Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are beginning their nomination process this week, starting with Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. The hearing opened Tuesday as senators question whether the former combat veteran and TV news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military.
Here’s the latest:
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth questioned Hegseth on his knowledge of geopolitics
And she questioned Hegseth’s experience in global affairs and whether he had ever conducted an audit of his non-profits in a manner similar to the audit he intends to carry out at the Pentagon.
Hegseth said his leadership of the charities had been “mischaracterized” but did not answer Duckworth’s question. Flanked by a portrait of the Soldier’s Creed by which all army service members are expected to live, Duckworth told Hegseth troops “cannot be led by someone who is not competent,” directing her critique at President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.
A comment from Sen. Roger Wicker drew applause
The packed audience broke out into brief applause after the committee chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker told Hegseth “it seems to me that you’ve supervised far more people than the average United States senator.”
The Mississippi Republican’s comments came after Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., inquired why senators should support him despite him not ever leading an organization of comparable size to the military.
An exchange between Hegseth and Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew laughter from the audience
Warren, a Democrat, asked Hegseth whether he’d commit to not serving in the defense industry for ten years after his service should he become defense secretary. Hegseth said he had not given the issue any thought.
“You are quite sure every general who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years but you’re not willing to make that same pledge?” Warren asked.
“I’m not a general, senator,” Hegseth replied.
Both Hegseth and Warren have said generals and other high-ranking officials should not be allowed to work for private defense contractors for at least a decade after their service in the armed forces.
The military’s prioritization of weeding out extremism was misplaced, Hegseth says
He cited a report that around 100 people were identified as extremists in the military, a number he considered small and said were “mostly gang related.”
“Things like focusing on extremism, senator, have created a climate inside our military that feel political when it has hasn’t ever been political,” Hegseth said.
“Those are the types of things that are going to change,” he promised. He added that Trump’s broader strategy and personality would help ease recruitment challenges the military has faced in recent years.
“There’s no better recruiter for our military, in my mind, than President Donald Trump,” Hegseth said.
He promised the administration would be “getting anything that isn’t related to meritocracy” out of the military, multiple times claiming lawmakers and higher level military officials have been “injecting DEI” that “divides” the armed services. He argued that the Pentagon should instead focus on “how capable you are of doing your job.”
Hegseth was questioned about his tattoos
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer asked about Hegseth’s tattoos, which have come under question for their association and use by White Nationalist groups.
However Cramer did not focus on the “Deus Vult” tattoo that got Hegseth flagged as a potential “insider threat.” Instead Cramer focused on the Jerusalem Cross — which was not flagged and was not the reason Hegseth was pulled from duty.
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan defended Hegseth
And the Alaska senator called it “a ridiculous narrative” that the military has a serious problem with extremism or is “systemically racist.”
Sullivan called the Biden administration’s declarations early in the administration that they would prioritize curbing extremism a “shameful” smear of the armed services. The Biden administration focused on curbing white nationalist recruitment of service members and veterans.
Hegseth added in an exchange that the military is “one of the least racist institutions in our country” to which Sullivan replied it is “one of the greatest civil rights organizations in the United States.” The federal government integrated the military years before the Civil Rights Act.
Hegseth had a less combative exchange with Republican Sen. Joni Ernst
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran and sexual assault survivor, ended up being far less combative in her exchange with Hegseth.
Ernst was cordial with Hegseth and focused primarily on the Department of Defense passing a financial audit.
Ernst is one of the three critical votes Hegseth cannot afford to lose in his confirmation.
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono engaged in a tense exchange with Hegseth
It was over news reports that he had drank on the job while employed at Fox News and elsewhere.
Hirono directly asked Hegseth if he would commit to not drinking while in service, which she called “a 24/7 job,” and after a tense back and forth she concluded he would not.
Hirono also asked him whether he’d follow orders from Donald Trump to invade Greenland, which is controlled by NATO-ally Denmark, occupy the Panama Canal or shoot protestors of the incoming administration in the leg. Hegseth cited the election and a need for strategic ambiguity as reasons he could not answer the questions. Hirono concluded that he would follow such commands.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal inquired into the tax returns of two veterans support non-profits
The Democratic senator noted that Hegseth had been pushed out of one non-profit due to dissatisfaction from donors, to which Hegseth replied that he spent the interceding time obtaining a degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.
At one organization Hegseth led from 2011 to 2016, Blumenthal noted that during several years of his management the organization “had deep debts including credit card transaction debts of about 75,000. That isn’t the kind of fiscal management we want at the Department of Defense.”
Blumenthal told Hegseth he would support him for a communications job but not to lead the Defense Department.
“I would support you as a spokesperson to the Pentagon,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t dispute your communication skills.”
Hegseth has made accusations that standards have been lowered to allow women in combat
And he continued to tout those claims even as senior female lawmakers who’ve served on the committee for years, including Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, asked him for one specific example of standards being changed for women.
Hegseth did not provide one, instead deferring to interviews he’d conducted for his book “War on Warriors,” that it was what he was told by troops.
A senior defense official said “the standards for military service have not been lowered,” and that the standards are based on each field and based on ability, not gender.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand hammered Hegseth over his views on women in combat
Shaheen noted that Hegseth has said publicly: “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” But has since then said more generally he supports women in the military.
“Which is it?” Shaheen demanded, adding, “I appreciate your 11th hour conversion.”
She submitted for the record a chapter of his book that outlines his opposition to women in combat. She also asked whether that meant he did not think the two female senators who served in the military are less capable.
Gillibrand told Hegseth his quotes about women are terrible and harmful to morale.
“You will have to change how you see women to do this job,” she said.
Hegseth faces a Senate committee that includes several women
As Pete Hegseth’s stance on the role of women in the military comes under questioning by both Democratic and Republican senators, he faces a committee with several women combat and foreign policy leaders.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who’s a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, has been an advocate for women in the military and women’s rights globally. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are both combat veterans who sit on the committee.
Freshman Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., served in the intelligence community. And a narrow majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee are women, including a majority of its Democratic members.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen asked multiple questions about Hegseth’s stances on women in the military
Just after her questions, committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker motioned to introduce five testimonials from women who had served in the military in support of Hegseth’s nomination.
Hegseth was combative in the face of questions from Democrat Ranking Member Reed
Hegseth often talked past Reed’s questions and refused to defer to the senior member as he tried to get his questions answered.
In one particular exchange, Hegseth scoffed as Reed asked him to explain what a “JAG Off” was — responding to Reed that “I don’t think I need to” because troops knew what it was. Only after further pressure from Reed did Hegseth say it was a military lawyer who “put their own priorities in front of the warfighters.”
Would Hegseth be the first defense secretary who’s been on the font lines in combat?
The argument that Hegseth would be the first door-kicker or service member to serve on the front lines in combat to become defense secretary has continued to evolve and become far more specific.
An array of previous secretaries have had combat service, dodging bombs and leading troops into the fight, including current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who led the invasion into Iraq.
On Tuesday, the assertion was whittled down to Hegseth being the first “to have served as a junior officer on the front lines, not in the headquarters, on the front lines in the War on Terror.”
It’s not clear how “junior” an officer they had to be.
Lt. Col. Jim Mattis fought in the Gulf War — he later retired as a four-star general and was Trump’s first defense secretary. And Trump’s final acting Pentagon chief, Chris Miller, served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army special forces officer. He later retired as a colonel.
Chuck Hagel was a first: the first former enlisted soldier to become defense secretary, and he served as a sergeant on the front lines in Vietnam.
Sen. Reed pressed Hegseth on his opposition to diversity initiatives in the military
Ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat, noted that the military was a forerunner in American society on racial integration efforts and other inclusive standards.
Hegseth said that it was “precisely right the military was a forerunner in courageous racial integration in ways no other institutions were willing to do” but argued that modern diversity and inclusion policies “divide” current troops and didn’t prioritize “meritocracy.”
Reed replied that Hegseth’s statements were “a political view” that he repeated in harsher terms without mentioning meritocracy in past statements.
Reed said Hegseth’s intention was to “politicize the military in favor of your particular position” and would harm “the professionalism of the United States military.”
Sen. Wicker denies request to release FBI report to the full committee
While Reed and Wicker were maintaining a bipartisan tone, Wicker denied Reed’s requests to release the FBI report to the fuller committee and denied a request to allow members a second round of questioning.
Ranking member Jack Reed called the FBI investigation ‘insufficient’
“There are still FBI obligations to talk to people. They have not had access to the forensic audit” of Hegseth’s time at the head of a veteran’s advocacy group where he is facing questions of financial mismanagement, the Democrat said.
Hegseth criticizes the accusations made against him
Hegseth called the accusations of drinking and womanizing he would face from “left wing media” on “second and third hand accounts” a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us.” Hegseth said the attacks were about Trump, not him.
He did not specifically address any of the accusations and did not tell Chairman Wicker that he did not drink or womanize.
Several more protestors jumped out from the audience
Wearing camouflage fatigues, the protestors stood on their chairs and began condemning Hegseth throughout his opening remarks. Each was swiftly dragged out from the hearing by Capitol Police.
One woman jumped up and yelled that her veteran father “had committed suicide after his service and you’re sending money to bomb babies…every veteran in here needs to speak up” she screamed as she was ushered out of the room. Another yelled that Hegseth supported “murdering babies…that’s the real recruiting crisis” he screamed as three officers carried him by his arms and legs out.
Several other people were approached by police and directed out of the room without any clear coercion.
More from Hegseth’s opening remarks
Hegseth in his opening remarks Tuesday said “officers and enlisted, Black and white, young and old, men and women, all Americans, all warriors — this hearing is for you. Thank you for figuratively, and literally, having my back. I pledge to do the same for you. All of you.”
Hegseth struck a far different tone in his opening remarks than he did in his books
Comments in his books included inflammatory passages questioning the capabilities of Black troops — like a passage in “War on Warriors” that “we can assume that 17 percent of all Black officers in the Air Force are promoted simply because of how they look,” and questioning the value of women serving in combat.
As Hegseth spoke, a protester calling him a misogynist was removed from the hearing
