Dan Kanninen: “Congratulations on Removing Pete Hegseth”
By Dan Kanninen
Pete Hegseth is an incompetent boss.
He’s not just that – he’s also an alleged alcoholic, a misogynist and an abuser, a fascist and authoritarian sympathizer, and a first-rate racial antagonist.
But for the purposes of his role in signal-gate, and for understanding the colossal mistake it was to confirm him as Secretary of Defense, it’s useful to focus on the elements of his background that make clear how wildly unqualified he is for the awesome responsibility of leading the greatest military in the world.
It was reckless and dangerous to put someone so ill-equipped in such a position. Thanks to the rogue messages to The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, we are all slack-jawed witnesses to the negligence and recklessness that make us all less safe.
We shouldn’t be surprised. He has no real record or experience managing people or complex organizations. That is no secret. Famously, he’s most well-known for his somewhat short-lived-before-termination time as a Fox News flack.
But he does have a record in leadership positions in two small veterans organizations.
That record is abysmal and embarrassing, and it alone should have disqualified him from running the cafeteria at the Pentagon, much less all of DoD.
In 2016, as CBS News reported, a group of Republican military veterans sought to remove Hegseth as the Executive Director of the Concerned Veterans of America (CVA) over allegations of financial mismanagement, repeated intoxication, and sexual misconduct. He eventually left the organization in financial shambles, having spent millions more than was raised for operations.
CBS goes on to chronicle his time similarly ruining another Veterans organization:
During Hegseth’s tenure at Vets For Freedom, the organization spent more money than it raised, fundraising tanked, and he was removed as Executive Director. In 2008, while he was in charge, filings show the organization raised over $8.7 million in revenue — but spent over $9 million, including significant sums on events (what amounted to parties).
“Congratulations on removing Pete Hegseth” was the direct and cutting subject line of an email sent by a former CVA staffer to the organization’s leadership in January of 2016. The email went on: “Among the staff, the disgust for Pete was pretty high. Most veterans do not think he represents them nor their high standard of excellence.”
I’ll say.
Here’s the thing. Everyone associated with his nomination and confirmation knew all this. They knew his experience was not just thin, but reeked of incompetence, borderline criminally so. 50 Republican Senators and J.D. Vance, as the tie-breaker, confirmed him anyway.
The incompetence, so clearly illustrated in this episode, has serious national security operators fuming behind the scenes.
It’s not hard to understand why they are angry, but to let it sink in, imagine yourself as one of these well-credentialed, seasoned, career military commanders. You brief your cosplaying-lethality-fetishizing-alt-right-tattoo-sporting “SecDef” on an ongoing military operation. You do so in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility) and follow all the protocols of handling not just classified information, but information about an ongoing military operation.
Then he walks out of the room, picks up his personal phone (no phones are allowed in a SCIF and no federal government phones or systems are allowed to use the messaging app Signal) and promptly uses a free app to brag about all the details of this operation to other civilian leaders for whom he clearly wants to show off.
We now know, with the release of the full thread, that despite the denials – which are perhaps more accurately described as full-on lies – to the contrary, the senior officials including Hegseth shared detailed, classified war plans over this insecure system. Immediately preceding the attack, Hegseth texts:
TEAM UPDATE:
TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.
1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)
1345: “Trigger Based” F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier “Trigger Based” targets)
1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.
What is most enraging about this incident is the pointless stupidity. Bragging. Flexing. Putting on a proverbial costume and playing Army Boss. Trying to look tough and strong in front of the MAGA cool kids club, which incidentally, included the Secretary of the Treasury on a military operations chain for reasons almost as unfathomable as the inclusion of Jeffrey Goldberg.
The world is simply too dangerous for a man this small, reckless, and incompetent to be leading our national defense. While I don’t hold my breath for real accountability or oversight from this Republican Congress, I am sure many at DoD look forward to being able to send a note to someone responsible …Congrats on removing Pete Hegseth.
Dan Kanninen is a Democratic Strategist and an Obama Administration appointee. He was the Battleground Director for the Biden and Harris Campaigns.
