Breakfast With Pete Hegseth

Jane Mayer, reporting for The New Yorker:

As recently as the spring of 2023, according to an account shared last week with The New Yorker, Hegseth ordered three gin-and-tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting with an acquaintance in Manhattan. “It was an extremely strange experience,” his companion that morning told me. “We met at Fox News in New York for breakfast, and he suggested we go across the street to a bar. It was, like, ten in the morning. Then he ordered two gin-and-tonics at the same time for himself. To be polite, I ordered one, too. But it was so strong I couldn’t drink it, so I ordered coffee. Then he had a third gin-and-tonic. I don’t know how he could pass a security clearance. But they’re trying to create a culture where whistle-blowers are uncomfortable coming forward.”

Until now, most American would have agreed that the secretary of defense ought not imbibe like the president of Russia on a state visit to Washington. A new wrinkle for the 2.0 kakistocracy.

★ Tuesday, 14 January 2025