This is Going to Get Worse Part 3
Minutes after I sent my last newsletter, Pam Bondi was announced as Attorney General nominee after Matt Gaetz withdrew due to attention on his sex trafficking. In the last few days, Chad Chronister was announced as DEA nominee and then withdrew his nomination. (Chronister is a sheriff and like so many other Trump nominees, has zero relevant experience to the position he was nominated for.)
So as we continue examining the names for Trump’s second administration, take in mine this is rapidly developing and several of these people are not getting through (hopefully at least Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr).
Speaking of Pete Hegseth, multiple stories have broken since the police report of his alleged sexual assault was released. Jane Mayer has an excellent piece out detailing how Hegesth was forced out at TWO veteran focused non-profits he ran due to drunkenness, intoxication at work, extreme financial mismanagement, and sexual harassment. In one instance, Hegesth was drunk at a bar chanting “Kill all Muslims!” perhaps explaining why Donald Trump wants him to be Secretary of Defense. (Only kidding, like the sexual harassment report, Trump’s team was not aware of any of this because they are not running background checks on their nominees.) Hegseth’s alcohol use was an issue at Fox News as well with Hegseth showing up drunk to host his show (which began at 6AM). Our final new source on Pete Hegseth’s history of misogyny and domestic abuse comes from Penelope Hegseth, Pete Hegseth’s mother. (I’m intentionally linking to an archived version of this article. You need to read it.) The New York times acquired an email from Hegseth’s mother where she said:
You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.
Hegseth has been nominated to run the US military, one of the largest and most powerful organizations on the planet. Past nominees have been sunk for alcohol use as the job requires 24/7 availability. Hegseth thinks the military is too diverse and should not have women in combat rules. Given the massive issues with sexual assault in the military, it’s imperative a man with a history of sexual assault not be in charge. Then again, our incoming president is a rapist, a fact that somehow did not generate as many headlines as Joe Biden pardoning his son.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is replacing Matt Gaetz as Trump’s nominee to Attorney General. Like most of this crop of nominees, she was chosen because she says nice things about Trump on Fox News. Bondi is laughably corrupt but looks like a saint compared to Gaetz. Bondi rescheduled a man’s execution because it conflicted with a campaign fundraiser she was throwing. When deciding whether to pursue a lawsuit against Trump University, Bondi solicited a political donation from Donald Trump which she received. Bondi then decided not to sue the man who had just donated to her campaign. Bondi was expecting the donation to come from Trump himself, but it instead came from the Trump Foundation, Donald Trump’s charity foundation which is not legally allowed to donate to political campaigns, like Pam Bondi’s. The Trump Foundation was later dissolved due to massive fraud (the charity foundation was not spending any money on charity) in addition to Trump University being shut down and paying a large settlement for fraud. This is not to be confused with the felony criminal convictions of Trump’s primary business for fraud or Trump’s personal felony criminal convictions for fraud. Feel free to bring up these FOUR separate fraudulent organizations run by Donald Trump when you see conservatives mention “law and order.”
I’ll leave you with Kash Patel. Like RFK Jr, you could write a novel about how horrible and unqualified Patel is. Trump has named him as the new FBI director, a position that is notable not open but Trump plans to fire current director Christopher Wray, a Trump nominee.
Patel worked for Devin Nunes and was one of the key people working in overdrive to discredit the Mueller report and downplay the numerous links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government. Patel wrote a childrens’ book about how unfair the Russia investigation was. Taking a page from Alex Jones, Patel has been selling pills to “rid” your body of the Covid-19 vaccine. This is not possible as no part of the vaccine survives in your body past a few days.
Patel has publicly and frequently said the government needs to punish politicians, law enforcement officials, and journalists who supported investigating Trump. He has an “enemies list prepared of who to target and if given control of the FBI, will have the means to do so. Broken record at this point, but Patel has no experience in law enforcement or running a large organization.
I had a discussion recently on who the worst nominee might be. It’s very difficult to gauge as nearly all of them are UNIQUELY ill-suited to their specific positions. RFK Jr can do massive damage to US public health. Bondi was a corrupt AG who took bribes to stop investigations and Trump wants that trait running the US Department of Justice. Kash Patel has no experience with law enforcement but will be given control of it to punish Trump’s critics. Tulsi Gabbard is a national security risk who will be in charge of national security. I saw conservative friends saying how the first Trump administration wasn’t that bad so the second can’t be worse.
It can be. It will be. Trump’s first administration had its fair share of intuitionalists who worked to prevent his worst actions. There will be no people like that in this incoming administration. I do not know how many of these current nominees will make it into their positions, but everyone I have detailed poses a specific danger to The United States. There are still reasons to hope for incompetence and resistance, but in general, this next four years will be worse than his last.
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