check
- extreme right-winger (goes without saying) … check
- white male … check
- looks good in a suit … check
- won’t upstage Narcissist-In-Chief … tbd
