this is democracy Now democracynow.org War peace in the presidency I'm Amy Goodman in Denver Colorado broadcasting from pbs2 right here in Five Points Media Center also home to our colleagues at Free Speech TV a wonderful Media Center joined by democracy Nows Nur she in New York concerns are mounting over Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon Fox News host and Military veteran Pete heith CBS news reports hexi was one of 12 National Guard members who were removed as guards for President Biden's 2021 inauguration over possible extremist ties hexi has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and
Neo-Nazi movements including what's known as a Jerusalem cross a symbol used by Christian nationalists meanwhile officials in Monteray California have confirmed police investigated hexi as part of an alleged sexual assault that occurred in 2017 at a hotel where Heth addressed the California Federation of Republican women Pete Heth has also been a vocal opponent of the pentagon's Embrace of multiculturalism and the pentagon's decision to allow women to serve in combat heg Seth who once served at Guantanamo made headlines in 2019 for pushing Trump to Pardon US soldiers accused of war crimes including one convicted of murder
we're joined Now by Jeff Charlotte journalist and author professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College his book the undertoe scenes from a slow Civil War Professor Charlotte's new piece for religion dispatches is headlined meet Pete hegf the man who will lead the entire US military a man deemed an extremist by the US military well let's start right there Jeff Charlotte explain what you mean who called him an extremist and what are Pete heth's views uh the number one person who called Pete heg an extremist is Pete heg it's page one of his new
book the war on Warriors it's the way he leads out his interviews this idea that he was too extreme for today's woke military dominated as he puts it his words by trans lesbian black females um and so he tells a story of being pushed out of the military we can't actually confirm that no one can confirm that I think what's more important about it is that he wants that story out there he wants it known um that he is too far to the right for the Armed Forces so Jeff sha could you explain what do
you think LED Trump to uh name him so Pete hex uh one he's he's he's from Central Casting he's got the chisel jaw he's got the biceps that he flexes on his Instagram showing off his tattoos that are from the white supremacist World um but he really came to Trump's attention through his advocacy for three military personnel charged or convicted of war crimes and most famously Eddie Gallagher the Navy SEAL who uh was his own men said that he stabbed to death a teenage prisoner who was receiving medical care care shot deliberately a a young
girl um and uh hex has used his platform to say uh to sort of amplify Trump's idea we've heard that Trump says the one rough hour that that violence is needed um and Trump liked it but more than that Heth promises in his book the first war he's going to wage is against the US military that's whom he describes as the domestic enemy the Enemy Within to purge the generals who are disloyal to Trump and replace them who will do Absolut the commander will and I'm not paraphrasing that's what's startling to me about this pick
and the reaction to it is we speak of it as concerns here's a man who wrote a book declaring his intention to wage not metaphorical but actual War within the United States that's what he says he says this is not a political project anymore this is a civil war is anything known at all about his uh foreign policy positions what does he think about the position of the US military around the world that's actually kind of that's another part of what makes him appealing to Trump is on the one hand he writes an in traditional
fascist style that war is absolutely necessary for what he calls normal men to realize their their masculinity on the other hand like Trump um he presents this kind of isolationist posture it's not that he want doesn't want the Israel to to wage total war he doesn't care as much about it so then he says okay so where is this war the war is within and we will depend on the so-called normal men in Israel he is however and this is important he's a Christian nationalist he believes absolutely in the idea of the in gathering of
Israel as a stage toward the Book of Revelation and the Bible um so he sees Israel's war uh on the Palestinians as biblical prophecy and one that must be supported uh for the of christiandom and we want to continue on that strain and also talk about uh Governor Huckabee uh also a proud Christian nationalist who president Trump has nominated to be the ambassador to Israel but I wanted to stick with something you said for one moment and that you wrote about Jeff Charlotte in your peace you laughed about you know his biceps um but it's
what's on his biceps those tattoos on his chest he had Inked a Jerusalem cross a symbol of the Crusaders holy war against Muslims and Jews and on the flip side of his bicep there's this featured on his Instagram um dece B um God wills it it's more Crusader kit and popular with white supremacists talk more about this and then um we'll play what he has to say to uh uh for example to Netanyahu so Heth talks a lot about his tattoos they're important to him he began getting them around 26 uh the very first one
was a cross with a sword running down the middle um which he said was a tribute to one of his favorite Biblical verses Matthew 10:34 this is taken by those who want not a peaceful Christianity but a war religion it's uh where Christ says I come to bring not peace but the sword he then starts adding um this uh as I say Crusader kit because it's important the Jerusalem cross it it it was is always a political symbol um it's not a symbol of spiritual struggle just like de Vault um but it really these this
imagery comes into popular culture not through deep study of history but through a 2005 uh Ridley Scott movie uh the Kingdom of Heaven um much like the right at one point was emulating Braveheart now they're emulating this movie this idea of the Crusader Knight um who wages holy war uh against Muslims against Jews um in a book he talks at Great length about the story of Gideon from the Book of Judges and what's interesting to him about Gideon is that Gideon's First Step was to purge the enemies within that was the first battle and then
he emphasizes another part Gideon goes to war um uh and we sort of know this these are sort of Bible stories but the part that he really likes is that after they' won the battle Gideon orders his men to hunt down everyone of the other of the other fors in and hexus words eliminate them all that's the idea of this sleeve of tattoos which mixes American nationalism uh an AR-15 folded into an American flag um 1775 year the Army was founded but also part of the sort of the Mythos of of j6 a group that
he has uh had very positive things uh to to say about well uh we I'd like to turn now to ask about uh president-elect Trump's selection of former Arkansas Governor Mike hakabe as the next US ambassador to Israel hakabe is a leading us Christian Zionist who's openly advocated for Israel's annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2008 hakabe declared quote there's really no such thing as a Palestinian this is hakabe speaking in 2017 when he was visiting an illegal Israeli settlement Israel would only be acting on the property it already owns I
think Israel uh has title deed to Judea and Samaria uh there are certain words I refuse to use there is no such thing as a West Bank it's Judean Samaria there's no such thing as a settlement their communities their neighborhoods their cities uh there's no such thing as an occupation so uh Jeff Charlotte that's uh Huckabee speaking in 2017 so if you could comment on on what he said and and also why Trump has selected him I mean hakabe is uh a sort of a key element of the the Trump Coalition uh he brings in
evangelicals in particular kind of the the older more traditional evangelicals he's a southern baptist um uh and he's also been involved with Israel for a long time as he say since 1973 he leads pilgrimages of Christians it's important to understand that in all his advocacy for Israel this comes from no particular care for the Jewish people but as he puts it he says it's because I've read the end of the book and by which he means the Book of Revelation and again like hexa he sees Israel as playing a role in a battle not so
much between uh Israelis and Palestinians but as between christiandom versus The Real Enemy there's an episode of his show in which he talks about who's really behind Hamas and I tuned in thinking you know he was probably going to talk uh the various ideas and so on um and instead he sounded like the old Saturday Night Live character Satan Hamas is he argues demon filled again not a metaphor for him so this is the man who is sort of representing the United States and Israel now who is as fully fundamentalist as as the even the
furthest right element of uh the Israeli uh government right now and sees this as a holy war and again kind of like he Heth in which any step is Justified you are fighting for God and that's the end of the story for him je Charlotte um you have written this book the undertoe scenes from a slow Civil War you certainly have extensively followed white nationalists white supremacists where do Christian nationalists and Christian zionists fit into this picture I mean he calls himself a Christian Zionist you heard Huckabee and by the way he was the governor
of Arkansas his daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is now the governor of Arkansas and she was the spokesperson for the first uh president Trump um white house but where does he fit where do Christian zionists fit into this whole story and how do Jewish zionists relate to them and how does Israel people like Netanyahu what how do they rely on Christian zionists hucke likes to brag about his special relationship with Netanyahu and Israel has uh or right-wing Israel governments have said look Christian zionists are are are useful to us so we're going to support them in
fact uh the the right-wing Israeli governments said Christian zionists are actually our better American Allies than American Jews um uh but Christian Zionism has in some ways been folded into Christian nationalism every Christian Zionist is a Christian nationalist but not every Christian nationalist is a Christian Zionist Christian nationalism is the larger View and it tells us something more about what hakabe is doing when you go through his archive that so often when he's talking about Israel what he's really talking about is from his point of view a struggle for power on the Battleground that really
matters which is the United States um and so for instance uh he talks more when he wants to talk about Hamas he often talks about Harvard um he talks about Elites these sort of again this idea of the Enemy Within what happens in Israel is theologically important to him um but it's more useful politically in the United States and that's where it brings this backround to Christian nationalism this idea of a kind of not so much a Pious Nation as a holy war nation and the war is within Jeff Charlotte we want to thank you
so much for being with us journalist and author professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College author of the undertoe scenes from a slow Civil War we'll link to your piece meet Pete hegseth the man who will lead the entire US military a man deemed an extremist by the US Military
