Now that Republicans have suffered midterm losses beyond even what they were projected to lose, everyone in the MAGA world is pointing fingers at each other, looking for someone or something to blame, and many of them, including Vice President JD Vance, have found their scapegoat: the Iran war.
Don’t get me wrong, the war everyone except President Donald Trump, MAGA morons, and Bibi Netanyahu knew was a disastrous venture was a huge, if not the biggest, factor in why things were as bad as they were for Republicans, but putting 100% of the blame on that war is a coping mechanism, one that allows them to ignore how much Trump’s idiocy and cognitive decline, Republicans’ culture war obsession, and the Gestapo-like immigration enforcement they loved so much were also major factors.
Anyway, do you know who’s likely to suffer the most from the 180 Republicans are suddenly doing in their newfound condemnation of the Iran war? “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth.
A former senior Pentagon official told CNN Thursday that it “has been primarily a Department of War-led effort because you chose to take military action to resolve a foreign policy matter.”
One Republican close to the White House told the network, “If the president is serious about anyone taking responsibility for it, it’s Pete Hegseth. Pete has been either dishonest or incorrect — neither of which are acceptable — about timelines, goals and objectives since the beginning.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told CBS News on Tuesday night, as the bloodbath was building, that Hegseth had “a reckoning” coming.
“I think after the election, we need to determine whether or not he’s the best person to bring those needs to Congress if he wants something done before the end of this Congress, which is only 60 days away,” Tillis said.
A number of Republican officials had been souring on Hegseth for quite some time. GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a resolution to impeach him on the House floor in September, but soon-to-no-longer-be House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed the vote, a move that seemed to be aimed at protecting Hegseth and the Trump administration from more public embarrassment leading up to the midterms — and we just saw how much that helped them.
Speaking of losers who just can’t seem to let go of other losers, Trump to the call to get Hegseth up out of there the same way he did when Massie was calling for his impeachment: by basically saying, “Nah, Ima stick by my man.”
From The Hill:
The president told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl that he has “every intention” of keeping Hegseth in the Cabinet, following reporting Wednesday that he was weighing whether the Defense chief should stay in the post after the midterm elections.
Trump said he’s received calls from people who are concerned about Hegseth but noted he didn’t “understand why.”
On Wednesday, he suggested Hegseth would be “very popular” if he was elected to replace Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) in Congress; Blackburn opted to run for Tennessee governor instead of reelection. Trump also said the Defense secretary was “doing a very good job.”
Hegseth previously expressed interest in Blackburn’s seat, two sources familiar with the matter told The Hill at the end of October. A third person said the Pentagon leader is campaigning behind the scenes for the role, while another said his interest was an open secret.
So, Hegseth himself has likely seen the writing on the wall.
But according to the Washington Post, “those close to the Trump administration questioned whether the president instead might dismiss Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Adm. Brad Cooper, who has overseen the war.”
But Hegseth has been the war’s main cheerleader. He literally called it “treason” and a “national betrayal” for media outlets to criticize the war during his so-called “State of the Force” address, which was more of a “State of My Fragile, Testosterone Coveting Masculinity and Fake Warrior Ethos” address.
So, yeah — if the administration needs a fall guy, one would think Hegseth’s head would be prime for that chopping block.
After all, he wanted America to see a public execution, and it saw one on Nov. 3.
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Speaker Mike Johnson Says He’s Out Following Humiliating Midterm Loss