The Wall Street Journal reported on the defense secretary’s hissy fit amid growing chaos.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly teed off on a high-ranking official he suspected of a leak, lewdly threatening him with a lie detector test.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday divulged the alleged details of the embattled Hegseth’s tantrum. When word got out Hegseth was setting up a classified briefing for Elon Musk on China last month, Donald Trump got angry amid Pentagon concerns over the DOGE leader’s business connections to China, the Journal wrote.

That’s when Hegseth lost it.

“I’ll hook you up to a fucking polygraph!” Hegseth blared at Navy Admiral Christopher Grady, two people familiar with the exchange told WSJ.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    15 hours ago

    The thing I hate most about conservatives is their obsession with pseudo science.

    Hey asshole! If a polygraph actually worked everyone would be hooked up to one during court hearings or major business deals. Byt they’d rather believe there is this magic technology that we don’t use because it wouldn’t be fair or some other imagined bullshit.

    • Bwaz@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      A red flag of undereducated people in authority over anything is if they think polygraphs indicate anything about whether someone is lying. It’s entirely fraudulent pseudo-science.

  • archonet@lemy.lol
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    20 hours ago

    my god it really is like the Nazi high command eating each other because “fuck that guy and his ambitions, I’ve got my own”

    this would be positively hilarious to watch if I weren’t American, neurodivergent, and gay.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    …lewdly threatening him with a lie detector test.

    Lewdly? I wouldn’t call threatening to, hook someone up to a “fucking” polygraph, lewd. I mean, unless they have some really freaky polygraphs at the pentagon made for really hardcore games of Truth of Dare.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      18 hours ago

      Yeah, I spotted that, too. It was stupid, but “lewd?” Who writes this stuff? Is it ALL AI these days?

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        It’s lewd because it’s dirty, in the sense that it has no scientific basis whatsoever.

        What could be dirtier than the intelligence head threatening staff with a fake test that can be easily doctored to portrait whatever you want about them?

        • tempest@lemmy.ca
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          15 hours ago

          It isn’t wrong, it’s just the less common usage in 2025 which is why it reeks of AI.

    • Psaldorn@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      It’s a fucking polygraph. They hook you up, then you have to get it on. For the baseline.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      You’ve clearly never been treated to a polygraph by me. It’s a sensual polygraph experience and baby girl, you’ll be telling me everything like the orca I tend to at the San Antonio SeaWorld.

      I got lectured about not using the sarcasm tag the other day. So, /completely serious

      /s

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        baby girl

        *Looks down at beard and moobs, shrugs*

        Okay, let’s do this. I think I can role-play an orca. Sounds fun.

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
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      15 hours ago

      “lewd” describes behavior, speech, or material that is sexually crude, obscene, or indecent. It works perfectly here unless you have online porn brain, then it sticks out.

  • TomMasz@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Cut him some slack, he’s doing as well as can be expected given his blood alcohol content.