There was no talk of “weirdos or beardos” – two among several categories whom Pete Hegseth has made it known are unwelcome in the US armed forces under his watch.
asserted
it → be → watch
But a man with a beard had to be uppermost in his mind for him to meet journalists in the Pentagon at the ungodly hour of 8am on Tuesday.
asserted
him → have → Tuesday
Why else would he be addressing a group he commonly disses as the “fake news”?
asserted
he → address → news
Consorting with the fourth estate is not the sort of thing this defense secretary does first thing in the morning – or indeed, any time of the day.
asserted
secretary → consort → day
He had ostentatiously avoided holding a single press briefing in nearly six months – thus driving an armored personnel carrier through all normal notions of accountability as an unpopular war with Iran rumbled on during an election campaign.
Yet here he was summoning media attention at a time when he – and they – should have been having breakfast.
asserted
he → hold → breakfast
For this sudden departure from type, praise belongs to Thomas Massie, the outgoing – and lusciously hirsute – Republican representative from Kentucky, who has launched articles of impeachment against Hegseth, citing high crimes and misdemeanors in his scattergun stewardship of the US’s mighty military.
asserted
who → belong → military
It was this that had driven the self-anointed secretary of war to call an unaccustomed news conference.
asserted
that → drive → conference
Hegseth, who has railed against beards and poor grooming in the military, presumably feels deep contempt for Massie’s facial follicles.
asserted
who → rail → follicles
But he made no mention of them in a 25-minute appearance bristling with affronted indignation.
asserted
he → make → indignation
In fact, he contrived to omit mention of Massie’s name at all.
asserted
he → contrive → name
Instead, Hegseth applied the adjective “disgruntled” to his nameless nemesis several times in an address that seemed to throb with his own feelings of disgruntlement – not least with the journalists he was meeting for the first time in months.
asserted
he → apply → months
Syntactically, that probably represented an upgrade on Donald Trump’s description of Massie the day before as “a stone cold loser”.
asserted
that → represent → loser
Massie, a contrarian in Republican congressional ranks, has introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth that are likely to find support from Democrats – and maybe some fellow Republicans.
asserted
that → introduce → Democrats
Among them lie serious charges, including violating the US constitution and waging war against Iran without congressional authorization.
asserted
charges → lie → authorization
Hegseth also stands accused of violating Congress’s war powers resolution, which requires the withdrawal of US forces from unauthorized hostilities after 60 days.
asserted
which → accuse → days
Finally, he is accused of abusing his power by retaliating against Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator, who had urged members of the military to disobey illegal orders.
asserted
who → accuse → orders
“In the 250 years of our American republic, no secretary of war or secretary of defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations, and in our case, successful ones at that,” he complained.
asserted
he → impeach → that
That’s the standard.”
asserted
That → ’ → ?
But the “disgruntled” Massie wanted to turn all that upside down “over policy disagreements”.
asserted
Massie → want → disagreements
“That’s what it is,” Hegseth said.
asserted
Hegseth → ’s → ?
“Not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause.
asserted
they → intend → clause
They hadn’t done it to Lloyd Austin, his Democratic predecessor at the Pentagon after he oversaw a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and then disappeared for several days to undergo treatment for cancer, the defense secretary wailed.
asserted
secretary → do → cancer
But lest anyone thought he was playing the victim, he asserted the disclaimer “this isn’t about me”.
asserted
this → think → me
“Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carry out the orders tomorrow,” Hegseth said.
asserted
Hegseth → put → orders
But be warned, if they want to go after the warriors, “they are going to have to come through me”.
asserted
they → warn → me
But most of it all, it was about Trump, who was impeached twice in his first presidency and who Hegseth now said he was proud to serve as a proxy target.
asserted
he → impeach → target
“Now they’re trying a third time, this time against a member of his cabinet,” he said.
asserted
he → try → cabinet
“If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week.”
asserted
I → stand → week
Then it was time to attack the very class of people he had reluctantly invited to the Pentagon.
asserted
he → attack → Pentagon
The media could not admit Trump’s military success against Iran, he claimed, “because they hate the president more than they love our country or our troops”.
uncertain
they → admit → country
It was at that point that it became clear the audience Hegseth was primarily addressing was not in the Pentagon briefing room, but in the White House.
asserted
Hegseth → become → House
By fervently defending Trump – who has so far stuck by Hegseth as a man who “won two wars” – he was shielding himself, all the more so amid rampant speculation that the president could still make him a fall guy for last week’s Republican midterm debacle.
Then it was to the hazardous territory of journalists’ questions.
uncertain
it → defend → questions
One was about Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief policy adviser and newly appointed chief of staff.
asserted
One → appoint → staff
“An incredible American patriot,” Hegseth gushed, no doubt wisely, given his delicate predicament.
asserted
Hegseth → gush → predicament
“We’ve got no better friend at the department of war than Stephen Miller.
asserted
We → get → Miller
The tone changed markedly when someone asked about Vice-President JD Vance, who has blamed the Iran war for the Republicans’ defeat, and who everyone assumes harbors fierce presidential ambitions.
asserted
everyone → change → ambitions
“I respect the vice-president greatly, and I’m certainly not going to exchange any finger pointing,” Hegseth said.
asserted
Hegseth → respect → pointing
And then, in an aside uttered so quickly it could almost have passed unnoticed were it not such a well-aimed blow, he added: “Thankfully, politics is not really my thing.”
uncertain
politics → utter → aside
The audience of one in the White House would surely have heard – and understood whose “thing” it was.
asserted
it → hear → House
The Aporia
