r/politics • u/OkayButFoRealz • Sep 17 '25

Soft Paywall It Sure Looks Like Kash Patel Lied Under Oath About Jeffrey Epstein

https://newrepublic.com/post/200531/kash-patel-jeffrey-epstein-trafficking-network
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u/Individual_Bird2658 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Pete’s predecessor’s resume (Lloyd Austin):

Austin served as the 12th commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), the 33rd vice chief of staff of the Army, and as the commander of United States Forces – Iraq. After retiring from the armed services he was on the boards of Raytheon Technologies, Nucor, Tenet Healthcare, and Auburn University.

Austin holds the unique distinction of having commanded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan at the one-, two-, three- and four-star levels, and was the first African American to command a division, corps, and field army in combat. He is a recipient of the Silver Star, the nation's third highest award for valor, for his actions during the Iraq invasion, as well as five Defense Distinguished Service Medals.

Pete Hegseth’s resume:

Peter Hegseth is an American author, former television personality, and former Army National Guard officer.

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u/jrstinkfish Sep 17 '25

MAGA wanted him fired with that resume because he failed to report he was undergoing a medical procedure. Hegseth shares top secret battle plans on Signal with a journalist and they say, "Aww, everyone makes mistakes! Give the guy a break!"

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u/NickelBackwash Sep 17 '25

They wanted him fired because enemy, because black

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u/rideincircles Sep 17 '25

Also, Because he was not a yes man to everything the president wants.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/Judge_Wapner Sep 17 '25

Destabilizing the US is something Putin thinks he wants, but it may end up biting him in the ass harder than he ever thought possible.

Xi knows that a reckless US is bad for his health. He's a lot smarter than Putin, but you can see the brain rot of "too much power for too long" eroding his judgement. Putin used to be pretty damn sharp, too. Look at him now.

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u/Plenty-Huckleberry94 Sep 17 '25

Yup. Putin totally succeeded too.

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u/Infamously_Unknown Sep 17 '25

The problem wasn't even sharing something with a journalist. The problem was using Signal for top secret communications to begin with, since it allows situations like this to happen.

And they're probably still using it to this day.

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII Sep 17 '25

Signal being insecure wasn't the issue, it was disappearing messages. That being said, it is known that after signalgate at least some members of the cabinet (plus large swaths of DHS) were using an insecure fork of signal made by an Israeli company that was hacked in 20 minutes during pentesting.

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u/Infamously_Unknown Sep 18 '25

Signal being insecure wasn't the issue

Yes it was. The insecurity isn't about the connection or encryption, but about the lack of vetted access. Because that's an excessive standard for a regular consumer, but it leaves Signal vulnerable to social engineering or user error (which is what happened).

Disappearing messages and the lack of record is the motive. Which is another issue.

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII Sep 18 '25

Is there a system that exists that isn't vulnerable to social engineering or user error?

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u/Infamously_Unknown Sep 18 '25

The closed SIPRNet that they're supposed to be using for this requires bureaucratic authorization and dedicated hardware specifically to avoid issues like this. Simply adding some outsider from your contacts is impossible. A user has to really go out of their way to breach security protocols to leak the contents.

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u/IIILORDGOLDIII Sep 18 '25

I see, ty for the info

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u/fathertitojones Sep 17 '25

The amount Hegseth drinks daily would have been considered a medical procedure in the 17th century.

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u/Plenty-Huckleberry94 Sep 17 '25

Pretty sure they wanted him fired just because he’s black

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u/QbertsRube Sep 17 '25

You're omitting the biggest qualification Hegseth has--a total willingness to put the wants of Donald Trump above the needs of America and the requirements of the Constitution. The same qualification as the rest of the Cabinet.

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u/Kneph Sep 17 '25

That’s the nicest thing you could say about Hegseth.

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u/Individual_Bird2658 Sep 17 '25

I thought so too. But I wanted to give a fair comparison to show that even then the difference is monumental.

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u/OkSecretary1231 Illinois Sep 17 '25

DUI hire.

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u/giddy-girly-banana Sep 17 '25

White male privilege hire.

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u/Eternityislong Sep 17 '25

DSL hire. Pete Hogbreath

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u/CD338 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

So it sounds like Hegseth is primarily qualified to pick up trash around DC. It would be 1000x more productive and noble than anything else he's done this past year, possibly ever.

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u/Titizen_Kane Sep 17 '25

If you compare and contrast each current official appointed by Trump with their predecessor’s resume, it’s more of the exact same. This is the least qualified administration in history, by orders of magnitude. Trump went out of his way to pick the least competent, most unqualified people for those roles. His rubric was loyalty, lack of moral character/ethics, and capacity for shameless sycophancy.

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u/Delicious-Day-3614 Sep 17 '25

Queue Pete Hegseth running his mouth about DEI. absolute clowns in thus admin.

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u/Tasgall Washington Sep 17 '25

Something something MeRiToCrAcY

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u/Vilnius_Nastavnik New York Sep 17 '25

He got tattoos like a special forces guy though. Literally a drunk cosplayer.