Pete Hegseth accused of supporting the removal of women’s right to vote with just seven words

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary who has already made headlines with Signalgate and bizarre drone videos, has now sparked a backlash for sharing a CNN news report in which two contributors advocate for women not to have the right to vote.

Anchor and chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown presented a package for the news channel on Douglas Wilson, a senior pastor at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho, who CNN says is on a “crusade for Christian domination in the age of Trump”.

As part of the report, Brown heard from Toby Sumpter, another senior pastor at the church, who said: “My ideals is that we all vote as households, and I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast that vote having discussed it with my household.”

When the journalist asked what would happen if a person’s wife didn’t want to vote for the same candidate, Sumpter replied: “Well, then that’s a great opportunity for a good discussion.”

He was joined by Jared Longshore, executive pastor of Christ Church (also in Mexico, Idaho), who said he would support the repeal of the 19th amendment to the US constitution which gave women the right to vote.

“I would support that, and that’s important on the basis that the atomisation that comes with our current system is not good for humans,” Longshore said.

And on Thursday, Hegseth shared the full report on Twitter/X with the comment: “All of Christ for All of Life.”

For those unfamiliar, the aforementioned Christ Church in Idaho explains that this concerns Jesus Christ having “all authority both in Heaven and on earth” (per Matthew 28:18-20), and so he has power over “absolutely everything” in a person’s life.

“This means family life, education, economics, resource management, divorce law, sacraments, warfare, moon exploration, word processing, AI, robotics, watercolors, and the cooking of soufflés. If you think I am leaving anything out, just throw that in,” the church’s website reads.

And so, this has caused concern among other social media users, with one describing Hegseth’s views as “bats***”:

“We are losing our country right before our eyes,” despaired radio host and legal analyst Barry Markson:

Former Democratic candidate Christopher Hale claimed Hegseth “doesn’t think women should be able to vote”:

New Mexico representative Melanie Stansbury, also a Democrat, added that she “wouldn’t have believed [the tweet] if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes”:

And the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which advocates for the separation of church and state, said Hegseth’s actions were a “warning sign”:

indy100 has approached the US Department of Defense for comment.

Why not read…

• Trump claims he is not 'politicking' for Nobel Peace Prize
  
• Kristi Noem fumbles South Park clapback

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.