Commentary

Each of us, at some point in our lives, has more than likely said or wrote something we later wished we hadn’t.  Perhaps politicians are more guilty of this as they make off the cuff remarks during exchanges during their campaigns.

Three such instances surfaced during the confirmation hearings for cabinet nominees Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard.

Hegseth survived the hearings but needed the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Vance for confirmation.

While Hegseth has said on more than one occasion that “any general that was involved … general, admiral, whatever … that was involved in any of the DEI woke sh** has got to go,” he was more specific during his appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show.  “First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General C. Q. Brown.“

In 2022, while chief of staff of the Air Force, Brown wrote something in a memo that he may or may not wish he had written, calling for the service to work toward lowering the percentage of white officer applicants while raising those of other races.

Last week, upon his arrival at the Pentagon as the newly confirmed secretary of defense, Hegseth was greeted at the steps by none other than General Brown.  It had to be an awkward moment, but it wasn’t viewed as such.

After they exchanged pleasantries, the pair were met by the media and the question of Brown’s future was raised.  “I’m standing with him right now,” said Hegseth, “I look forward to working with him.”

It doesn’t mean he won’t ask for the resignation of Brown and any other top officer, which Trump has the authority to do. It should be noted that Hegseth met Brown casually at the Army-Navy game, where Trump spoke with Brown for nearly a half hour.

Patel’s Remarks

“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on Day 1 and reopen it the next day as a museum of the Deep State,” said Kash Patel, nominee to head the FBI, on The Shawn Ryan Show, a podcast.  “Then I’d take the 7,000 employees who work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.  Go be cops – go be cops.”

Minnesota’s liberal Sen. Amy Klobuchar took him seriously, expressing incredulity at the notion. “He is asking to be head of the FBI and he’s saying that their headquarters should be shut down.”

Patel responded, accusing her of a “grotesque mischaracterization,” while she insisted she quoted him with complete accuracy.

When Klobuchar and Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin challenged Patel on his plan to rid the FBI of bad actors based on personal grievances, Patel said, “Any accusations that I would put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair.”

Clearly, Patel is the right man to restore the FBI and rebuild the public trust in it.  Republican Trey Gowdy, former House Judicial Committee chair, gave Patel a full-throated endorsement on his Sunday TV show, commenting that Patel, unlike Chris Wray, would fully respond to requests from Congress

“Mr. Patel’s background as a Justice Department and criminal-defense lawyer, plus brief stints in important executive posts render him qualified.  He was instrumental in exposing the FBI’s Russian abuses, a major point in his favor.”  – Andrew C. McCarthy, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and National Review author.

 Gabbard Responds

Tulsi Gabbard, seeking confirmation as Director of Defense Intelligence, also has been questioned about past statements raising concerns about her past foreign policy stances, including her meetings with Syrian President Bashar Assad, criticism of U.S. intervention policies and alleged parroting of Russian talking points.

“You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that challenge my loyalty to and love for our country, that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States and accusing me of being Trump’s puppet.”

With that, Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, used her opening statement to criticize what she called “weaponized intelligence” and past intelligence failures.  She singled out former DNI James Clapper for misleading Congress and former CIA Director John Brennan for allegedly spying on Congress. Both signed the misleading letter about the Hunter Biden laptop, a fabrication of the Deep State to help candidate Biden in 2020.

It’s entirely possible that one or all three of these nominees will be confirmed by the time this is published, if not, they should be.  Yes, words mean things, but most of us are guilty of statements we wish we hadn’t uttered.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.