There are two versions of Pete Hegseth. There is the one who comes to press conferences, where questions are brief, interruptions are plentiful, and confidence is easily mistaken for competence. And then there is the one who appears before Congress, where the questions are longer, the pauses are quieter, and someone will, eventually, ask him to try again.
The second version is much harder to watch. We saw it with the House on Wednesday, when he got sweaty and angry at the harsh words of the lawmakers pressing him on inconvenient issues like the actual cost of the Iran war, the projected amount of time it might continue, and the effects on both the national and international economies. At one, embarrassing point, he really tried to shut a congressman’s questioning down with: “Whose side are you cheering for?!”
