When Pete Hegseth visited senators on Capitol Hill to lobby for the job of Secretary of Defense, he was escorted by a security guard with a dark episode in his past. Via the New York Times:
The guard, a former Army Special Forces master sergeant named John Jacob Hasenbein, left the military after a 2019 training event in which witnesses said he beat a civilian role player — kicking him, punching him and leaving him hogtied in a pool of his own blood.
Oh, come on. Who hasn't completely lost control and inappropriately beaten someone in a blind rage? I mean, usually it's their wives, but still.
Mr. Hegseth’s choice of Mr. Hasenbein as a security escort is the latest instance in which he has stood by soldiers accused of crimes. He has repeatedly criticized military leaders as being too “woke” and waging a “war on warriors.”
In this case, Timothy Parlatore, Mr. Hegseth’s lawyer, said Mr. Hasenbein was the “victim of unjust treatment by a broken military justice system,” and Mr. Hegseth was proud to work with him. He added, “It is stories like his that demonstrate the change needed in the Department of Defense.”
He sure does have a thing for, um, edgy behavior, doesn't he? Maybe a little projection going on there, too?
The Army charged Hasenbein with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. He faced a court martial in 2020, where a military jury found him guilty of the assault charge. But the judge declared a mistrial after learning that a friend of Hasenbein (who was probably a sweet and gentle guy like him!) had been talking to a juror throughout the trial, court records show. The Army did not retry the case, and according to his lawyer, Hasenbein retired, rather than face another trial.
If this was a movie, we can guess the eventual story line.
Remember when Hegseth repeatedly defended former Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher on Fox News-Like? Several of Gallagher's fellow SEALs under his command broke the code of silence and reported him for alleged war crimes. They said he is "freaking evil” and “perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving." The eventual wave of MAGA support got Trump to protect him from any consequences and now he's a "hero."
Who wouldn't want someone who loves outlaws running the DoD?
And why does this read like a Marvel Universe bad guy origin story?
