Pete Hegseth is no more imperfect than the Democrats trying to destroy him

As someone involved in politics, it always cracks me up to see politicians play the morality card.

While not every politician is an amoral or immoral monster, many of them are and all of them are at least tangentially associated with someone who you would absolutely not want your sister to marry or even date. That’s why the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s presumptive nominee for secretary of Defense, was nothing more than bad comedy and performance art.

Is Hegseth perfect? Of course not. In fact, he admits to being more flawed than most at some points in his life. He was even unfaithful to his first two wives. But in the time since (and there has been no evidence, testimony or allegation to the contrary), he says he found God and experienced a conversion. He became a completely different man.

No matter what your politics or religious beliefs, there is no point to life without the idea of redemption — you will forever be what you were at your lowest moment. 

Curiously, Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee holding Hegseth’s confirmation hearing yesterday spent a lot of time on his prior infidelity. Thus did members of the party that cheered Bill Clinton at last year’s convention judged the character of this man as insufficient to lead the Pentagon. I can find no record of Clinton experiencing a conversion or repenting for his well-documented womanizing.

Democratic senators accused Hegseth of sexual assault based on a police report filed years ago, yet none bothered to note how the police investigated the allegation only to find nothing worth pursuing criminally. Police are not in the business of finding evidence of crimes and ignoring it.

None of those Democrats called for Joe Biden to open his Senate archives at the University of Delaware after serious allegations of sexual assault by a former staffer were corroborated by footage of the accuser’s mother referencing them on an episode of "Larry King Live" at the time.

I’m not trying to draw a moral equivalence — simply pointing out how easily Democrats, in the absence of clear or tangible evidence, take one allegation as gospel while studiously ignoring the other.

A few of the Democrats who impugned Hegseth's character at length were just as difficult to take seriously, given their own transgressions. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) lied about being a Native American to get a teaching position at Harvard Law School, where she was touted as Harvard’s “first woman of color” on staff. Warren lied, repeatedly, throughout her career — even submitting a recipe for a Native American cookbook called “Pow Wow Chow,” in which she happened to plagiarize a recipe from a French chef. But far be it from anyone to question her character.

As someone who served in the military honorably for decades, Hegseth is not above having his service record examined. He is, after all, seeking to lead the military. But there is no evidence, and no one is even claiming, that he has lied about his service record. Had there been anyone to make that claim, surely Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) would become uncomfortable. Blumenthal, although he did serve in the military, falsely claimed for years, in various speeches, to have served in Vietnam, despite having maneuvered extensively as a young man "to avoid going to war,” as the New York Times put it. No Democrats in the Senate have called on Blumenthal to recuse himself from matters involving character, truth or the military. They even keep him on the Armed Services Committee. 

Politicians are imperfect people. Many are among the most imperfect people. But we aren’t electing the pope when we vote — we are electing people to do the business of government. You don’t have to be perfect to do that.

Hegseth is no more imperfect than the Democrats accusing him of imperfection. The difference is that he has at least acknowledged the fact. The Senate would do well to confirm him.

Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).