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There’s been a bit of talk in recent days about what’s normal and what’s not when it comes to president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Cabinet.
Normal, of course, is subjective. As anyone who’s getting ready to attend a Thanksgiving dinner knows, often families can’t even agree on what normal looks like. My own Ohio grandmother used to make lobster in aspic for our special meal. Her Depression-era upbringing made her believe it was the height of fancy-pantsy, but it still gives me nightmares.
When it comes to Trump’s Cabinet picks, most of them so far are anything but ordinary.
“Normally, you let the president get his team, put his team in place,” said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University. “But these are pretty big, bold statements by Trump that he is going to go for vengeance and to destroy the deep state.”
Those anything-but-routine picks upend another normal: the confirmation process.
Traditionally, the Senate would hold hearings to vet nominations — and it may for uncontroversial picks, such as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department.
But today, we’ll look at three of those Cabinet choices who all have, to put it too politely, sex baggage weighing them down.
What’s not normal is that this isn’t even their biggest problem. Let’s take a closer look at how low the bar has sunk for abnormal.
First up is Pete Hegseth. The veteran and former Fox host has been tapped as the Defense secretary nominee.
His scandal, as reported by the , is that a woman accused him of rape in 2017 and he paid her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Hegseth has denied wrongdoing, and through his attorney called the encounter consensual.
According to the Post, the alleged rape happened at a gathering of the California Federation of Republican Women in Monterey. The woman who filed the police complaint was there with her husband and small children, and was a staffer charged with getting Hegseth back to his room after he got drunk in the hotel bar.
While this story is troubling, it’s not the least surprising because others in Trump’s orbit, including Trump, have faced or are facing sexual misconduct allegations.
The more troubling thing about Hegseth, in my opinion, is one of his many tattoos — “Deus vult” inked on a bicep. For those of you who aren’t fans of the First Crusade, it apparently was a phrase the Christian soldiers shouted, meaning “God wills it.
