Trump nominee is enjoying 'perverse Republican version of affirmative action': MSNBC host
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes shredded President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet selections as “unqualified and lackluster” – but suggested more was at play in an op-ed published Wednesday.
The cable news host appeared especially amused by Trump’s pick of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, and in a stinging rebuke of the MAGA movement, went after Republicans’ villainization of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
"That is the sum total of his career qualifications,” Hayes wrote after offering readers a brief review of Hegseth’s background. “That, and the fact he’s a Fox News weekend host that Trump likes to look at — and no shade at cable news hosts, but I wouldn’t just be picking them at random to run the U.S. military.”
But what Hayes found most concerning was Republicans rallying around Hegseth – who he said was “manifestly unqualified for virtually any government job” – while also “pretending that DEI and diversity hires of women, people of color and LGBTQ people are filling the government with unqualified officials.”
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"They did it again in Tuesday’s hearing, displaying a poster that suggested DEI has killed military standards — a poster in which Republicans misspelled the word 'military' as 'miltary,'" Hayes wrote Wednesday. "All while Hegseth sat there, enjoying the perverse Republican version of affirmative action for lackluster associates of Trump."
Hayes added that if Republicans are willing to move forward with Hegseth’s scandal-plagued nomination, “there is no limit to how abject they will be in their pursuit of Trump.”
He reminded readers that the “gross, indeed, dangerous hypocrisy” was called out at Tuesday’s confirmation hearing by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
“How can we ask these warriors to train and perform to the absolute highest standards when you are asking us to lower the standards to make you the secretary of defense simply because you are buddies with our president-elect?” Duckworth asked, according to Hayes.