WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators immediately began arguing Tuesday over President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee praised the “unconventional” choice and the top Democrat warned of “extremely alarming” allegations against him.
Hegesth is calling himself a “change agent” as senators decide whether the former combat veteran and television news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military.
His previous experience in the Army National Guard is widely viewed as an asset to the job, but he also brings with him a harrowing record of past statements and actions, including allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and derogatory views of women in military combat roles and minorities and “Woke” generals. He has vowed not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed as head of the Pentagon.
“It’s time to put someone with dust on their boots in charge. “An agent of change,” Hegseth will tell senators in prepared remarks from his opening statement, obtained by The Associated Press.
Trump supported his choice, saying in a morning post that Hegseth had “my full and unconditional support” in which he wished the candidate “good luck.”
Hegseth is among Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet members, but Republican allies are determined to make him a cause célèbre for Trump’s approach to governing amid the country’s culture wars. Outside groups, including those linked to the Heritage Foundation, are running costly campaigns to support Hegseth’s bid.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chairman, said Hegseth is admittedly an “unconventional candidate.”
Wicker compared Hegseth to Trump himself, dismissed the various allegations against him as unfounded and said he would “bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the bureaucracy.”
But Sen. Jack Reed, D.R.I. said flatly, “I don’t believe you are qualified for the overwhelming demands of this job.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing is the start of a week-long marathon as senators begin examining Trump’s choices for more than a dozen top administration positions. The Republican-led Senate is eager to have some of Trump’s proposals ready for confirmation as early as Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, despite possible opposition on both sides of the ballot. With a narrow GOP majority, they need almost all Republicans to support Trump’s election if Democrats oppose it.
Hegseth faces perhaps the most hard path to confirmation. He will have to contend with allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied, and his own comments that are far from the military mainstream, although he has the support of some veterans groups that say his past indiscretions are not as vital as his Focus on improving military combat readiness.
“He will be torn. He is humiliated. He’s going to be talked about,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said at an event where former Navy SEALs, Army special forces and Marines supported the candidate. “But we will get him over the finish line.”
And Hegseth will have to answer for his comments that women should “straight up” not take on combat roles in the military, a view he has softened after recent meetings with senators. Two former female combat veterans, Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa and Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, are among those questioning him from the podium.
“He can try to tone down his comments about women in combat as much as he wants, but we know what he’s thinking, right?” said Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost her legs and part of her right arm The Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting in the Army National Guard was shot down. “He is the most unqualified person ever nominated to be Secretary of Defense.”
Many senators have not yet met with Hegseth and most do not have access to his FBI background check because only committee heads have been informed of the results. According to a person familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss it, Hegseth’s background check appeared to be deficient and no modern information was identified or produced about him beyond what is already publicly known about him .
In many ways, the Hegseth hearing is likely to follow the pattern of Trump’s first term, when one of his nominees for Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, was under intense scrutiny since he was a teenager because of allegations of sexual assault but redeemed himself through confirmation recovered the high court.
Kavanaugh fought back vigorously during a heated hearing in 2018, portraying the sexual assault allegations against him as a smear against liberal lawmakers and outside groups that opposed his court record.
Asked for advice for Hegseth, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, pointed to this earlier example.
“Go back and watch videos of the Kavanaugh hearings — get an idea,” he said.
Hegseth was largely unknown on Capitol Hill when Trump picked him for the top Pentagon job.
As a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” he had been on the network’s staff since 2014 and apparently caught the attention of the president-elect, who is an avid consumer of television and news networks in particular.
Hegseth, 44, attended Princeton University and served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021. He deployed to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011 and received two Bronze Stars. But he lacks senior military and national security experience.
In 2017, a woman told police that Hegseth sexually abused her, according to a detailed investigative report recently released. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing and told police at the time that the encounter at a Republican women’s event in California was consensual. He later paid the woman a confidential settlement to avert a possible lawsuit.
If confirmed, Hegseth would inherit a military facing a series of crises on the global stage and domestic challenges in recruiting, retaining and ongoing funding of service members.
In addition to being a key national security adviser to the president, the defense secretary leads a massive organization with nearly 2.1 million military personnel, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of about $850 billion.
The secretary is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed abroad and at sea, including in combat zones where they are under attack, such as Syria and Iraq and in the waters around Yemen. The Secretary shall make any final recommendations to the President regarding which units will be deployed, where they will go, and how long they will stay.
The Secretary’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the U.S. military is ready, trained and equipped to meet any mission. But the secretary must also ensure that American troops are sheltered and secure at home, with adequate housing, health care, pay and support for programs that address suicide, sexual assault and financial fraud.
Pentagon chiefs also regularly travel around the world and meet with international leaders on a variety of security issues, including U.S. military assistance, counterterrorism support, troop presence and global coalition building. And they play a key role in NATO as an vital partner for allies across the region.
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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
