It's important to keep the pressure on through the holiday season because Pete Hegseth is grossly unqualified, unserious, and creepy -- and moms know his appointment isn't good for our families or our nation. Here's what his own mother said about him in a 2018 e-mail:
"As a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out… You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego."
This is an all-hands on deck all-year-round situation! Together, we've already been successful in forcing Matt Gaetz to withdraw, and together we CAN stop Pete Hegseth's nomination by Trump from moving forward.
Take a second to tell the U.S. Senate to reject Pete Hegseth by clicking this link RIGHT NOW.
Thanks for being part of this movement. Thanks for taking the time when we know you're extra busy. (If you want more info, then please read the forwarded message below for all the details on why it's so critical to oppose Pete Hegseth!)
- Nate, Kristin, and everyone at MomsRising.org
---------- Forwarded message ---------
Date: Wed, Dec 15, 2024
From: Elyssa, MomsRising.org
To: Friend
Subject: SIGN OUR PETITION against Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary!
|
|
Dear Friend,
Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is not only grossly unqualified for the position—he’s also a total creep who has allegations about sexual assault, drunken antics, and beliefs that women shouldn’t serve in combat roles.
Once again, Trump is nominating an unserious, creepy, likely predator for a deeply serious Cabinet position.
Pete Hegseth–who up until recently was mainly known as a Fox News morning host– may have served in the National Guard, but almost everything he has done since then has been steeped in controversy. [1] He is the type of guy you wouldn’t want to be left alone in a room with, let alone in charge of our brave military and military families.
Let’s break it down for you:
Hegseth, with little management experience, will be in charge of 1.3 million active-duty service members and the nearly 1 million civilians working for the U.S. military.
The Defense Secretary also oversees a whopping $841.4 billion budget. This guy couldn’t run an organization with a budget a fraction of this.
And it’s not just the fact that this guy is a total creep. He’s far from the right person for the job. Nearly 1 in 4 women in the military report having experienced sexual assault, and more than half report harassment. Reports of sexual assault in the military have risen by an estimated 25% since 2018, according to the military’s own data, which include both anonymous surveys and formal reports. [7] We can’t have a Secretary of Defense who doesn’t take these allegations seriously, let alone commits these violations himself.
Credible allegations of impropriety have often been cause for withdrawal of disqualification to Cabinet positions. Hegseth isn’t the only Trump nominee to have sexual misconduct allegations in their past–it seems to be one of the things most of his nominees have in common.
But we have been able to defeat these types of nominees in the past.
Most recently because YOU spoke out and used your voice Trump’s Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz was forced to withdraw his nomination because he is drowning in allegations of paying for sex with underage girls (among other things!). [8]
The first time the U.S. Senate didn’t confirm a new president’s initial Cabinet nominee was in 1989 when the Senate failed to confirm John Tower, former President George H.W. Bush’s pick for defense secretary after he was accused of being an alcoholic womanizer. Sound familiar!?
The President is allowed to nominate whoever he wants to serve in his Cabinet. But it is the job of the U.S. Senate to research, question, and confirm or reject those nominees. We need the U.S. Senate to take its role in this process seriously and recognize that Pete Hegseth is unqualified, unstable, and harmful to our U.S. military.
We’ve already succeeded in defeating one of Trump’s nominees when Matt Gaetz was forced to withdraw his nomination for Secretary of the Department of Justice. We all need to pitch in to provide the same amount of pressure so Pete Hegseth’s nomination is roadblocked as well. After you sign our petition, forward this email to your friends and family so they can sign on as well and post the link to social media.
Thank you for speaking out and using your voice!
-Elyssa, Ruth, Kristin, Donna, Jenny, Nate, Sue Anne, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team
References:
[1] “7 Things to know about Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary pick.” PBS News, November 18, 2024.
[2] “Police reports new details from sexual assault allegations against Trump’s defense secretary nominee.” CNN, November 21, 2024.
[3] “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History.” The New Yorker, December 1, 2024.
[4] “Pete Hegseth’s Mom Once Called Him ‘An Abuser of Women,’ Adding to His Controversies As Defense Sec Nom.” People Magazine, December 3, 2024.
[5] “Military Leaders are Rattled By A List of ‘Woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire.” Politico, December 7, 2024.
[6] “Hegseth, advocate for firing ’woke’ military leaders, picked for defense secretary.” Reuters, November 13, 2024.
[7] “Hegseth is the wrong leader for women in the military, warn women veterans and lawmakers.” The 19th, December 5, 2024.
[8] “Former Rep Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s attorney general pick.” NPR, November 21, 2024.
Register to vote! / ¡Regístrese para votar!
Join our Spanish language community, MamásConPoder.org
What should MomsRising tackle next? Tell us!
You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.