Former “Fox & Friends” weekend host and Army National Guard combat veteran is Trump’s pick for defense secretary. Pete Hegseth appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee after weeks of meetings during which some senators have questioned his fitness for the role amid allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Hegseth was criticized for refusing to meet with any Democratic senators prior to his hearings.
It has been widely noted that the totality of Hegseth's writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the Secretary of Defense. In particular, there have been widespread concerns about Hegseth's excessive drinking habits. Hawaii Sentor Mazie 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.
During the confirmation hearing, Hegseth did not directly address the allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2017, a woman told police Hegseth sexually assaulted her, according to a detailed investigative report recently made public. 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 was not charged, but paid the woman a confidential settlement to head off a potential lawsuit.
Hegseth made token overtures to women and Black troops, an attempt to blunt some of the criticism of his previous comments that women should “straight up” not serve in combat and his suggestions that some Black troops may not be qualified. At the same time, he implied that the Pentagon had lowered standards for women to fight without giving examples of those standards. He also said that those standards have been eroded to meet diversity quotas, that should be under review.
Multiple senators noted that while Hegseth has railed on allegations that standards have been lowered for women in combat, they said Hegseth’s nomination would mark a lowering of standards for the position of Secretary of Defense.
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