Hegseth intervenes in yet another investigation, shrugs off safety standards
Over the past year and a half, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly talked about his obsessive interest in “lethality.” But looking at his record rather than his rhetoric reveals a man who can’t shake his preoccupation with priorities that have nothing to do with restoring a “warriors’ ethos.”
Take his interest in facial hair, for example.
The former Fox News host faced ridicule last year after delivering his infamous “beardo” speech, but Hegseth has continued to express concern about service members whose beards do not meet his grooming standards. To that end, Stars and Stripes reported the military is cracking down on facial hair, with the Navy abandoning waivers to sailors who suffer from skin conditions caused by shaving.
This includes pseudofolliculitis barbae, a condition that can cause painful inflammation after shaving. The Stars and Stripes report noted that the condition “disproportionately affects Black men,” and given Hegseth’s broader record on matters related to race, it’s hardly unreasonable to think the Pentagon should answer questions about possible racial motivations behind the policy.
But while the hapless defense secretary apparently cares a great deal about beards, he seems far less concerned about service members or safety standards. The Washington Post reported:
The Pentagon said Friday that the military has lifted the suspensions of all helicopter pilots involved in a July 4 beach flyover in South Carolina that triggered scrutiny, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth weighed into the matter directly.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, indicated in a social media post that the pilots, members of the South Carolina National Guard, were no longer grounded “effective immediately.”
By way of social media, Hegseth assured various conservatives that he’d “fix this,” referring to the investigation. Hours later, his spokesperson published a post of his own, writing, in an apparent message to the suspended crew members, “Carry on Patriots.”
Local videos from the South Carolina event showed Apache helicopters flying at surprisingly low altitudes, and after they landed, officers were immediately notified of their suspensions, pending an investigation into possible safety violations.
Some on the right complained about the scrutiny, however, at which point Hegseth pried himself away from beard policies long enough to intervene directly in the South Carolina case. The Post’s reported, “It is unusual for a defense secretary to weigh in on disciplinary matters typically addressed by military commanders in charge of the troops involved.”
That’s true, though it has become more common under Hegseth.
In March, the entertainer Kid Rock shared videos via social media of Apache helicopters doing a flyby at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. The unfortunate stunt obviously wasn’t an appropriate use of military resources, and the Army quickly did what everyone expected it to do: It suspended the crew members and temporarily barred them from flight duties pending a review of the incident. Even President Donald Trump conceded the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t have been doing it” since “you’re not supposed to be playing games, right?”
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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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