Elizabeth Warren complains about Pete Hegseth's Christian tattoo: 'Insider threat'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., fired off a 33-page letter earlier this week to Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, citing his Christian tattoo, among other issues, to suggest the U.S. Army veteran is unfit for office and could pose an "insider threat."
"I am deeply concerned by the many ways in which your behavior and rhetoric indicates that you are unfit to lead the Department of Defense," Warren wrote in the letter to Hegseth on Monday.
"Your confirmation as Secretary of Defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of servicemembers who are willing to sacrifice for our country."
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Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth in which she claims that having a Deus Vult tattoo, Latin for “God’s will” and a Christian motto that dates back to the First Crusade, makes him a “potential insider threat.” pic.twitter.com/4lySEYI9vn
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Warren noted that Hegseth was taken off duty with the District of Columbia National Guard for President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021.
"You were also removed from President Biden's inauguration because of concerns that you were an insider threat after reports that your 'Deus Vult' tattoo 'was a Christian expression associated with right-wing extremism,'" she wrote.
"We cannot have a Defense Secretary whose fellow servicemembers feel concerned enough about to report as a potential insider threat."
Warren was referring to when fellow National Guardsman DeRicko Gaither flagged his superiors about the "Deus Vult" tattoo emblazoned on Hegseth's right bicep.
Gaither, a master sergeant, alleged in his letter that the purpose of Hegseth's "White-Supremacist" tattoo "is to invoke the myth of a white Christian (i.e. Catholic) medieval past that wishes to ignore the actual demographics and theological state of Catholicism today."
Shortly after his orders were revoked for Biden's inauguration, a disgusted Hegseth left active duty.
"Deus vult," which translates "God wills it," is the Latin phrase throngs of people shouted upon hearing Pope Urban II's speech that ignited the First Crusade in 1095.
The pope's outdoor address during the Council of Clermont in France reportedly detailed the violent abuses and desecrations that Muslims were inflicting upon Christians and their holy sites in the East, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Hegseth also has a Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest, which detractors have incorrectly claimed is a white supremacist or Nazi symbol.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, criticized Warren's letter in a statement to the New York Post.
"Sen. Warren's letter to Pete Hegseth is exactly what the American voters rejected on Nov. 5. Instead of focusing on 'woke' policies that have weakened our national defense, the voters gave a mandate to rebuild our military, and that's exactly what a reform-minded Secretary of Defense like Pete Hegseth will do," he said.
"Senator Warren's letter proves why ideologically driven college professors have no place driving their social agenda at the Department of Defense," he added.
Hegseth is scheduled to face a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee next week.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
