Against a backdrop of war, Hegseth shows he's still not ready for prime time - MS NOW

In the days leading up to the U.S. military offensive in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must have been quite busy. The logistical challenges associated with an aggressive bombing campaign in the Middle East are enormous, and it stands to reason that the mission dominated the Pentagon chief’s time and attention.

There were signs, however, that Hegseth’s focus was elsewhere. In fact, he spent much of last week distancing the Defense Department from some of the nation’s leading universities while whining about “wokeness,” feuding with Anthropic over artificial intelligence safeguards and, the day before the war began, forcing Scouting America to abandon programs and policies aimed at promoting diversity.

On Monday morning, however, the beleaguered and woefully unqualified secretary had a fresh opportunity to show the public that he’s capable of leading the Pentagon during a major military conflict, when he hosted a press conference ostensibly to make the administration’s case for war.

It did not go well. The New Republic reported:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth basically admitted during a press conference Monday that he doesn’t care about military rules of engagement, and is grateful that Israel doesn’t either.

‘Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners, as we’ve said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force,’ Hegseth said, scoffing at America’s allies in Europe as well as international law meant to minimize civilian casualties and prevent war crimes.

Moments later, the secretary, who has an unfortunate record related to his dismissive attitude toward war crimes, derided “stupid rules of engagement.”

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."

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