We just learned how weird Pete Hegseth gets when his back is against the wall

Detailed summary

In a revealing rant at the podium about impeachment articles being introduced by Thomas Massie, Hegseth mixed up his logic, told us his anxieties, and gestured toward some of the chaos happening behind the scenes inside the Trump administration, writes Holly Baxter

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“I’ll get right to it,” said Pete Hegseth this morning, as he took to the lectern at the Pentagon briefing room the morning after impeachment articles were introduced against him by a member of his own party. And then he very much did not get right to it.

What Pete did get right to, however, was certainly interesting. In a speech that lasted just over a half hour (including a couple of questions) — and to which he actually arrived on time, an unusual feat — he claimed that the impeachment is being driven by one madman, except it’s also being done by the Democrats who hate the country, except it also only happened because of the evil commie media.

It’s all about the noble defenders of the republic, who just so happen to be him and Donald Trump and nobody else besides perhaps Marco Rubio (because screw JD Vance), except actually it’s about the service members who Democrats hate and want to put in prison. Oh, and he’s extremely anxious about the idea of having the funding cut off for his continuing war, which, anyway he already won.

The impeachment effort driven by Republican Thomas Massie is “a personal manifesto driven by ego,” he began. Except it’s all in the service of a Democratic “show trial.” By the way, “we’ve seen this show before” when “they” — the Democrats — “impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call.” And if he’s forced to stand alongside President Trump in that regard, Hegseth added, with a self-satisfied little smile, “I’ll take that company any day of the week.”

Believe us, Pete, we know you would. But regardless of what you’d take, I think the republic might be a little tired of the norm-flouting duo of Creatine Pete and Lame-Duck Donald. Presumably conscious that the American public did just vote as though Trump was on the ballot and did so by abandoning him entirely, Hegseth quickly pivoted to a new idea: that this isn’t…

“Thi…

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Independent. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.