Behind the Bastards - Part One: Pete Hegseth's Fascist Book 'American Crusade'

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

Robert sits down with Jamie Loftus to talk about Pete Hegseth's life, times and horrible 2020 book.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Call zone media. Ah, thanks for, thanks for coming in with me on that one, Jamie. That was really helpful. I think we really, I think we knocked it out of the park. Yeah. That wouldn't have worked without you. You know, just one person kind of atonally going, ah, nothing. Yeah.

One of, one of you was great. One of us is great. And you know what's not great? Sophie has a dying squirrel on her property. We're gonna not, this has ruined my entire day. No, it's canon. I know, I know, it's canon now, Sophie, it's canon. Do you wanna give it a name so it feels worse?

Jamie, no! I'm sorry, I'm sorry. How about Elizabeth? Elizabeth the squirrel. Oh no! Elizabeth the squirrel. Oh no. Elizabeth the terminally ill squirrel. Oh poor Liz. But here's the thing, I'm not 100% sure he's dying,

but he's definitely not moving very much. Yeah, that's usually not a good sign for something like a squirrel. Elizabeth has a lot of unfinished business. This is really sad. Yeah, she didn't get her will prepared. Robert, I just need you to come, I just need you to come over here

and do the humane thing because I'm a woman You mean kill it with a rock? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else to do with you know suffering little animals But yeah when I lived when I lived in the middle of nowhere there would be lots of dead animals by or dying animals by the Side of the road when I was on my runs, so I would have to be like Usually if I was doing a long enough run, I'd have to do at least one euthanasia on the way. It's like, oh, this fucking rabbit with his back legs crushed

should probably take care of this. God, okay, yeah, that's an important part of your daily exercise regime. Take a life. Yeah, euthanasia. There's... There's... When I was little, I had an outdoor cat,

which we shouldn't have had. And here's why. There was one day I was like, I had an outdoor cat, which we shouldn't have had. And here's why. There was one day I was like, something smelled weird in my yard and I found that my cat had like a massive like corpse pile like he had assembled. It was really powerful. He was making his own bone temple

like in the new 28 years later movie. I didn't understand at the time, but I was like, wow, he just did that because he loved me so much. Yeah, he loves you so much. He wanted you to have all of the corpses you need, you know, and that's not, you know, how many guys will do that for you, right? You know, that's why we have pets.

That's the main problem. I haven't seen the movie yet. Is it like, all I've seen is like clickbait about it being like zombies with their cocks out. Is that accurate? There's a lot of dicks. When I heard that, I was like, we're probably going to get one brief glimpse of a huge fucking monster hog. But no, they really, there's a lot of cock in the new 28 movie.

I appreciate that they didn't undersell it. Okay. No, no, no. There's more dick than you're expecting. That's great. Maybe less dick than I would have preferred, but more than you're expecting for sure. Okay, okay, I will go. I haven't seen the first two,

but I love coming in at movie three or four. It's okay, you know what a zombie movie is. It's set after a zombie apocalypse in England. That's all you need to know, right? Like there's enough like a need for context in our day-to-day work. I'm like, I'm not trying to learn lore for fun. No, no, you don't even know.

Other than I guess in the 28 movies, the zombies aren't dead. They're just like people who have like a weird bloodborne illness. So they're still alive. So they're people with their cocks out. Yeah, they're people with their cocks out, but it's okay, they had a child on set,

so all the dicks are fake. They're photorealistic, but they're fake. How is that better? What are you, what are you? That is an absurd thing. That's the way movie law works, apparently. I was reading it, because they were like, yeah, because we had, the main character's a kid,

so there's always a kid on set, so we can't have any real dicks hanging out, but we can have everyone wearing full-time photorealistic penises that are fake. This is why child stardom should be illegal. That is the weirdest rule I've ever heard. Look. They're like, no, you can't actually,

that can't have been a traumatizing thing for you. The dicks weren't real, kid. The dicks weren't real. Didn't you catch that they were fake cock? It's so funny. It's just so, an actor trying to comfort a child actor to be like, no, no, no, it's not real. And then pulling the fake dick off of your body,

how is it? It's so funny. How did we get here? I know I'm distracted by the dying squirrel, but what is happening, people? We're just talking about movies, Sophie, because we really don't wanna talk about the subject of today's episode.

Yeah, it's awful. Oh no, okay. Peter Hegseth. Okay, I could've taken a worse turn. You could've taken a worse turn? Yeah, I'd rather talk about zombie dicks than Pete Hegseth. That's true.

I mean, Pete Hegseth is bad. I was worried that we were heading Teal. But, but. No, no, we've done Teal. We've done Teal. Yeah, I was like, is there more? Am I being? No, you're good.

I'm not at the Peter Teal addendum episode? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, let's get into it. I guess that's the cold open done. You're welcome for all the dick talk.

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I'm going to give you a mea culpa here. I had initially planned for this to just be a book episode reading Pete Hegseth's terrible fascist book, American Crusade, which unfortunately, people do need to be aware of because he's the Secretary of Defense now. But then I wound up needing to give extra context. My initial thing was like, he's not really interesting enough for two episodes on the motherfucker, just as a person, he's not that interesting. But anyway, I wound up, it's kind of a hybrid book, BTB episode.

So there's research here There's also just a lot of chunks of his book that we'll be talking about because they matter It's just a little bit of a weird episode, but I did it okay. When did the book come out? 2020 okay Yeah, yeah, this was his American crusade was his like election tie-in book So one of the funny things that you could repeatedly come across is his dire warnings that if the Republicans don't win in 2020, the whole country's over. Some of this is not aged well, but it's also a very fascist Christian nationalist book

that makes it very clear what kind of country Pete Hegseth wants to use his powers to as Secretary of Defense to further, right? Because that's published like about midway through his run on Fox News, right? Yeah, he starts in 2014, but he's just initially kind of a commentator. We'll talk about all that. So Pete Hegseth, our current Secretary of Defense, is, you know, he sucks. Embarrassing, first of all, thank you. Yeah, yeah.

And he writes in 2020 a manifesto slash book called American Crusade, which is one of those both like tie in, I'm trying to get more into politics. This is back when he was really fishing in the first Trump admin to be made sec def. And there were still too many adults in the room at that point for him to get made Secretary of Defense. Because as his backstory that I for him to get made secretary of defense. Because as his backstory that I'm gonna give briefly will make clear, this is not a man who's ever been reliable in a position of power, right?

Yeah, I guess it never occurred to me that he could be. No, no. I guess he's held down a job technically. Not even really, no, not even really actually, unless you count Fox News as a job, but even that, not really. Okay. So Peter Hegseth was born on June 6th, 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

His dad was a- Really? Yes, yeah, he's a Minneapolis boy. Sorry, already, like all fascists, he's aging terribly. Oh yeah, no, he looks like shit, yes. Wow. That's kind of what happens when you drink the way Pete Hegseth drinks. Yeah, no, he looks like shit, yes. Wow. That's kind of what happens when you drink the way Pete Hegseth drinks. Yeah, fair enough.

Wow, I would have guessed he's at least 10 years older. I was like, is Jamie shocked at the Minneapolis of it all? The age? No, I mean, he's not like the most obvious Minneapolis guy, but I'm not shocked to hear that he's from Minneapolis, right? That was not the shock. It was that he's under 50. Yeah, he's under 50, much younger than you'd expect.

His dad was a basketball coach for high school, which, you know, he's got son of a fucking high school coach energy for sure. Yeah, there's how many crimes could be prevented if daddy didn't bench you? Daddy didn't bench you? Well, and here's the other thing. What's the only thing that a crimes could be prevented if daddy didn't bench you? If daddy didn't bench you? Well, here's the other thing. What's the only thing that a parent could be that's worse than a high school sports coach? And his mom was an executive business coach.

Uh, even worse. Somehow, they found a worse kind of coach to be. What does that even mean? That's like a made-up... That means that you get paid, like, a mid-six-figure income for sitting in a room and going, oh, that's a good idea. That's it, basically. That is boss whom is girl.

Maybe lays some people off, I don't know. Yeah, that's what she does. I love, yeah, it's like the job where at like, at the turn of the century, you'd be like, hey, have you considered firing people and replacing them with computers? What if we fired some more people? What if we outsourced? And now they're all saying,

what if AI? Right? Like it's just people who come from good families that have connections but don't have any skills. That's the executive business coach community. Okay. Barely literate position. And the consultant community, right? So his family, they have money and they have very strong conservative bona fides, right? Like his mom and dad are both very strong Republicans and politically involved. Pete graduates from the Forest Lake Area High School in 1999 as valedictorian. He is good at something at one point in his life.

As an adult, he goes to Princeton where he helps to run, and again, family money, where he helps to run the school's conservative newspaper. He becomes editor eventually of like the right wing paper on campus. As editor, he like publishes a promise that he will defend Western civilization from quote, the distractions of diversity. It's so like, I know that they're everywhere. I'm aware that they're everywhere, but I'm still so disturbed by like, just the idea of a young, like a teenage Republican is such a bizarre image to me.

It's like seeing a twin at age 60. You don't wanna imagine them that young. Yeah, you don't want to, but you have to because they're there. There they are. And it's what Pete't want to, but you have to because they're there. There they are. And it's what Pete's going to, he's going to try a couple of things later in life. He's initially kind of more on the Republican mainstream side of things that gets eaten

up by Trump. So he has to, a big part of this book we're going to read is him giving his me a cult of like, oh, I was a rhino, I was lost. And then I realized, you know, Donald Trump really was, you know, our brilliant savior and stuff. And one of the points that I think his backstory makes is that he was always pretty extreme conservative.

Like the whole reason why he wouldn't have gotten behind Trump is that he didn't believe Trump was really a conservative until it became clear that Trump was going to win. But like the weird right-wing stuff, the hatred of diversity, that's been there his whole life. Like he talks about himself as if he'd been apolitical as a young man, but he never really was.

Well, no. Yeah, if he's the editor of the conservative Princeton paper, that's... He sure is. And yeah, that's just a bad group of people to exist. Under his guidance, the paper attacked Halle Berry for accepting an Oscar over her performance in Monster's Ball because it was racist. Oh.

Against white people, I think, I don't know. I didn't feel the need to go and read that article. But yeah, that's the kind of conservative paper this is. It's like, it's time to go to war with Halle Berry for her Oscar. Yeah, I imagine conservative papers like that are just like 90% vaguely racist editorials. Yes, yes. During his time as editor, Hegseth published another student's commentary mocking the school's policy that sex with an unconscious partner should count as rape. An article for

The New Yorker cites Judd Legum's newsletter, Popular Information, when he summarized the article in Hegsest paper this way. The commentary claimed that rape required both a failure to consent and duress, which a passed out woman couldn't experience. So great guy, Pete. Yeah. Put a pin in that,

because we'll talk about some sex crimes. He's accused of. Yeah, no, I mean, he really walks the walk in that regard. Yeah. It's always so bizarre. Allegedly. Yeah. Sure. It's so like, I don't know,

the fact that you're thinking about doing that so much that you publish, like essentially intent is just like, it's mind blowing. Yeah. The whole like, yeah, well, they can't be sad Like essentially intent is just like it's it's mind-blowing. Yeah The whole like yeah, well, they can't be sad if they're unconscious It's just like the darkest evilest way to make that argument It's somehow worse than like arguing like oh, no, they they they wanted it secretly It's just like they go. Oh because they're unconscious. It doesn't what the fuck man. How do you write that and not burst into flames?

I mean, yeah. So I can like tattoo you if you pass out drunk, and that's legal, right? Because you're not aware of it. Because you're not, right, that's just like, well, if you're quote unquote asleep, anything that happens, it's like the international waters of consent,

like it's fucking crazy. That's nuts, that's insane. Yeah. If you try to extend that anywhere else, it just becomes increasing, like it's fucking crazy. That's insane. Yeah. If you try to extend that anywhere else, it just becomes increasing, like it's just nuts. Oh yeah, and of course like though that rule wouldn't apply to him. No, no, no, no, no, no. If you drew a dick on Pete Hegs' face

when he's passed out drunk in a Pentagon closet, you would get in trouble. He'd drone strike you. He'd drone strike your house. He would try to. So Pete is in short, exactly the kind of right-wing dipshit you'd expect him to be as a kid, based on his current trajectory. He goes on to work in finance.

He works for Bear Stearns. That's his first job out of college, is fucking Bear Stearns. Sleigh. Great stuff. And he volunteers for the National Guard because 9-11, and he winds up, well, he gets into ROTC first when he's in college, but then he joins the National Guard as he's starting his fintech career. And after a year or so, I think his fintech career is interrupted when he deploys to Iraq.

So he does a tour there, which we will talk about later. This comes up in the book. So I'll talk a little, I'll talk more about Hegseth's military career in that portion. But after doing his tour, he winds up back in New York where he's just kind of like, then this is not an uncommon thing. He does see combat. A lot of combat vets, when they come back, things really get bad for them. Not when they're over there, not when they're in the ship, when you wind up just kind of

locking yourself alone in an apartment. And yeah, he starts drinking very heavily. Again, not an uncommon story. He feels aimless and eventually solves this by taking a job. Initially, he's like volunteering as an assistant director at Vets for Freedom, which is a 501C4 group that he ultimately comes to lead as the paid director of the organization. It's too bad, because while he was in New York, he could have just gone to see Rent on Broadway. He could have gone to see Rent. He could have developed a fatal addiction to heroin.

He could have seen Avenue Q. He could have seen a lot of classics. Not off at Broadway. Just quietly slip away. Pete, just go see Billy Elliot. Have a wine spritzer. Call it a day. Yeah. I mean, yours is nicer Billy Elliot, you know, have a wine spritzer, call it a day. Yeah. I mean, yours is nicer than mine, but sure.

Um, so this is like a very political 501 C4, uh, in like a shitty way. They spend millions of dollars, uh, doing a PR campaign to support the surge in Iraq. They spend another several million attacking Barack Obama's candidacy. So this is like a right wing vets org. And despite the fact that he winds up running it, he is awful at this job. It is a disaster for the VFF. He runs up massive debts. He like takes them into the red by- Do what? Well, part of it is, you know, they're carrying out these massive PR campaigns, but part of it

is that he treats the organization's bank account, allegedly, like personal party fund right like he's spending it. He's traveling He's doing a lot of drinking and partying a lot of people are right, okay There's allegations and we'll hear more allegations about the next org that he's involved in But yeah, this does not go well, and he's kind of his tenure is disastrous for the VFF Okay, so this is all in the mid 2000s. Yeah the mid aughts is disastrous for the VFF. Okay, so this is all in the mid 2000s? Yeah, the mid aughts. 2008 is when he got married in 2004,

and in 2008 his first wife files for divorce after he admits to cheating on her repeatedly. Once with a journalist, he'd introduced her. No. Yeah, so he gets left a couple of years later, or forced out of VFF. You'll hear both things, either that he left or that he's forced out.

Anyway, he's gone from VFF. Got divorced by his job too. I just feel like he doesn't love her so. That's so sad. Yeah, and he attempts to run for Senate in Minnesota, which we will talk about later. It doesn't work, right? He's bad at this.

So, since he's failed at everything else, he volunteers for another tour in Afghanistan. He does another tour in Afghanistan. He's promoted to major. He comes back to the US and in Afghanistan, he does another tour in Afghanistan, he's promoted to major, he comes back to the US and in 2012 he forms a PAC to help like-minded conservative candidates. Per the New Yorker, according to a report by American Public Media, a third of the funds in Hegseth's PAC were spent on parties for his friends and family and less than half

was spent on candidates. So he has a- It sucks because it was like, I'm not against this money being misused for parties. It's much better than if it's used appropriately, right? Exactly. Because it's a shitty organization, they both are, right? Yeah, like it should, you know, it should be spent on fancy food and alcohol, but...

Yeah. Yeah. It's also, it's just extremely funny to me. Like, yeah, he now has a pattern and it's either start or get, you know, promoted to leading a charitable organization and then spend its money getting hammered. Like, cool as hell. Yeah. So is he like, is he, so 2012, is this like Tea Party era?

Like, who is, who is he running with? Who's his crowd? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tea Party, Tea Party has started a couple of years ago at this point. Right, yeah, gimme the lady dots. Yeah, so this is like, that's all happening at this stage and when he loses his candidacy, it's to like the Ron Paul organization-backed candidate because he's like, he's still too much establishment neocon.

You know, he's a Bush conservative at this point, which we used to see as extreme, but oh, how the turn have tabled. Now they're just widow guys. Yeah, yeah, now they're just widow guys, yeah. He's got, look at, I mean, I don't know. I feel like you can, some people, not to put them in a box. Oh, that's fine.

But let's do it. Yeah, fuck it, fuck him. Something about like guys that have, it looks like their hair is just welded to their head. You're like, I don't trust. I think whatever- Shalap on there. Whatever product, I know he comes by being a fascist, honestly, but also- He does.

You have to imagine some chemicals are seeping into the scalp there with the hair being welded directly on the scalp. Oh yeah, no, no, no, no. They're getting in, that's what happened to Rudy Giuliani, right? He had the same haircare routine as Pete Hegseth and a lot of it leaked out of him, you know?

Yeah. And when he lost his goo, that's when he started losing all those lawsuits. The goo was what was protecting him from the lawsuits. Yeah, the goo was protecting him from being tricked into being in Borat 2, a low in more ways than one. Yeah, that was load-bearing goo. Brutal.

Jesus Christ, I forgot that happened. Fucking Giuliani. Oh, my God. This bitch will do anything. We'll need to do an episode on him when it's time for us to like when when everyone's morale is even lower and we really need it. We need a win, like a happy episode. Yeah, I mean, there's just like no failure.

Like there's it's fun. It's fun to do an episode where there's just no shortage of L's sprinkled between their crimes. It's nothing but L's. Yeah. Who, was he, was he the saddest person we saw at the RNC or was it the, or was it my pillow guy? No, he was, my pillow guy was sadder.

Cause Giuliani at least, like I had a nice fight with Rudy Giuliani and like I did enjoy the fact that like that unlike every other major figure there that you would try to engage, they were too PR trained and too smart to really want to get into it with some journalists. But Rudy was going to be like, oh yeah, let's fucking brawl. What did you fight with Rudy about? About Ukraine.

We had like, you published an episode, it could happen here about it. But yeah, we had like a fucking 10 or 15 minute like, it was all about it. He was just hanging around the radio cues. Because he wasn't welcome in the real convention. it could happen here about it. But like, yeah, we had like a fucking 10 or 15 minute, like, squaw about it. He was just hanging around the like radio cubes. Because he wasn't welcome in the real convention. Yeah, he wasn't in the main part.

Because he's Giuliani. But yeah, I mean, and he was bored as hell. God, they should do a sequel to the James Wood, Rudy Giuliani movie. Oh God, I forgot that existed. Holy shit, yeah. I know. that when he was America's mayor fuck me Yeah, I mean, it's a very sincere movie. Yeah, it's sincerely stupid as shit. Yeah called America's mayor No, I mean, that's what we got it might be but that's what we called Rudy

Growing up as a conservative like that James was it be down for round two I like that city that's got a down for round two. I like that city. That's got a dog for mayor I think yeah I don't think mayor should be legal or I think we should I think we should have like You know some of those cultures that would like ritualistically kill their leaders That's what we should do to mayor's should be built into the legal system that we have like a wicker man after every mayor's That's the University rules. At the end, you get one year tenure of Santa,

and then you're publicly executed. Yeah, I think that we, that's how we should, that's like when we write our new constitution, that's how our elected leaders should work. Yeah, we're now doing a wicker man for everybody. Oh, you care? What are you willing to put on the line? You were a great alderman, unfortunately.

You're years up. At every level. At every level. The fucking school board. Yeah. The comp troller and like, sorry, brother. Look, would it be a good system? No.

Would it work better than our current system? Maybe. Look, I think it's worth a shot. Perhaps. I think it's worth a shot. Perhaps. I think it's worth a shot, and it would really bring people together for particular individuals. Speaking of things that bring people together, Jamie,

the products and services that support this podcast. I love to gather around a good product or service with my loved ones. Gather around, be warmed by it, right? Just like the corpse of a squirrel. Like the corpse of a squirrel. God damn it, guys! Hello, I'm John Lithgow. We choose to go to the moon. I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast. That's one small step for man. It's about Buzz Aldrin, one of the true pioneers of space.

You're a great pilot, Buzz. As far as I'm concerned, the best I've seen. That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't. Predisposition to depression, alcohol abuse, and suicide. We'll see Buzz try to overcome demons... What do you say, Buzz? Another beer? ...and triumph over addiction. Who's to you, Buzz? Another beer? and triumph over addiction Here's to you, Buzz Aldrin Good luck to you

and become a true hero Buzz and I will proceed into the Lunar Module not because he conquers space but because he conquers himself Buzz, we intercepted a Soviet radio transmission starring me, John Lithgow Can you put it through? No, no, no.

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and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to Shock Incarceration on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Sophie is still not happy. No.

Can you see it from your window? No, not from where I am, but... Okay. That's probably for the best. but I can see it in here. Elizabeth. Yeah. I forgot you named the squirrel. Yeah, she was a Fulbright scholar, Sophie.

Jesus fuck. She had a huge future ahead of her. This is really sad. It's very tragic, yeah. Speaking of things that are tragic, the fact that Pete Hegseth exists. The fact that Pete Hegseth, end of sentence. In 2014, Hegseth started making appearances on Fox News.

He was initially like a pinch hitter. He didn't have a show. He would come and he'd be a talking head on segments. He's a veteran. He leads a veterans organization. He's the podcast guest of television. Right. He's doing that for a while off and on, and he's got whatever Fox likes, right?

He's enough of a, okay, this guy is what our audience considers a straight-laced-looking military man. So yeah, we'll throw him in whenever we need somebody. The helmet hair. Right. I feel like everyone at Fox News has the same lukewarm soup they bring to lunch. Lukewarm soup and brown alcohol.

Yes. Yeah. That's precisely right. And for Hegseth, it's basically all brown liquor. So he helps to lead. He also, in this time, he gets hired to lead another veterans organization, CVA, or the Concerned Veterans for America.

So here he exhibits the same kind of incompetence and corruption that had seen him pushed out of the VFF. He was in fact- Parties? So bad. Oh, Jamie, not just parties. There's so much about how bad he is at this job. There is an internal whistleblower report that's commissioned about his three-year,

10-year leading the organization. I'm gonna read a summary from an article in The New Yorker of like what this report reveals. The detailed seven page report, which was compiled by multiple former CVA employees and sent to the organization's senior management in February 2015, states that at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk

from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time and other members of his management team, sexually pursued the organization's female staffers, who they divided into two groups, the party girls and the not party girls. In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth's leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth's staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club.

In a separate letter of complaint which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting, kill a Muslim. Oh. Cool guy. Wow. Yeah. It's shocking he found time for all of that, first of all. I do, most of that's not enjoyable,

but it is funny to me how often the words Louisiana strip club show up in this article on BeatHexit. God, you can learn so much. I mean, and did he tip? That's something, any variety of strip club show up in this article on BeatHankSeth? God, you can learn so much. I mean, and did he tip? That's something, I never enjoyed a strip club. No, there's no way. There's no single way, Sophie. I agree with you.

Or Jamie, sorry. We are one. It's an honor, it's an honor. We are one, thank you. We are one. That's miserable. I mean, this is the way that a person acts when they can't live with themselves, if nothing else.

But there, I mean, there's just so many levels there. Cause it's like in one way he's engaging in this very, I don't know, like this very fraternity, but also sorority behavior. Like the party girls versus non-party girls sounds like some Regina George shit. Like that's just bizarre. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's just gross dude stuff, right? Like we got the party girls that we hire because, you know, you hire them because you would have fuck them. Right. Like that's that's what's going on in this group. Right. That's his management style. And it's and it's rich that he thinks he could like, you know, weed out a competent employee from a non competent one, given the fact that he seems like unable to do a single job that he has. No, no, no. Well, because again, it's all about just getting drunk and partying, right? And sexually harassing slash assaulting your colleagues and racism. Right. So he's a racist molester.

Yeah. So he gets, allegedly, he gets kicked out in 2016. There are, we have in the record a bunch of celebratory emails from his former colleagues being like, thank God that guy's out, right? One of these messages includes the claim that he, quote, treated the organization funds like they were a personal expense account for partying, drinking, and using CVA events as little more than opportunities to hook up with women on the road. Cool guy. So that's his third job, his third organization that he's been shit canned from for massive corruption,

right, allegedly. Blowing through them, yeah. He's tearing through these fucking things. I guess he doesn't get kicked out of the second because he starts it. Are these mostly like lateral moves? Is he like moving his way up the ranks in any way or are these mostly just lateral?

He's moving his way up at Fox. He's getting more prominent within the conservative sphere because again, there's never any accountability to these guys. But his former colleagues at these veterans organizations, even though they're all a lot conservative, are like, this guy absolutely should never have any job with any responsibility. He's the worst.

Well, Fox in 2016, it's all but required that you have some priors at being a sex pest. You have the literal devil in your blood, yes. In 2017, during a Flag Day event hosted by Fox, Hexeth threw an axe and accidentally hit and injured a US Military Academy drummer causing serious injuries. There's a lawsuit over this, he claims long-term damage. Sorry, why was he throwing an axe?

There's like axe throwing going on, you know? It's like the kind of hobby thing and that he's just shit at it because he sucks at everything and he hits this drummer boy. If you give an addict an axe, you know? It's so funny, it's so funny. God, did the drummer at least get a book deal?

No, no, I think there's a settlement probably, but no, he doesn't get shit. Because again, as Americans, look, you celebrate the person who throws axes, not the person who's dumb enough to get hit by an axe because they happen to be doing their job and don't expect that the future Secretary of Defense will herald an axe at them.

Wow, victim blaming our nation's great percussionists. How could you? Yeah, I'm always, look, you know, this is the only time I'll be on Hexeth's side, but if the other thing is a band kid, I gotta- Okay. Okay. Jealous, jealous. Uh, anti-band kid action.

I pull out my oboe case, start shaking it. Yeah, of course it was an oboe. Hey, hey, hey. Okay, first of all. Hey, hey, hey. Okay, okay. First of all, first of all. Hey. No, he's, Sophia, unfortunately, he's right. I need to take that.

I need to take that. I don't care. He's not allowed to do that. Obos. I'm on your side. No, no, you're right. You're right. I have to, obos are a big bisexual indicator historically.

It's just true. It's historic. That's just that's history. Oboe players sound off in the chat. There we go. There we go. The Oboe Nation is going to fucking sound off. It's literally I think is like playing the Oboe and like getting really into a series of unfortunate events or major millennial.

Yeah. B bisexual indicators. Who can say why? Who can say why? You're just saying that because those were your only hobbies. Look. Some Jamie lore. There's dozens of us. There's.

Yeah, there's gonna be a whole thread in the subreddit with like 900 replies about this. Yeah, they're unionizing as we speak. Everybody who felt weird reading the series of unfortunate event novels and you have played an oboe or some kind of read instrument. So many crush options. Wow. So his career at Fox goes a lot better than his career leading these organizations.

He becomes an official co-host in January of 2017, just as Trump begins his term. And he is able to get this job because he starts having sex with, initially I think it's, I'm not sure, no, he would have been divorced by now. Anyway, he winds up marrying the Fox producer, Jennifer Roche, who keeps putting him on the air. And I think she's his third wife, maybe a second. He has three, he's been divorced like three times.

So great guy, anyway. Putting up numbers. He hooks up with this Fox producer who keeps putting him on the air. So he bounces around a few different shows. He's on regularly and he kind of makes a point of just taking whatever is the most radical take that will earn him Trump's attention. It's just kind of like, I'm going to be a shameless bootlicker on Fox because he watches Fox habitually.

And so I want him to see me repeatedly being nice to him. Right. And he's doing this to campaign to become the Secretary of Defense, which he can't manage during Trump's first term because Trump is still listening to a couple of adults a little too much who were like, I don't know, the guy who can't even run a fucking like NGO without spending all of the money on hookers and blow probably shouldn't be running the army. We have a lot more money There's a lot better There's far better sex criminals to run that department. Yeah

We can find you a sex criminal. Don't worry, you know We're aware of what needs to happen. Right? Yeah Uh, so as part of his ongoing attempt to both identify himself with the ascendant Christian nationalist movement and to force Trump to take note of him, in 2020 he publishes the book American Crusade, right? Which is what, you know, kind of the core of our episodes this week are going to be about. So, let's get into that wonderful book, American Crusade, a nice innocuous title.

So, I suppose first off, it's not surprising that this book, American Crusade, a nice innocuous title. So I suppose first off, it's not surprising that this book starts off with a dedication to his family and his kids primarily, and his kids have basically- Do his wives really wanna hear from him? They have the names you'd expect. You gotta guess one of the names. I mean, before we start, should we show Jamie the fucking cover?

Yeah, let's show Jamie the cover Why not why not? Jamie you want to describe that to our listeners on who are listening because it's a podcast and you shouldn't watch it on video Hello video listeners. We love you. We love you so much. Stop looking at us. Stop looking at us you freaks I'm guessing. Okay. I love you. Yes chase Griffin You freaks. I'm guessing, okay, let me guess. Chase, Griffin, Nathaniel. Damn, Jamie, no, no.

That's a bunch of big Ls. Yeah, no. First one, which you should have gotten, Gunner. Gunner, okay. You should have gotten Gunner. He's going for it. Oh, Gunner, Gunner. Oh, he's going for it. Oh, Gunner, Abamo, and...

Gunner, Jackson, Peter Boone. And that's the one he gives two names for, so I'm guessing his first name is Peter Boone. Kinsey, Luke, Rex, and Gwendolyn. And Lil' Nuk. And Lil' Nuk. Gunner and Rex are really sending me. Wow, Gunner coming in hot.

Gunner, good stuff man. I'm surprised there's not a Hunter in there. Yeah, Hunter, that's okay. I might have gotten to Hunter. This cover is... Nuts. That can't be his body. That's not his body.

I mean, if he's on enough tested trends, sure. I'm sure he's taken steroids, you know? I'm really struggling with, like, the neck to head ratio. If that is his body... There's some Photoshopping going down there. You can see a big We the People tattoo on his forearm. He's, like, waving a flag. It's just, like, the dipshittiest cover. The angle of the We the People tattoo

only makes sense in the context of this picture. Like if that was normally the angle it was at, it would be crooked. But that's what, but this is clearly AI. This is, this is not, this is clearly real. This is not his body. No. But there's things that were done here.

But I appreciate the, I would love to see him actually try to do this. At the top of it, it says, and quote, Pete pulls no punches with this book. Sean Hannity. Nice. It's always fun with this stuff, because you're like,

there's no way Sean Hannity wrote this book, but then in some ways, there's no way that Pete Hegseth wrote this book. Do you think it was ghostwritten or do you think he wrote it? Let's let Robert read some and then we'll give our opinions. He does write, he's got this editorial position. He definitely writes some of it. I suspect it's a thing where it gets like,

massaged by a real writer, but there's a lot of it that seems very Pete, right? In fact, the opening after he lists his kids names, he gives a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, right? Every chapter opens with a quote from a great American, usually Donald Trump, but this one's Theodore Roosevelt. There is not room in the country for any 50-50 American, nor can there be but one loyalty to the stars and stripes, right? Which, you know, I might say that, well, if your loyalty is to your weird interpretation of Christianity over the Constitution, you know, maybe you're not 100%...

Anyway, whatever. That's not how he sees it. So here's how the chapter opens. Our American Crusade, Chapter One. Take a moment to consider your part in the miracle of the 2016 election, the history we made as sons and daughters of freedom, for the left that humiliating defeat strengthened their resolve to achieve their ultimate goal, erasing America's soul, culture, and institutions. We are the ones standing in their way and have been targeted for annihilation." Wow, I like that he adds it a little. He's like on top of being a

motherfucking piece of shit. He's also kind of bitchy. He's like, I'm praying for my haters. I'm praying for all my haters on the left. He's like, I'm praying for my haters. I'm praying for all my haters on the left. Oh no, he's not praying for him. This is a book about how we need to kill the left, right? That is his, and like every allegation here is an admission, right? Because he's constantly talking,

the left wants to kill us all, they want to wipe us all out. That's why we have to have total victory against them, right? It's like, it's this, you know, they're as bad as we are. So we have to do to them what we wanted to do to them anyway, but we can pretend we're defending ourselves, right? Right, yeah, they're even worse. We gotta get them first.

Yeah, he goes on to claim that we, the people, we all feel that, quote, the other side, the left is not our friend. We are not esteemed colleagues, nor mere political opponents. And I think this part is valuable. I think there's some of this that I really would like to shove in the hands of like, especially a lot of elected Democrats, because Hegseth very neatly sweeps away the claims that are made by guys like Biden that like, well, there's good

Republicans. We got to work with them. You know, we need a strong Republican party. It's just, you know, some of this MAGA stuff, we got to dust off it. But like, it's good Republicans, we gotta work with them. We need a strong Republican party. It's just some of this MAGA stuff, we gotta dust off it, but it's good to have strong conservatives in government with us. And Hegseth is making the point that no, there's no conservatives that you can trust because we are not esteemed colleagues and we're not political opponents. We want to destroy you. You can't work with us. And that is the truth about modern conservatism, about the Republican party. You can't work with us, right? And that's, that is the truth about modern conservatism, about the Republican party.

You can't work with them, right? They've made it clear it should be obvious, but a lot of mainstream Democrats refuse to fucking believe it. No, no, no, they're just, yeah. I mean, well, best of luck with that project because it feels like if there's one thing mainstream Democrats aren't going to do,

it's read a direct threat against them and take it seriously. Right, right. And there are direct threats in here. Hegseth goes on to say, we are foes, either we win or they win. We agree on nothing else. Okay. Maybe treat them like that, guys.

You know, that's what they're saying. No, no, no, they just, they, we need to empathize. We need empathy with these guys. Yeah, I'm done with that. I was raised these guys. I don't have done with that. I was raised these guys. I don't have empathy for me when I was this kind of person. I suck. Pete goes on to brag that the US has the top economy and military, but that our cultural

and educational institutions, America's soul, have succumbed to leftist rot. Even a once in a generation electoral miracle, like 2016, won't be enough to save us, which is funny considering how 2024 went down. A lot of this book is like darkly funny in light of the fact that they won in 2024 and lost in 2020. So Pete says that our future existence as sons and daughters of freedom can only happen if after the quote categorical defeat of the left.

Thus this time in our history calls for an all caps American crusade. Yes. A holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom. Wow. Title drops title mentions. Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff.

I like that he put it in caps just in case it wasn't clear. You gotta put, you gotta put it in caps. You gotta put it in caps. I mean, the rhetoric is like, I guess, kind of what I would expect. Does he get specific? Is there, does he, is the book about the plan? I mean, kind of. Pete's not a great planning guy.

He's not a great knowing how to, you know, not gonna be a great war leader guy for that reason. Step one, allocate one third of the budget to parties for me. There's some of that, but it's mainly about getting, it's mainly about like getting everybody like riled up for an existential battle that he believes 2020 was going to be, right? Like this, this crusade of, you know, it's trying to get people on the side of extermination, right? Hegseth then directly cites the First Crusade as his example of what we need to return to. He describes the First Crusade as happening a thousand years ago after years of Christians

or Europeans ceding land to Muslim hordes. The Pope finally got around to declaring a crusade in order to save Europe and his knights marched to war under the cry, Deus Vult, or God wills it. to war under the cry, Deus Vult, or God wills it. Now, I should interject here, because Pete has a Deus Vult tattoo, and this is a meaningful term on the far right and the neo-Nazi right, right? Now, to interject here, first off, all of the history here is nonsense, right? His history of the Crusades is not accurate. The Guardian interviewed Matthew- Okay, that was my question.

I was like, this doesn't sound right. Yeah, we're going to talk about that first. The Guardian interviewed Matthew Gabriel, who's a professor of medieval studies at Virginia Tech, and he pointed out, There were absolutely no incursions to mainland Europe. If anything, Islam was kind of on the retreat in Iberia and other places as well. So there was no large geopolitical shift or any kind of immediate threat of Islam taking over Europe, right? Like they were not in fact on the defensive when the crusade started. Well, that doesn't sound good and it doesn't serve his point. This is just another reminder that in mainstream publishing,

fact checking is not an allocated part of the budget. No, it's not. You gotta do that as the author. Which is never not crazy to me. They don't give a shit anymore. You gotta pay out of pocket if you want that shit. Yeah, no, cause there's no money in being accurate. Right, yeah, books wouldn't sell as well.

So Pete is not at all alone in taking Deas Volt on as a rallying cry. White supremacists have used it as a catch phrase for years now, and he's mainly noteworthy for being the most prominent political figure in the country to do so. After the first Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which is the first time many reporters and regular Americans saw the phrase in use by Nazis and other white supremacist marchers, outlets like NPR published interviews with experts like Medieval Academy of America head Lisa Davis, who pointed out that Europe during the crusade period was not white, and that far-right marchers at Charlottesville adorn themselves with symbols like that of Saint Maurice,

who was regularly featured on Crusader livery and was himself an Egyptian man, right? That like, even a lot of these things that they're like, we were all white, like this beautiful saint that the Crusaders marched under, moreover, he was born in Egypt. That is simply an African man. Insane, I mean, I'm like, is this just like a group of,

I mean, obviously just brain dead people, but like I think about how many older movies and then also movies I grew up on that essentially portray Egyptian people as white or at best Italian looking. It's in part because like they're in. Yeah. I mean, one one reality of it is that everyone in the Mediterranean Basin looks more Mediterranean than like they do anything else. Right? Once you get right up to the like,

cause there's a lot of interchange between those cultures, right? And the other thing is that at this period of time, whiteness doesn't exist as a concept, right? If you were to go back, like think about it, go back to the Roman empire and tell them like, this guy is not as much of a person to you because of their skin color.

They'd be like, what are you talking about? This guy's less of a person because he's not a Roman. Like that's what matters. Like, make no mistakes. This man is not a person to me, but not for the reasons you think. Not for that reason, no. He's less human than me

because he was born in a different place. It is fascinating watching, yeah, just like how everything needs to serve like his thesis, but, and it really doesn't matter't. None of it works out. And none of these people actually know anything about the Crusades, right? And the problem is, yeah, like I'm glad that there were like medieval scholars that like corrected the record, but his followers don't care. No, and it doesn't matter.

I'm doing this in part because like, yeah, this is that's the kind of episode that this is right where you go through this and you're like, all right, what's accurate, what's not? But like this doesn't, no one listening to this was like coming in as a Pete Hegseth fan because of the crusade stuff. And it's going to be like, my God, he was wrong! Like, that's just not the way anything works.

This changes everything for me. I wonder if there's one person, yeah. Now, I should also note here that, cause he uses deus volt, he's got it tattooed on his body cause he believes it was the rallying cry that crusaders marched to war under during the first crusade. This is very likely to be untrue, right?

This is actually the result of propaganda that came later. Marburg historian George Strach has pointed out to the Catholic news agency that Pope Urban II, who declared the first crusade, never used the phrase deus volt himself and quote, "'Only one chronicle, that of Robert the Monk, which was written around 10 years after the Pope's call to crusade at a synod in Clermont, France, quotes the exclamation at all, Strach explained. The author was aware from another chronicle that the northern French crusaders used deus volt as a war cry or a

sign of recognition among themselves. Robert's aim was to present the crusade as a divine and papally led project, which is why he claimed that Urban II had heard the war cry, deus volt, and Claremont and approved of it. From the historian's point of view, however, this is implausible. Even Robert's medieval contemporaries would have placed little trust in the chronicler. It was only under the humanists of the 15th century that the monk's rhetoric received favorable attention again. They found Robert's chronicle plausible, and so the war cry,asvold was quoted very frequently from then on, and soon the other reports about Urban's call from Claremont were forgotten," says Strach. So this is probably propaganda from the beginning that there's not much evidence of at the time,

that no one would have taken very seriously at the time, that 500 years later, like, you know, chuds adopt. 1500s chuds, right? Never trust a Robert. That's what I always say. Never trust a Robert. That's the I always say. Never trust a Robert. Never trust a Robert. That's the core of history, of historiography. Spewing lies. Speaking of things that spew only lies.

Just one of our sponsors, the other sponsor's completely trustworthy. One of our sponsors tells nothing but lies, and we won't tell you which. You know who you are. You know who you are. Place your bets. It's gonna be a fucking sports betting ad. Yeah, no, the sports betting people are honest, right?

You'll go broke, but they're honest. They're like, but you'll have a great time doing it. You'll have a great time doing it. We'll really tickle those dopamine receptors. We've made it as addictive as drugs. Oh, drugs. Jesus, Robert. What?

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And become a true hero. Buzz and I will proceed into the lunar module. Not because he conquers space, but because he conquers himself. Buzz. We intercepted a Soviet radio transmission. Starring me, John Lithgow. Can you put it through? Translate. On the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers, the pilot is having an emergency and we need someone, anyone, to land this plane. Think you could do it?

It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic Control and they're saying like okay pull this and pull that turn this it's just I can do my eyes closed I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin and on our new show no such thing We get to the bottom of questions like these join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise. And then as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait what? Oh that's the runway. I'm looking at this thing. Listen to no such thing on the iHeartio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs

that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming

and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to Shock Incarceration on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. So for the sake of morale, it might be good for us to recall here that the Crusades were not successes in the traditional military sense of the word. The First Crusade did have some initial victories and resulted in temporary Christian control of parts of the Holy Land, but this did not last long.

By 1187, less than 100 years, the great general Saladin had surrounded Jerusalem. The long train of disasters for organized Christian militaries during the crusades led to a surge in support for maniac cult leaders like Peter the Hermit, who gathered an army of starving hermits to march on the Holy Land. Andrew Curry writes, Peter's success was cited over and over again in the years to come. The defeat suffered by better organized crusades led many to believe that it was the humble who were destined to succeed, not the proud, rich military classes.

In the end, these people's crusades ended in disaster too. None ever reached the Holy Land, and most of the peasant crusaders were either slaughtered as they plundered their way across Europe or disbanded before ever reaching a port. Without the resources to reach the Holy Land, most turned on more conventional targets, namely Europe's Jewish communities. Why are we going to seek out our profanity and to take vengeance on the Ishmaelites for our Messiah when here are the Jews who murdered and crucified him, was the rationale, as recorded by a Jewish eyewitness." So again, most of the real, a large chunk of the real crusaders didn't even crusade.

They just went and murdered Jews, right? In Europe, yeah. Yeah. Well, okay, do we think Pete Hegseth knows any of this? No, I don't think he really reads much. I am genuinely curious. I don't think it would matter. He just wouldn't trust any account you told him if it's different from what he already believes.

Right. I mean, I don't know this about the Crusades. I gotta say, I'm not a Crusades head. Well, the gist of it, and this is a quote from Medieval Studies Professor Matthew Gabriel, the Crusaders lost. They lost everything. Well, maybe an American Crusade, not too bad an idea. Watch the documentary Kingdom of Heaven for more. Still holds up, banger of a film. So again, none of this stuff works as a gotcha, right? You're not going to convince anyone to change their politics,

but being like, actually, the Crusades sucked, right? But I do think it's valuable to look at this history for our own edification as a reminder that this too shall pass and that these kinds of people never managed to win the way they think they will in the long run because they suck at shit. But also, the mere fact that they've doomed themselves doesn't mean that they won't cause even more suffering in their failures, right? Those people's Crusades were all disasters, but a lot of Jewish communities suffered as a result, right?

Right. Anyway, let's continue with Pete. He goes from the crusades to the American Revolution, probably the only periods in history that he's taken a passing interest in. He notes that, like crusaders and patriots past, the red MAGA hat is a symbol for the need for violent action to secure liberty. Only by going on offense against

a left that surrounds them can conservatives survive. Now, the fact that this is written in the run up to 2020 and the fact that that election went against them should say a few things to you, right? We know now this was not the decisive or the last battle, but Hegseth writes as if it was, and that the left would cause total annihilation if they won in 2020. He notes that while there are millions of patriots, the country also houses hordes of people

who don't share their allegiance and that their ignorance and ideologies threaten national survival. Okay. So, yeah. Again, like the language here is very unsparing and this is how most of them think. You can't, again, it's just important that Democrats understand you can't talk it out with someone like this.

They're not willing to talk to you. Right. I mean, that's like their, that's their whole thing. It is interesting anytime you hear, I mean, I guess you hear it basically every day now, but over time, I think in the last 10 years, where you just hear the us versus them in an increasingly upward line, to the point where he's just like straightforwardly saying,

they're like, the people who agree with me are Americans. Yeah, and the people who don't aren't. Yeah. Yeah, which is like, I mean, continued in that direction. Thanks, Pete. Yep. So the next section of his book is about the two Americas, which he describes as America and the left.

And in order to highlight this, he gives us the story of two different immigrants, both named Omar. Samara Omar, who was an Iraqi who fought with Hegzeth. He was an interpreter after the US invasion and later immigrated to the US legally. The other Omar is, of course, Ilhan Omar, who was an Iraqi who fought with Heg-Zeth. He was an interpreter after the US invasion and later immigrated to the US legally. The other Omar is of course, Ilan Omar, who he calls the Somali Omar. Oh, leave her out of it. Oh no, he's he this is I mean, this is like peak Ilan Omar brain worms, period, 2020.

Not that it's much less now. I feel like it's still got worse. It's still pretty bad. It's still bad. Like it's just, there's, it's more of a topic of discussion, I guess. Yeah, okay. Maybe just just there's less going on here. A tale of two Omars, good Lord. Okay. It's nuts.

His attitude is the common one you'll see on the right, that Ilin was graciously led into this country and has done nothing but spit in its face. I don't think we really need to deal with this point, save to note that even in the America of 2025, even someone like Pete's interpreter Omar, who fought alongside US soldiers, aren't qualified to stay here. Earlier this year, the United States revoked special status to Afghan people who helped the United States in its war against the Taliban.

Per MSNBC, the Trump administration told them, quote, that they've got to self-deport by May 20th, back to a Taliban controlled Afghanistan. If America can't honor its word to those who bled for it, a retired US colonel told me, why would anyone trust us again? This isn't just immigration policy. It's a test of our moral credibility and we're failing. Now, Jamie. Yes? I've seen the US in enough war zones and talked to enough people who believed in our promises to them when they fought alongside us, that I can say there's no point in my lifetime or the lifetime of anyone listening to the show in which we had moral credibility or were trustworthy friends.

Right? It's like we're also recording this at a time... What period of time are you talking about? We're also recording this at a time where, again, like both of his examples are people who could just get plucked off of the street and kidnapped by ICE. Like the citizenship has nothing to do with it. Well, again, that's part of what's interesting about the timing this comes in, is that in 2020,

even as like a Pete Hegseth Republican, you still had to pretend that you were like, okay, with multiculturalism, as long as they were pro-American, right? That like, no, this Iraqi interpreter of mine is a great American. He's fully integrated, right? He gets to stay here,

because he did all the right things. And as soon as they got into power, like, oh, actually, no, we don't give a shit. All that matters is your skin color, right? And that's the reality, right, under the regime that has given Pete Hegseth power. But he spends a lot of his book talking about the Omar who fought with him, who he calls Texas Omar now

because he successfully immigrated to the and integrated into the Houston suburbs. So we should talk a little bit here about Pete Hegseth's wartime experiences in Samara, which is less than about a hundred, I think it's like 80 miles or something Northwest of Baghdad. At age 26, Pete was a Lieutenant

in the Army National Guard when he joined the 101st 3rd Brigade Combat Team. He was deployed in 2005. Prior to this, Hegseth had experienced what you might call an atypical global war on terror career. Again, he graduated from Princeton, he started working at Bear Stearns, and the same time he got in a position with the doomed finance company, he enlisted in the National Guard. And he was first deployed after 9-11 to Guantanamo Bay before coming back and working in finance for a while and then volunteering to fight in Iraq, where he became a platoon leader. He seems to have served, like functionally did the job reasonably

well. There's not like shocking, you know, shocking reports or anything on it. He was kept away from liquor probably. I was going to say, I was like, like, why did he do that job competently? Although he hadn't really kept drinking it, started drinking heavily at this point. Oh right, because that was after he got back. Okay. And there's an interesting Washington Post article that quotes one of his fellow officers

who was active duty. He was like, I was actually surprised to see a National Guard guy doing the same things Hegseth was doing. And I just assumed that it was because he was planning for a political career and thought a combat tour would help. Right? Interesting. Okay.

Yeah. And you run into, if you've known people who were in like, if you know enough military guys, they all have stories of like, yeah, this guy was definitely doing it because he was trying to like set up a career later down the line and wanted, you know, a combat action badge or something. It's like seeing an influencer at a volunteer event. Right, right, right. You're just like, sure, interesting. So I'm going to quote from the Post article here.

Charlie Company, numbering about 140 men, was considered the brigade's most aggressive unit, engaging threats with a bravado that would later draw scrutiny from senior leaders, said people familiar with the deployment. As recounted by The New Yorker in 2009, Charlie Company was nicknamed Kill Company and maintained a whiteboard listing confirmed kills, including civilians that each platoon had notched. The former officer who served in another company within the battalion said the behavior exhibited by Hegseth's infantry company was viewed as a little bit

strange by those on the outside. We joked sometimes that they were on their own crusade down there. Great stuff. Oh, okay. Great stuff. Good Lord, okay. Now, what's interesting is when the New Yorker reports in this initially, Hegseth would claim Great stuff. Oh, okay. Great stuff. Good Lord. Okay.

Now, what's interesting is when the New Yorker reports on this initially, Hegseth would claim that I actually complained about how aggressive we were to our company commander. And specifically that he complained about how they were ordered to have their weapons ready when they were entering targeted buildings because he believed that basically having fingers on the trigger would lead to higher civilian casualties. And that after making these complaints, he was reassigned. I don't know how true this is, right? I don't know if that's something he made up

when he thought it would sound better. Right, when was that interview conducted? It was like 2009, that New York article. I wonder how, I feel like he wouldn't say that today. So do I. He wouldn't claim it at least, right? But his old unit remained in the field after he got transferred.

And as the insurgency hit a new peak of violence, they wound up as part of a raid on an island believed to be a training center for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's AQI, or al-Qaeda in Iraq. This is like the precursor organization to ISIS. A number of civilians are massacred during this attack. The soldiers who killed them claim initially that they're all military-aged males, which is a term for, we shot some fucking teenager teenager but like, look, he's pretty big. An army investigation revealed that civilians had been detained and executed while detained and that the killings had been covered up.

Two soldiers ultimately pled guilty to murder and related charges and received 18-year sentences. One soldier who testified was sentenced to nine months and another who didn't was convicted of negligent homicide, which was overturned on appeal. Now there is speculation that Hegseth has since seized upon the issue of US troops being tried for war crimes as a result of this. And for the entirety of his time in the political spotlight, he has since backed prosecuted soldiers including war criminal Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, claiming the rules of war unfairly tie the hands of men in the field.

That Washington Post article, which interviewed a number of his colleagues, ends on this note. The former Army officer who served with Hegseth in Iraq said he believes he has latched on to populous scenarios in a quest for personal gain. When news of Hegseth's potential nomination emerged, old acquaintances from those days got back in touch with one another, the former officer said. One text he received especially stood out. All it said was WTF, question mark. Yeah. Great stuff.

All right. Great stuff. All right. Cool. It's just, it's everything that like leads to horrific war crimes in the modern age are deeply embarrassing. Like just really, really lazy texting. And also the fact that in between his stints in the service that he found time to work at Bear Stearns.

He found a little bit of time to crater the American economy. It's just, you know, what a multi-hyphenate really. I mean, in your view, I mean, this just seems like he's slowly working behind the scenes to justify civilian deaths so that he can ideally escalate to the job he is now, killing civilians with no consequences for anyone. Yeah. Yep.

So the next chapter of this book, he compares several pages comparing different statements by Ilin Omar and his buddy, Texas Omar, in order to talk about how much Ilin hates the United States. One of his points is that his friend describes US helicopters as looking like angels because at one point he was under fire and he got rescued by a helicopter. And Ilin describes them as looking like angels because at one point he was under fire and he got rescued by a helicopter. And Ilin describes them as looking like the devil because she was a civilian in Somalia

and saw US helicopters kill civilians. Oh no, what a monster. No civilians were killed by Americans in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. Oh my god. Right? Which she describes as a heroic defensive action by US forces. And the reality is uglier. While we don't have perfect accounts

for how many civilians died in the fighting. It was between 300 and 700 people who died total, and at least two to 300 of those were civilians, right? And I'll personally note, I have watched an Apache helicopter destroy, like basically murder an apartment building. And yeah, it looks like the devil. If you've ever seen one of those things

empty its entire payload, it's a fucking devil. Have you ever seen one of those things empty its entire payload? It's a fucking nightmare. It's very scary. Yes. Objectively. I mean, it's like not only is it obviously racist to have this like weird chart of two people with the same last name, but like to just present it with a total void of context. He just like doesn't even understand how war works, that you'd be terrified of the people about to.

A thing that's not on your side that is very deadly, yeah. Yeah, we're killing people around you. Okay. It's one of those things, like, yeah, man, if you're, like, I get it. If you're completely surrounded by the enemy and a chopper comes in and blows them all away, you'd be like, that thing ripped. That thing's cool. But people have different experiences with helicopters, you know Like depending on whether or not they're being shot at by them

Not not to come down too hard on the other Omar but like weird to call a helicopter at Angel as it is Yeah, yeah, I mean and I don't know again. We don't actually ever get to talk with that Omar, right? I haven't found any articles interviewing him He does it like I've googled around trying to find anyone who talk to this guy. We only have Pete's recollection of him. How much do we want to bet he made up a guy? I don't know. He certainly if he's real, there's no way he's going to talk out and like correct

the record if Pete jidged it because then he'll get deported. Right. Yeah. Stay as far away from him as possible. So I don't know. And the important point is that Pete does not bring in this Omar as a real person with a real story. He brings him in as a foil to his created image

of a social justice warrior who never had to fight for anything, right? Such people, he argues, take advantage of 50-50 Americans who lack grittiness and historical perspective. He describes these people, so you've got the evil leftists, and they take advantage of these kind of like milk-toast 50-50 Americans who he calls squishies, right? For their lack of willingness to fight. Why does he call them squishies? Because they're not willing to fight, because they're not racist and violent, right? Like, they're too squishy. They're too— They're not willing to kill the left, right?

They think we can coexist. I really don't like that. It's him talking about like conservatives who are not like outright fascists, right? Those are the squishies. So it's cool. It's good stuff. OK, sorry.

Apologies to the squishies. I love you guys. Sorry, squishies. Yeah. Great stuff. And it's interesting. The, squishies. Yeah. Oh, nasty. Great stuff. Nasty. And it's interesting, you know, the thing he's trying to do here, because he has a whole

bit in this about how like these people don't like to see themselves as political and that's a problem because like we're in a political war. His whole thing is he's trying, he has to convince these people that like you need to become political in order to embrace a politics of defensive annihilation against the left, right? And the left is everything but Trump, you know? Like, that's what he's trying to convince these, these like moderate Republicans to do.

Quote, for me, awakening has been a progression over many years informed by multiple iterations of learning and mostly failure. First I had to get informed, then I denied the magnitude of the leftist problem. Next, being idealistic, naive and new to the political arena, I played within the confines of the status quo. Now, as I have some worldly success in a large family, protecting my nest is tempting. I understand what is required of a hundred percent American. The sacrifice, the struggle, the uncertainty, like the uncertainty of stealing from two different veterans organizations to get drunk. Yes. The uncertainty of playing grab ass with all your secretaries.

Yes, sacrifice. Separate, yeah, separating your employees by party and not party. They're, look, these are the things, ultimately, that are going to protect Gunner Hegseth. Yeah. These are, who's... Finally, finally, yes.

So. Okay. We end the introduction, the first chapter with a call to arms. This is the first chapter? And that's chapter one, baby. And we follow it with two more quotes. These are both from Donald Trump and I find them funnier than I should. Quote one, you're a sleaze candidate Donald Trump to a reporter from ABC News 2016.

You're a warrior Pete, a fucking warrior, President Donald Trump, November 2019. Why are those together? You're a warrior, Pete, a fucking warrior. President Donald Trump, November 2019. What are those? Why are those together? Why is it like, why are you contrasting? It's just contrasting him, shit talking ABC to him saying nice things to him. He's telling a story.

It's just so cool. So cool. It's like, wow, okay, Pete, we're all very impressed. Bad as to reporter as warrior is to me a smiley face. It's so funny. It's so funny. You're a sleaze. smiley face. It's like so funny. It's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. So, yeah, we'll we'll talk about the next chapter,

but I think it's probably time to end part one. Jamie Loftus. Yeah. Yeah. Plug anything. Yeah. My book, Raw Dog, The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs just came out in paperback. And I just released a, I just did an audio book for the one and only Chuck Tingle. We're donating all of the proceeds to the LA, the LA Street Vendors Fund.

Because in LA, they're kidnapping, ICE is kidnapping people off the streets. So we're raising money to help street vendors stay in while maintaining their living. The name of the audio book is This Lesbian Hot Dog Gets Me Off. Also, she is a doctor. Also, she's vegan. Wow, that's a title. That's so much better than American Crusade.

And it's a story, it's a tale. So if you want to listen to that, donate five bucks to the Street Vendors Fund. If you don't want to listen to that, if you don't want to listen to me read Chuck Tingle Hot Dogs Month, you're wrong, but you should donate anyways. You're wrong and a bad person. Let's just say it, Jamie. Let's just say it. You're a bad person and God will not recognize you

on the day of judgment. He won't know your face. To not listen to this lesbian hot dog gets me off, also she's a doctor, also she's vegan, is not just homophobic, it's anti-women in STEM. It's very anti-women in STEM. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this is good.

That's my, those are my plugs. Yeah, plugs done. Go to hell, everyone my plugs. Yeah. Plug's done. Go to hell, everyone. I love you. Love you too. Behind the Bastards is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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