WASHINGTON — At the confirmation hearing on whether the veteran, Fox News personality and accused perpetrator of sexual misconduct is fit to lead the nation’s military and its nearly $900 billion budget, senators struggled to resolve opposing issues to highlight Pete Hegseth’s life.
Lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned the nominee for defense secretary for just over four hours. This was the first of many hearings to come to make President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet selections. Trump takes office in six days.
Senators on the Republican-led committee praised Hegseth for his “warrior ethos.” The former cable host is the author of several books in which, among other things, he compared newfangled patriotism to the Crusades and criticized the Pentagon’s leadership, including his 2024 book “War on the Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of Men Who Keep Us.” Free.”
Committee Chairman Roger Wicker described Hegseth as an “unconventional” choice and someone who will “put a quick end to destructive distractions like DEI,” a shorthand for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Mr. Hegseth will bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the bureaucracy. He will focus relentlessly on warfare and the military’s core missions, preventing wars and winning those we need to lead,” said the Mississippi Republican.
But the committee’s ranking member, Jack Reed, criticized Hegseth’s nomination, telling him: “The totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding a leadership position in the military, let alone confirmation as secretary of defense.”
“Mr. Hegseth, I hope you will explain why you believe such diversity weakens the military and how you propose to reverse this without undermining military leadership and harming readiness, recruitment and retention.” said the Rhode Island Democrat, who also questioned Hegseth’s recent claim in his book against the Geneva Conventions.
Dust on his boots
Hegseth, sitting before the committee in a blue jacket, red-striped tie and American flag pocket square, vowed to be a “change agent” and agreed with Trump that “it’s time to dust someone off.” “To give boots the helm.”
“Like many of my generation, I was there. I have led troops in battle. I’ve been on patrol for days. I pulled the trigger from a distance, heard bullets whiz by, handcuffed insurgents, called in air support, led medevacs, dodged IEDs, pulled out bodies and knelt before a battlefield cross,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth was interrupted three times by screaming audience members in the first minutes of his opening speech.
In the weeks since Trump nominated Hegseth, allegations have been made sexual assaultHarassment, Alcohol abuse Financial mismanagement at nonprofit veterans organizations has come to featherlight against the 44-year-old, who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hegseth told Wicker he attributed the allegations to a “coordinated smear campaign” from “anonymous sources.”
“I am not a perfect person like Jesus and Jenny saved by the grace of God,” he said, referring to his third wife, television producer Jennifer Hegseth, who sat behind him.
At numerous points in the hearing, Wicker entered letters into the record attesting to Hegseth’s character, including from former colleagues at Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, two veterans service organizations he led after his time as an Army infantry officer.
Women in combat roles?
During the hearing, several female committee members, including veterans who served in civilian, military and intelligence roles, pressed Hegseth on his years of denigration of women in the military.
He didn’t until November 7th told Podcast host Shawn Ryan: “I say clearly, we should not have women in combat roles.”
Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, bluntly called on Hegseth to formally declare that women should remain in combat roles because they meet “very, very high standards.”
“My answer is yes, exactly as you put it,” Hegseth said.
In an impassioned criticism, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran from Illinois, said: “How can we expect these warriors to train and perform to the absolute highest standards when you are asking us to lower the standards to make you Secretary of Defense.” “Just because you’re friends with our president-elect?”
Duckworth lost both legs and lost partial operate of her right arm when a rocket-propelled grenade shot down her Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad.
Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said Hegseth appeared to have “converted in the last few weeks.”
“You wrote in your book just last year, which is the book ‘War on Warriors’: ‘But if we want to send our boys into battle, and they’re supposed to be boys, we have to let them loose to win.’ …Which one is it? Is it? Can only boys fight? I mean, you testified here today that you believe in women in combat.”
Managing an organization
Democratic senators also questioned Hegseth’s ability to manage an organization’s finances.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut held up tax records from Hegseth’s tenure at the Concerned Veterans of America that he said showed budget deficits and up to $75,000 in debt from credit card transactions.
“This is not the type of financial management we want in the Defense Department,” Blumenthal said.
“I don’t think you can tell this committee or the people of America that you are qualified to lead them. I would support you as Pentagon spokesman, I do not dispute your communication skills,” Blumenthal said.
Hegseth told the committee that one of his top priorities was getting a immaculate audit of Pentagon spending.
Money from television and book sales
Hegseth’s own financial disclosure shows that he has earned just over $4.6 million as a Fox News host since 2022.
Hegseth, who lives in Tennessee, reported a $348,000 advance for his book “War on Warriors” and royalties of $100,001 to $1 million. The disclosure form only requires ranges, not specific dollar amounts.
He also reported an income of just under $1 million Talk he has given for the last two years.
Additionally, Hegseth reported royalties in the range of $100,001 to $1 million for his 2022 book “Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation.” The book, co-authored with David Goodwin, argues for a “classic” Christian education system and claims to reveal the “untold story of the progressive plan to neutralize the base of our republic,” according to a summary on the book’s official website.
In June 2022, while Hegseth is hosting “Fox and Friends Weekend.” scribbled“Return to Sender” on his Harvard diploma — he deleted the word “Harvard” and replaced it with “Critical Theory” — telling viewers he didn’t want it anymore.
In 2020, Hegseth delivered Remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he advocated for a “battle for the soul of America” and promoted his book entitled “American Crusade.”
He drew a through line from the military campaigns of the 11th century, when he said, “Europe was actually threatened by Islamic hordes,” to the American Revolution, to 2016, when “a country stood up and said ‘We.’ “We will make America great again.”
“We’re living in a similar moment,” Hegseth told the CPAC audience.
When Hegseth presented his book “In the Arena” to an audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation in 2016, he railed against many cultural issues and contrasted them with Teddy Roosevelt’s notable Arena speech in Paris, around which his book was centered.
“We teach our children to be wimps. We make women out of our men and men out of women,” he said.
On the subject of immigration in Europe, Hegseth said“If you forget who you are and don’t demand at some level loyalty and assimilation from populations that separate and then have ten children while you have one, then the most popular name in London becomes Mohammed.” newborn boys .”
Hegseth started working at Fox News in 2014.
In July 2010, Hegseth stated against Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court over her “unseemly” treatment of military recruiters at Harvard in 2004.
Hegseth joined the Army ROTC during his undergraduate studies at Princeton University in the early 2000s.
Last updated on January 14, 2025 at 4:41 p.m
