Democrats assail Hegseth as too divisive, inexperienced to run Pentagon

Senate Democrats on Tuesday hammered Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, in an early test of Republican loyalty as lawmakers take up the incoming administration’s slate of unconventional and contentious Cabinet picks.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host and soldier in the Army National Guard, has written and commented extensively on his beliefs that Democrats are “America-wreckers,” that women do not belong in combat and that international laws meant to limit civilian casualties are a hindrance to successful war-fighting.

His selection also has been plagued by claims of alleged misconduct, ranging from an alleged sexual assault in 2017 to accusations of financial mismanagement, excessive drinking and sexism in his previous jobs – all of which he denies.

“The totality of your own 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,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, said during his opening remarks.

Tuesday’s hearing quickly became a heated, rhetorical battle along partisan lines – marked at times by raised voices – as Democrats repeatedly quoted Hegseth’s divisive past statements and Republicans mounted a vocal defense of his record, offered him opportunities to clarify controversial views, and chastised Democrats for “hypocrisy” and being “ignorant of the facts.”

There was little time overall spent examining the details of Hegseth’s strategy for meeting the complex threats that America faces from Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries.

Before his work at Fox, Hegseth led small numbers of troops while deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and he had presided briefly over two veterans advocacy groups. Democrats spotlighted reporting in the news media that Hegseth had been forced out of his position at those organizations after complaints he mismanaged their funds.

They noted, too, that he has never presided over a group of people larger than “a medium-sized American company” and called him unqualified to lead the sprawling Pentagon – where he would oversee more than 3 million military and civilian personnel, the vast U.S. nuclear arsenal and an annual budget of more than $800 billion.

Democrats read Hegseth his own quotes asserting that the U.S. military “should not have women in combat roles” and that women in combat are “likely to be objectified by the enemy and their own nation in the moral realms of war.” And they ridiculed what Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, called a stunning “11th hour conversion” when following his selection as Trump’s choice for defense secretary he began saying that women do belong in combat.

Hegseth, who faced his critics in a blue suit bearing an American-flag-patterned pocket square, dismissed allegations of past personal misconduct as the machinations of a biased news media out “to destroy” him.

“And why do they want to destroy me? Because I’m a change agent, and I threaten them if Donald Trump is willing to choose me, to empower me, to bring the Defense Department back to what it really should be,” Hegseth said.

“Anonymous smears,” he responded repeatedly as Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, read from a list of allegations, reported in news outlets, that Hegseth had to be carried out of events due to intoxication.

Republicans, for their part, sought to poke holes in Democrats’ criticism. They praised Hegseth for being “a breath of fresh air” and offered sympathetic accounts written by women service members and former colleagues of Hegseth’s to be entered into the hearing’s official record.

“Admittedly this nomination is unconventional. The nominee is unconventional” – just like Trump was when he ran for office, the Armed Services Committee’s Republican chairman, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi(Mississippi), said at the opening of the hearing.

“How many senators have got a divorce for cheating on their wives?” asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma. How many have cast votes while drunk, he asked, after Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, questioned Hegseth about his personal life. “We’ve all made mistakes.”

“I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” Hegseth told the committee.

In the most promising sign for Hegseth’s chances of getting confirmed, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who had previously expressed skepticism about Hegseth, focused her questioning on his interest in auditing the Pentagon and stressed that they’d had good conversations about his views on women in combat. Hegseth can lose only three Republican votes and still get confirmed, given that he’s unlikely to pick up any Democratic votes.

Hegseth has called on the next president to overhaul America’s armed forces, eliminating what he calls “woke” ideologies such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and the people who promote them. And he predicted a “recruiting renaissance” after Trump takes office and reverses the “woke” policies advanced by President Joe Biden.

“Lots of people need to be fired,” he wrote in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”

But he offered few specifics during the hearing as to how he would run the Defense Department. He said he wants to see the military disentangled from the Middle East and refocused on China, a common refrain in Washington from both sides of the aisle in recent years. He said he wants to see the war in Ukraine end and hopes it will be on terms favorable to Kyiv.

He avoided answering questions about whether he would defy any illegal orders from the president, or if he would use the military to staff migrant detention centers, as Trump has proposed. He deferred to Trump’s decision-making on whether the Defense Department would cover the expenses of service members who must travel out of state to seek abortions.

Hegseth dodged queries from Democrats about his opposition to international law and rules of engagement governing the use of force on the battlefield, which he has said he believes restrict U.S. forces from doing what they need to do to win wars.

“Modern warfighters fight lawyers as much as we fight bad guys,” he wrote in his 2024 book, lamenting that men swept up by his unit in Iraq, and whom he guarded at Guantánamo, benefited from access to lawyers. “Our enemies should get bullets, not attorneys. The fact that we don’t do what is necessary is the reason wars become endless,” he wrote.

“Your definition of lethality seems to embrace those who do commit war crimes, rather than those who stand up and say, ‘This is not right,’” Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, said during the hearing. He then pressed Hegseth to define a “JAG-off” – a crass term Hegseth used in his last book to deride military attorneys who advise commanders on the rules of engagement to minimize civilian casualties. JAG is short for Judge Advocate General.

After some reluctance, Hegseth explained what the term meant.

“It would be a JAG officer who put his or her own priorities in front of the warfighters. … Those making the tough calls on the front lines.”