Letter to the editor: Drunk on power

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 12.18.25

In January, Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense was on the rocks. Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and NC’s Thom Tillis had doubts.

Tillis told Hegseth’s sister-in-law that her testimony about Hegseth would “carry weight” with them. She signed an affidavit swearing that “Hegseth has an alcohol problem and was abusive to his ex-wife,” but Tillis voted to confirm Hegseth anyway. The others voted “NO.”

McConnell called Hegseth unqualified to manage 3,000,000 military and civilian personnel. Collins said Hegseth lacked “a sufficient appreciation” of why torture is illegal. Murkowski said, “behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces.”

VP Vance broke the 50-50 tie after Hegseth said he stopped drinking and “absolutely” would not drink if confirmed. Since then, Hegseth’s behavior has bought another round of criticism.

In February, Hegseth fired each service’s senior military lawyer, weakening safeguards against abuses of authority, unlawful orders and war crimes. In March, an oblivious Hegseth sent a reporter classified plans of bombing missions against Yemen in an unsecured Signal group chat. The Pentagon’s Inspector General concluded that Hegseth’s leak compromised national security and endangered the lives of US troops. In May, Hegseth sacked 20% of four-star officers, creating a “leadership vacuum” at the Pentagon.

Now, Hegseth threatens to reactivate retired Navy captain, former astronaut and current Senator Mark Kelly and court-martial him for reminding soldiers of their duty to refuse unlawful orders, which was codified into American military law after we tried and executed Nazi generals at Nuremberg following WWII.

In a shameful display of pettiness, Hegseth accused Kelly of wearing his dozens of combat medals out of order! “When/if you are recalled to active duty, I’ll start with a uniform inspection,” tweeted the possibly sober Hegseth.

Tillis now regrets his vote: “It’s clear he’s out of his depth.” I’ll drink to that.

L. McGann

Leland