An analyst Wednesday slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, describing him as a weak showman with a "need for constant coddling" that has now been exposed.
Salon's Amanda Marcotte wrote in an opinion piece about how Hegseth's "warrior ethos" has shown his cowardice and called him "the most delicate snowflake" among MAGA.
Hegseth, who has denied that he ordered a second strike on survivors in the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 2 after a first strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela — although a Washington Post report revealed otherwise — said during a press conference Tuesday that Adm. Mitch Bradley ordered the second attack.
"The details of that incident couldn’t offer a clearer illustration of what cowardice playing at toughness looks like," Marcotte wrote. "After literally blowing up a boat under Hegseth’s reported instructions to 'kill them all,' military commanders reportedly ordered a second strike to kill men who were clinging to the wreckage. Shooting unarmed, helpless and likely injured people in the open sea is certainly evil and probably criminal, and it’s also pathetic. It’s the behavior of someone who’s afraid of a fair fight, and enjoys killing people from afar by pushing buttons."
The administration has now shifted to doing damage control, she added.
"Indeed, Secretary Warfighter’s need for constant coddling is being ever more severely exposed as this scandal unfolds," Marcotte wrote. "As the Washington Post reported this week, Hegseth is now hiding behind the skirts of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She’s an accomplished liar, but has been reading carefully crafted statements that redirect the blame for the Sept. 2 killings to Bradley and insist, without offering any evidence, that everything Hegseth did was legal. 'This is ‘protect Pete’ bull—,' as one anonymous military official told the Post."
Marcotte argued that Hegseth is dodging any blame or responsibility for the operation in question.
"Operation 'Protect Pete' seems like a fitting description of this guy’s entire career of evading accountability," she wrote. "Perhaps he should make that his next tattoo, so he can brag about how much the needle hurt while ducking any consequences that might truly sting."