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Just unbelievable that this ****ing imbecile might become Secretary of Defense. --
The day after the D.C. National Guard was deployed to secure a U.S. Capitol desecrated by Jan. 6 rioters, a photo of one Guard member — his tattoos clearly visible as he emerged shirtless from the Hudson River after a charity swim — circulated in an online chat of military and intelligence officers.
The soldier was well known among the group as the Fox News host Pete Hegseth. But in a moment of high national anxiety, and with the Guard set to protect the Capitol ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, some in the chat raised concerns about his tattoos.
Travis Akers, then a naval intelligence officer, told The Washington Post that he looked further and spotted a close-up image Hegseth posted of his bicep months earlier that clearly showed the Latin words “Deus Vult.” Researching the phrase online, Akers found that it was a Christian battle cry from the First Crusade in the Middle Ages: “God wills it.” Though the phrase remains in use among some ordinary Christians, especially Catholics, Akers said his research showed that it had become popular with the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and other extremists groups that participated in the siege at the Capitol.
Akers posted the photos to the app then known as Twitter, calling the tattoos “white supremacist symbols” — an interpretation Hegseth has since forcefully denied. The tweet was forwarded to the D.C. National Guard’s head of physical security, Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither, who soon warned commanding general William J. Walker that the Latin phrase suggested Hegseth could be an “insider threat.”
As he was about to be deployed, Hegseth — now President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary — received a call from his superior officer ordering him to stand down rather than report for duty for the inaugural events, according to an officer later briefed on the events as well as Hegseth’s own accounts in writings and interviews.
The day after the D.C. National Guard was deployed to secure a U.S. Capitol desecrated by Jan. 6 rioters, a photo of one Guard member — his tattoos clearly visible as he emerged shirtless from the Hudson River after a charity swim — circulated in an online chat of military and intelligence officers.
The soldier was well known among the group as the Fox News host Pete Hegseth. But in a moment of high national anxiety, and with the Guard set to protect the Capitol ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, some in the chat raised concerns about his tattoos.
Travis Akers, then a naval intelligence officer, told The Washington Post that he looked further and spotted a close-up image Hegseth posted of his bicep months earlier that clearly showed the Latin words “Deus Vult.” Researching the phrase online, Akers found that it was a Christian battle cry from the First Crusade in the Middle Ages: “God wills it.” Though the phrase remains in use among some ordinary Christians, especially Catholics, Akers said his research showed that it had become popular with the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and other extremists groups that participated in the siege at the Capitol.
Akers posted the photos to the app then known as Twitter, calling the tattoos “white supremacist symbols” — an interpretation Hegseth has since forcefully denied. The tweet was forwarded to the D.C. National Guard’s head of physical security, Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither, who soon warned commanding general William J. Walker that the Latin phrase suggested Hegseth could be an “insider threat.”
As he was about to be deployed, Hegseth — now President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary — received a call from his superior officer ordering him to stand down rather than report for duty for the inaugural events, according to an officer later briefed on the events as well as Hegseth’s own accounts in writings and interviews.
