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Zorro

(17,115 posts)
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 01:36 PM Monday

Why Is Pete Hegseth Bringing His Third Wife To Sensitive Security Meetings?

Before it broke that SecDef Pete Hegseth was shooting the breeze in the emoji fist bump live-chat while war-crime-bombing residential neighborhoods with children in them, eyebrows had already been raised at the Pentagon because of how he’d been flaunting his lack of interest in OPSEC by bringing along his third wife Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth to very need-to-know-basis-only meetings.

The wife, of course, has no need to know anything, she is not a government employee, or an employee anywhere. She met Pete when she was a producer on “Fox & Friends,” that morning show he reportedly showed up drunk to a lot, but she’s quit and now her full-time job is caring for Pete.

Pete was married to another lady — Samantha — when he met Jen, a lady who he reportedly terrorized so badly that she had to hide in a closet with a code word, and Pete’s own mother was so horrified by him at one point that she called him an “an abuser of women” who “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego” and scolded him to “Get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” In August 2017, while still married to Samantha, Hegseth's daughter Gwen was born to Jen. In September 2017, Samantha filed for divorce, and in October Pete was accused of rape. While his baby was two months old!

We guess Jen still thought Pete was a great catch anyway, and after he finalized his divorce from Samantha they got married.

Jennifer on Instagram: “They won’t stop with Pete. It’s not him they’re after. It’s your values. We won’t back down. 🇺🇸Psalm 27”

Which values, one wonders.

https://www.wonkette.com/p/why-is-pete-hegseth-bringing-his

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Why Is Pete Hegseth Bringing His Third Wife To Sensitive Security Meetings? (Original Post) Zorro Monday OP
Because first and second wives were unavailable. Sneederbunk Monday #1
...and the fourth wife ain't showed up yet! Leghorn21 Monday #3
The answer is in the post. pandr32 Monday #2
Privilege vapor2 Monday #4
She attends meetings so she can explain things to him later. LastDemocratInSC Monday #5
MaddowBlog-As allegations against Hegseth mount, the Pentagon chief faces a new kind of problem LetMyPeopleVote Monday #6
family values Skittles Yesterday #7

LetMyPeopleVote

(160,835 posts)
6. MaddowBlog-As allegations against Hegseth mount, the Pentagon chief faces a new kind of problem
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 03:18 PM
Monday

As Pete Hegseth flails, there are apparently Pentagon insiders eager to talk about the defense secretary’s struggles.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3llopdxucnk2a

Hegseth's big problem: There's fresh evidence of his incompetence, failures, and abuses.

Hegseth's other problem: There appear to be Pentagon insiders who are willing to talk to reporters about his incompetence, failures, and abuses



https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/allegations-hegseth-mount-pentagon-chief-faces-new-kind-problem-rcna198856

The Associated Press reported on Friday, for example, that Hegseth tapped his younger brother, Phil Hegseth, to serve as senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department — a title that has meant, among other things, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as the Cabinet secretary makes his first trip to the Indo-Pacific. The AP’s report added:

It’s common for the Defense Department and other federal agencies to have liaisons. Each military branch sends liaisons to Capitol Hill. The Pentagon, State Department and others all use interagency liaisons to more closely coordinate and keep tabs on policy. But it is not common for those senior-level positions to be filled by family members of the Cabinet heads....


Despite Hegseth’s apparent preoccupation with merit-based employment decisions, his younger brother received a position of influence at the Pentagon despite a background as the founder of a podcast production company.

Around the same time, The Wall Street Journal published another report about the defense secretary that raised eyebrows:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing scrutiny over his handling of details of a military strike, brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed, according to multiple people who were present or had knowledge of the discussions.

The Journal’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that a Defense secretary “can invite anyone to meetings with visiting counterparts, but attendee lists are usually carefully limited to those who need to be there and attendees are typically expected to possess security clearances given the delicate nature of the discussions.”....

The reporting from the AP and the Journal dovetailed with a Politico report that said while Donald Trump has expressed public support for Hegseth, “behind the scenes, administration insiders are starting to express doubts about the Pentagon chief’s judgment.” CNN had a related piece that said, “Interviews with multiple current and former national security officials this week, including career military and civilian officials, reflect growing concerns about Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon.”

Taken individually, the revelations about his brother’s job and his wife’s access are certainly important in their own right. But let’s not overlook the story behind the stories: It appears increasingly obvious that there are some people at the Pentagon who’ve learned some unfortunate things about Hegseth, and they’re suddenly eager to share that information with journalists.

Or put another way, two months into Hegseth’s tenure, he’s generating the kind of chatter that his respected and qualified predecessor didn’t have to worry about at the department he ostensibly leads.

It’s a problem for the Pentagon chief that there’s evidence of his incompetence, abuses and failures, but it’s just as notable a problem that there are DOD insiders who are apparently willing to talk to reporters about his incompetence, abuses and failures.
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