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And, in perhaps the biggest humiliation: “I’m a fan of Pulp Fiction, too,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). Later, when asking a question about vaccines, Moulton added: “This is a softball one for you. Don’t screw it up.”

Hegseth began to bare his teeth and shout. Asked about the length of the war, he pulled out manufactured outrage, talking about how his generation served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that was a quagmire, and “you stain the troops” by suggesting this war has been going on too long. “Who you cheering for?” he yelled, adding, “Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission!” In the quiet, unostentatious room, his words sounded flat, eerie, cult-like. They did not project the power he must’ve hoped that they would.

And then Representative Carbajal asked him how American taxpayers would be affected economically by the war in Iran, and Hegseth got into a full shouting match with him as he simply asked random questions back rather than answering the question. 

“I get soundbites, but how about numbers?” Carbajal asked. Hegseth said something about the “horrible” management of California, the state that Carbajal represents.

‘Wish fulfillment is not a strategy,’ one congressman scolded Hegseth during the hearing(Getty)

“It used to be that that stuff worked,” said Carbajal, unimpressed. It doesn’t any more, he continued, because the Trump administration is bleeding out supporters after a cost-of-living crisis caused by the Iran war.

“I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad because you betrayed them,” he concluded.