Jonathan Chait: “At his confirmation hearing, the defense-secretary nominee looked like a man who understood that the fix was in…” “Hegseth’s strategy today was to evade these problems altogether. In this, he had the full cooperation of the committee’s Republican majority. If you’ve ever had media training for a television appearance, a common piece of advice is to use the prompt to get to whatever point you wish to make, rather than focus on answering the question.