ArcaMax

Oh, how far we’ve fallen.

On Tuesday, the Senate began its confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet, starting with one of his more controversial picks, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.

The roughly four-hour performance was an utter waste of time, having accomplished nearly nothing save the embarrassment it cast on the whole of American politics today, which seems to be in a race to continually lower our standards.

It goes without saying that Hegseth is unqualified to oversee a department of three million people and a budget of $850 billion. But you’d suppose qualified candidates would at least have experience running giant organizations. He does not.

His character is also in question, having been accused of drinking on the job and of sexual assault— which he denies — and having admitted to infidelity. Character should matter in every post, but especially in one overseeing national security.

The hearing was supposed to be an opportunity to cross-examine Hegseth on those two points — qualification and character — not to embarrass him, but to arrive at a conclusion about his readiness and suitability for the very important job he’s up for.

Instead, it was a preen-fest for senators who clearly did not understand — or care about — the assignment.

No one is surprised that Republicans asked Hegseth no hard questions — but that’s an indictment of the state of affairs in and of itself.

It was just as much the duty of GOP senators to suss out Hegseth’s qualifications as it was Democrats, but instead they performed various acts of self-aggrandizement, Trump worship, and gaslighting.

They spoon-fed Hegseth statements-disguised-as-questions meant to flatter him and Trump, or to dunk on the left and wokeism.

After Democratic Sen. Gary Peters insisted Hegseth couldn’t get elected CEO by a board of directors, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin decided the best counter was to…agree, and throw Congress under the bus.

“There’s a lot of senators here I wouldn’t have on my board because there’s no qualifications except your age and you’ve got to be living in the state and you’re a citizen of the United States to be a senator,” he said. “[Y]our qualifications aren’t any better. You guys aren’t any more qualified to be the senator than I’m qualified to be the senator, except we’re lucky enough to be here.”

From that bizarre self-own, he excused Hegseth’s drinking on the job (despite Hegseth insisting those were anonymous smears) and his infidelity by asking, “How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job? And then how many senators do you know have gotten a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, but it’s for show.”

So, for those playing at home, the GOP’s argument for confirming Hegseth is:

“This place is full of drunks, cheaters, and incompetents, so let’s fill that place with drunks, cheaters, and incompetents, too.”

This, at a hearing in which Hegseth and Republicans are insisting with a straight face that it’s woke Democrats who are lowering the standards at Defense.

Over on the left, the performances weren’t much better. It seemed the main point for Democrats was to try to embarrass Hegseth. Of course, Trump means never having to say you’re sorry, and the new right doesn’t get embarrassed anymore.

So Hegseth deftly and defiantly filibustered and dodged Democrats’ statements-disguised-as-questions, and they let him, over and over again, content, it seems, just to make their preening points for cameras.

While all parties obsessed over quotas and affirmative action inside the military, there were very few questions about actual policy, or what Hegseth knows about the job. Where were questions about Syria, Iran, Yemen, or Saudi Arabia?

As Mark Cuban put it on Bluesky:

“I’m sorry but the Dems are ridiculously bad at their Hegspeth [sic] questions. IMO, if you want to prove someone is incompetent, you ask them the hardest strategic questions they will have to know to succeed at the job.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger was similarly unimpressed:

“Honestly, the Dems questions today for Hegseth seemed weak, and they let him get away with too much. They need to do better.”

The system has totally broken down — Republicans shirked their responsibilities and Democrats botched theirs. Hegseth, meanwhile, exploited both to cruise to certain confirmation.

There’s literally no point to any of this Kabuki theater, and with every passing minute it seems we keep lowering our standards. If character and qualifications don’t matter anymore, what does?

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(S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.)

©2025 S.E. Cupp. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.