Whose Side Are You On?

A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.

Compare the press to the Pharisees

Thin-skinned and irritable Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at reporters at his press conference this morning, resorting to the classic “attack the messenger” defense of an unpopular war gone wrong.

This is not the first time Hegseth has blamed journalists’ lack of patriotism for unfavorable headlines and critical reporting on a Middle East conflict sparked by the Trump administration. But today’s speech is striking for how it mixes the old reflexive questioning of journalists’ loyalties with biblical references that reflect Hegseth’s personal Christian nationalism:

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell which side some of you are on,” Hegseth said. “It’s incredibly unpatriotic.”

In the decades since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon has gradually moved away from the defensive stance it often took in the face of criticism and toward a more transparent and thoughtful public response to bad news. It hasn’t always been consistent, and the pushback has been dramatic during periods of sustained setbacks, such as in Iraq during the 2000s, but the general trajectory was moving away from the kind of knee-jerk, circling-the-wagon approach Hegseth deployed this morning.

Questioning the loyalty of journalists – or any critic of the regime – recalls dark eras in American history and authoritarian regimes around the world. But Hegseth’s diatribe had a strong Christian twist, as he compared journalists to the Pharisees who rejected Jesus in the Bible:

“The Pharisees, the so-called self-appointed elites of their time, were there to testify, to write everything down, to record, but their hearts were hardened, even if they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter,” Hegseth said.

“They were only there to explain the goodness in pursuing their agenda. At the end of the passage, the Pharisees came out and immediately took counsel against him, how to destroy him,” he continued.

“I was sitting there in the church and I thought, our press is like these Pharisees, not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy of the Trump-hating press, your politically motivated animosity toward President Trump almost completely blinds you to the genius of our American warriors,” he added.

Hegseth – callous, reactive, driven by a distorted theology of nationalism, and poorly grounded in history – personally represents a dramatic departure from decades of training, education and development of a professional officer corps. In 15 months in office, Hegseth has done more to politicize the military than any secretary of defense in the last half-century.

Third boat strike in three days

The accelerating pace of illegal strikes against suspected drug-trafficking boats continued in the eastern Pacific, with the third such strike in the past three days. Three people were killed in the 51st strike of the American campaign, bringing the death toll to at least 177.

What Trump’s foreign policy looks like

• USA Today: Pentagon accelerates planning for possible military operations in Cuba
• WSJ: Pentagon contacts automakers to increase weapons production
• WaPo: Trump administration pushes countries to sign ‘trade over aid’ declaration

SCOTUS Watch

• Justice Sonia Sotomayor privately apologized to Justice Brett Kavanaugh and later issued a public apology released by the Supreme Court last week for remarks that, without naming him, attributed his defense of what became known as the “Kavanaugh rulings” to his posh upbringing.
• In a public appearance at Yale Law School, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson blasted the Roberts court’s handling of its emergency case.
• In unusually pointed remarks broadcast live by CSPAN, Justice Clarence Thomas launched an offensive against progressivism.

January 6 never ends

• Trump lawyer and coup plotter John Eastman has been officially disbarred from the California bar after the state Supreme Court refused to appeal his appeal.
• Mark Meadows, Trump I’s White House chief of staff, is seeking reimbursement from the Trump Justice Department for his legal fees incurred as a witness in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s two investigations.

Must read

Heather Cox Richardson draws a straight line from Lincoln’s assassination on January 6 to the events of this week.

Do as we say, not as we do

NBC News: “Abortion advocates met with Justice Department officials Wednesday, just hours after the Trump administration fired prosecutors it accused of coordinating too closely with abortion rights groups under the Biden administration. »

Islamophobia during the election period

When all else fails and their electoral prospects look dire, Republicans fall back on various forms of racist appeals to solidify their base and Democrats counter-attack. This year, top Texas Republicans have chosen Islamophobia as their racist appeal of choice. TPM’s Josh Kovensky reports on the ground from Grapevine, Texas, where he speaks with right-wing activists who are again warning against Sharia law and portraying Muslims as an external threat to “real” Americans.

Too often, gullible national media treat these racist outpourings as an organic rise of nativism, rather than a calculated election-year strategy. TPM, I am proud to say, has never been fooled.

Topic of the day

Corruption: Bitcoin Jesus Edition

ProPublica offers a case study on the erosion of white-collar crime prosecutions under Trump II, which includes the intervention of Justice Department appointees and the hiring of a former Trump criminal defense attorney to shut down one of the largest cryptocurrency tax fraud cases on record.

Scary text of the day

“I hear you around town. I wish you’d let me know. I could have made excuses to come out and show you around. Please keep this private.” – Richard Chavez, father of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in a text to a young employee working for his daughter.

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