Hours of hearings exposed numerous problems as to the fitness of Pete Hegseth to serve as US Secretary of Defense. His long and disturbing history of disqualifying personal and professional behavior have been well documented, as have many of his past statements ands writings about war crimes (which he seems to be OK with), banning women from combat, and criticism of NATO.

But his testimony yesterday also revealed so much: a lack of experience managing large organizations (he acknowledged managing 100 at most); basic knowledge of the role of the Defense Secretary and the world (he couldn’t name the countries of ASEAN); an unwillingness to commit to abiding by the Constitution when faced with illegal orders; and a refusal to commit to not “shoot[ing] protesters in the legs” if ordered to do so. The last question is not a hypothetical—in his first term, Trump asked his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper why US soldiers couldn’t shoot domestic protesters in the legs.

All indications are that Hegseth will be confirmed despite all these problems.

This is not a test of Pete Hegseth. He’s already failed. Wholly unfit.

It is a test of the US Senate, and checks and balances. And it now looks pretty clear that the GOP Senate will fail the test.

Donald Trump has run them all over.

The question is: how low will Trump have to go for the GOP majority to do its job?