THIS IS HOW FASCISM HAPPENS

Senator Joni Ernst

After an intense pressure campaign by Fox News and Trump, Senate Republicans look like they will approve credibly accused rapist and problem drinker Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. Holdout Sen. Joni Ernst, who was sexually assaulted while serving in the military, has decided she’s just fine with Hegseth after MAGA people repeatedly threatened her.

The New York Times reported, “Ms. Ernst stopped short of promising to support Mr. Hegseth, but in sending a strong signal that she was favorably inclined, she appeared to clear away a major potential hurdle to his confirmation. At the same time, her shift suggested that Mr. Trump’s MAGA base was ready, willing and able to bully Republicans into submitting to his desires.”

“Trump’s MAGA base was ready, willing and able to bully Republicans into submitting to his desires.” This is how fascism happens.

Most Republicans in Washington likely that Hegseth would just throw in the towel. He faces damning allegations of public drunkeness, financial mismanagement and sexual predation that wou;ld have sunk any previous nominee. For whatever reason, he remains in the running, and now Trump is spending political capital to back him.

There are now armies of MAGA trolls behind Hegseth, egged on by Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, which has obviously put immense pressure on holdouts like Sentor Ernst who was initially cool to Hegseth’s nomination since he opposes women serving in combat - Ernst is the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate. The police report from Monterey, California contains a credible rape allegation against him and Ernst is a sexual assault survivor whose opposition to sexual assault is part of her political identity. Together with fellow female GOP holdouts “maybe no” Susan Collins and “definite no” Lisa Murkowski, an Ernst “no” would imperil Hegseth.

Collins is set to meet Hegseth on Wednesday and said she would carefully review the FBI background report, as well as his response to the questionnaire from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Murkowski has a Tuesday sitdown with Hegseth, about which she said nothing definitive. Hegseth will also meet with GOP Senators John Cornyn, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and Steve Daines today; all three are “yes” votes.

Hegseth’s backers - Bannon, Kirk and Don Jr. Have run targeted ads in Iowa in favor of Hegseth urging supporters to call Ernst and demand his confirmation. The pressure campaign included threats to raise a primary challenge to Ernst. Taking their cues from these bullies, the far-right has inundated Ernst with threats and name-calling. In an ominous move, Kash Patel visited Ernst; the new FBI Director’s mere presence is an implicit threat.

As of Monday, the pressure appears to be working.Ernst said she’s open to voting yes if the alleged rape victim does not come forward publicly to testify. She sounds on board now, with her talk of their “encouraging conversations,” which included Hegseth pledging to support women in the military and to support her legislation on military assault.

Ernst said, “Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women - based on quality and standards, not quotas - and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks. As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”

Hegseth went on Hannity and said he wanted to “clarify” his earlier statements that “suggested” he did not support women even serving in the military, saying, “Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there, are women who serve, raise the right hand and defend this country, and love our nation.”

According to Sen. Eric Schmitt, Hegseth has claimed he has stopped drinking alcohol and will not drink alcohol if confirmed. This sounds to me exactly like every bullshit promise my alcoholic drug addict younger brother told me over the 15 years I was around him after he migrated to Southern California, before he met the 18-wheeler head-on when he drove onto the offramp with a blood alcohol of 0.23, 25 years ago.

If Ernst is backing down, Hegseth may now have enough support from the GOP Senate to be confirmed

For those of us who oppose him for the many bad policy ideas he supports, if he is confirmed this doesnt mean Trump has a maximum victory; doing so is a form of psychological surrender. There will be stumbles, lots of them. Hegseth is a professional fuckup, and his promises only last till his next fuckup. We should exploit every stumble, failure, and misstep. Yes, the Trumpscum are evil, but they’re also incompetent bunglers with high Dunning-Kruger scores, who are blinded by their belief in their genius - a status that is imaginary in the case of each of these stumblebums.

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