The Media Research Center’s long, long crusade to boost Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of state continued in a Jan. 17 post by Curtis Houck:
Washington Post economics columnist Catherine Rampell lashed out Thursday afternoon at SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly and blamed her for threats and ugly words being hurled her way after Kelly shelled her for smearing Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth as merely a “TV host” and thus tossing aside his 20 years of boots-on-the-ground military service.
“[A]h, so this is why I’ve gotten a huge uptick in people calling me the c-word and telling me I should be raped. Thanks, Megyn,” she tweeted.
This, dear readers, is what one would call stochastic terrorism or a heckler’s veto of sorts from the woman who once shouted “I’m not a Democrat! I’m a Journalist!” to shut down legitimate criticism.
As for what Kelly actually said, she pivoted from soundbites of Democratic senators going after Hegseth to “these absolutely smug…snide, overeducated, elite libs who are just sliding in the dagger on Pete in a way that, you know, ‘I’m just an elite’ know everything and so, I can tell you he’s an idiot. Um, you know, I totally respect your service. I believe you care. I, but what are you so afraid of?”
Weirdly, Houck buried the the fact that Kelly also told Rampell “fuck you” for arguing that, in Trump’s eyes, “his main qualification for this job was his stint on Fox & Friends.” He also cheered that Kelly raged against fellow former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson for also questioning Hegseth on a “far-left” PBS TV show (Houck offered no evidence there is anything “far-left” about that show), then ranting that she was “using the money you managed to extract out of Fox News for this nonsense to try to push these bullshit claims because you wanna see your face on television…I find that absolutely abhorrent.” Houck then touted how “Kelly laid waste to Carlson’s lack of ethics and refusal to do her homework before commenting on Hegseth,” while offering no evidence that she did not do so.
Jorge Bonilla served up yet another “Total War Against Pete Hegseth” rant in a Jan. 22 post:
With the inaugural festivities over with and the media totally shifted from Regime to Resistance, it is time for the left to renew their ongoing war against Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth. This time, via the airing of allegations that are in dispute.
[…]The Trump-bashing resumes, by proxy if need be. Of course, Killion is reporting off of NBC’s reporting on the allegations made by Hegseth’s former sister-in-law. I will note here that NBC omitted reporting on any of this on the NBC Nightly News. Furthermore, there are some major omissions in this CBS report.
There is no mention of Samantha Hegseth’s disavowals of the allegations in the affidavit.
[…]Once again, the media seek to aid Democrats in the destruction of a formidable nominee for the Defense Department, as they did for Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh when they were considered for the Supreme Court. The Kavaborking of Pete Hegseth continues apace.
Houck joined in the same day:
With Wednesday’s Today (and ABC’s Good Morning America), an NBC flagship newscast covered a smear perpetuated by its own website that Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee have a sworn affidavit from secretary of defense pick Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-law alleging he abused his second wife. The problem? Said ex-wife denied it.
In other words, the NBCNews.com piece from a former longtime Huffington Post hack is the equivalent of the second and third false smears against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to try and thwart his confirmation. And, sure enough, the affidavit originated with Senate Armed Services Committe Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), who was part of said Kavanaugh character assassination campaign.
Houck offered no evidence directly discrediting the ex-sister-in-law.
Alex Christy made his own effort to shoot down the allegations:
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell loves spreading fake news about Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth, and on Wednesday she was at it again. Despite court testimony and NBC’s own reporting that showed that Hegseth’s ex-wife denies their reporting about Hegseth being abusive, Mitchell claimed such allegations remain “uncontested.”
At the top of her show, Mitchell reported, “Another major story that we’re following today, the Senate Armed Services Committee, is considering new allegations against Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth before the full Senate votes on his confirmation. In a signed affidavit obtained by NBC News, Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, claiming the nominee’s behavior caused his second wife, Samantha, ‘to fear for her safety.’”
It should be noted Danielle is not Samantha’s sister. Rather, she is Hegseth’s brother’s ex-wife.
[…]If Mitchell really wants to say that Samantha’s denial of physical abuse is not a denial of emotional abuse that required the creation of an escape plan, then she needs to explain why Samantha would testify to that there was no domestic abuse because, legally speaking, emotional abuse is a form of domestic violence.
Mark Finkelstein used a Jan. 28 post to complain that a boilerplate statement that by Hegseth that “The integration of the military racially was a huge success” was criticized as largely meaningless and added his own interpretation: “In his statement, Hegseth differentiated between racial differences, which are superficial characteristics, with women and transgenders, whose differences are real and can create complications for the military.” Finkelstein identified none of those alleged complications.