CNN
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Pete Hegseth could not be more qualified to be Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense – even though a traditional president would certainly be considered unsuitable.
The former Fox News anchor faced off against Democrats Tuesday in one of the ugliest Cabinet confirmation hearings of recent administrations.
In the process, it created a blueprint for how the president-elect’s most provocative figures could handle their own hearings, including Pam Bondi, the nominee for attorney general who will be sworn in Wednesday.
By late Tuesday, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who had expressed concerns about Mr. Hegseth from the beginning, announced by the end of Tuesday that he would support Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation in favor of Mr. Trump’s victory.
In reality, Hegses was unsteady.
He is fully focused on the geopolitics of East Asia, one of the world’s most dangerous maritime hotspots, and has not given any answers on how President Trump will end the Ukraine war, leaving the U.S. He said little about the Middle East’s threats to security.
And Hegseth stoked concerns that Trump would treat his powers as unlimited. He declined to say whether he would order the military to shoot protesters if asked to do so by the next president, but he also warned that in line with President Trump’s expansionism, an invasion force could occupy Greenland and the Panama Canal. I decided not to exclude it.
But Trump prefers performance over detail. He likes subordinates who praise him and protect him. And Hegseth echoed his mentor by slamming the military’s diversity program, dismissing allegations about his personal life and excessive drinking as “slander” and refusing to apologize for past inflammatory statements.
With his zeal for partisan warfare, his apparently lukewarm regard for the Geneva Conventions, and his disdain for Washington’s power structure, he was the perfect embodiment of the kind of outright destruction President Trump craves for a second term. And Hegseth, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, posed as a “change agent” with “dust in his boots” ready to give the Pentagon a tough shake. In this mission, he joins working-class populists in the MAGA movement who are trying to “woke” and take the ax to a government they believe has failed.
Democratic lawmakers have strongly criticized Mr. Hegseth, highlighting his controversial history and arguing that he is completely unfit and inexperienced to run the world’s most dangerous military and military-industrial complex. denounced.
“I voted in favor of all of your predecessors, including those in the first Trump administration,” Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Hegseth. “Unfortunately, you lack the character, composure, and ability to hold the position of Secretary of Defense.”
If a senator as deeply involved in military affairs as Reid is accused of such personality traits, most nominations could be suppressed.
But there’s a reason why Trump is so cheerful. Before Christmas, Hegseth appeared to be in deep trouble as scandal swirled around him. But Republican lawmakers fully supported him during the hearing. Mr. Ernst, who had previously been skeptical of Mr. Hegseth and had come under fire from conservative media over his threat to contest in the primary, said on WHO radio in Des Moines on Tuesday, “He answered all my questions appropriately.” I was able to answer.” He added, “I support President Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.”
An adviser to Ernst told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny that his decision doesn’t automatically eliminate major challenges, but it does make it much more difficult to criticize and confront the senator.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised to bring Hegseth’s nomination to the floor as soon as it is reported by the committee, and Ernst’s support all but guarantees that will happen.
Hegseth’s militancy and loyalty to Trumpism have made Republicans more willing to defend him, and other controversial figures such as the FBI’s Kash Patel and the Department of Homeland Security’s Kristi Noem suggested that this may be the best strategy. South Dakota’s governor’s hearing was postponed until Friday, citing background check delays.
The most unusual moment of the hearing came when the usually mild-mannered Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine belittled Hegseth, citing his alcohol intake and personal life. The former FOX anchor has denied charges of sexual assault, which he has not been charged with. He previously said the encounter was consensual. But Kane said: “You admitted that you had sex with Wife 2 while you were married and you just had a child with Wife 3.” Kane asked if Hegseth could be trusted to uphold his oath to the Constitution if he could not be faithful to his wife. Mr Hegseth protested that he was “totally innocent” and had been “totally acquitted”, saying he was not a “perfect” person but had now reformed.
The plan was to use allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking on the job, both of which Mr. Hegseth denies, to help Sen. John Tower’s bid to become President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of defense. It seems that the intention was to use it for the same purpose that dashed hope.
But 2025 is not 1989, and the standards of an earlier era have given way to Republicans, who long ago pardoned President Trump’s personal, political, and legal transgressions, and who, Gaetz aside, are appear to be keen on extending tolerance to candidates.
Several other Democrats took turns pressing Mr. Hegseth over her past opposition to women serving in the military. Hegseth insisted it was not sexist, but that standards were lowered to reach standards for women in combat units. “It makes combat more difficult for everyone,” he said.
Warren presses Hegseth to change nomination
But Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused Hegseth of a “confirmation flip” by softening his stance on the issue in the days after he was selected for the Pentagon post. New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand accused Hegseth of defaming women, mothers, LGBTQ service members and Democratic members of Congress.
These are important questions. But this was also a political arena in which Hegseth was willing to fight. He was ready to jump into the culture wars in which President Trump had chosen him to take on establishment generals and the Pentagon’s diversity plans.
Hegseth is most uncomfortable with important policy details, national security issues, and legal issues that are directly related to the job he wants to hold. Democrats, including Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, have been most effective in highlighting the fragility of the nomination while pursuing those areas. It was spot on.
Mr. Duckworth asked Mr. Hegseth to name at least one close ally of the United States in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and how many countries were involved in it. Mr. Hegseth began talking about South Korea, Japan, and Australia, none of which are included in the 10-member group that includes Thailand and the Philippines, two of America’s key treaty allies.
Hirono asked Hegseth, “Are you going to carry out President Trump’s order to seize by force Greenland, a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally, or follow the order to seize the Panama Canal?” He responded unfairly by saying that Trump received “77 million votes to be the legitimate commander in chief.”
Slotkin has only been in the Senate for about a week. But a former U.S. representative and CIA analyst who has visited Iraq three times has come up with some of the most effective questions for Democrats. She asked if President Trump would “stand on the edge” and resist if he issues an illegal order. “I reject the premise that President Trump would issue an illegal order,” Hegseth said.
Republicans defended Hegseth, praising his combat experience and accusing Democrats of hypocrisy.
“There’s a lot of talk about qualifications. … But there are a lot of senators here that I can’t get on the board because you have to be old enough to be a senator and live in a state and be a U.S. citizen. Except for one thing, they’re not qualified,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Collins pressures Republican senators for defending Hegseth
Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, another newcomer to the committee who was elected last fall, asked Hegseth about the diameter of an M4A1 bullet, how many rounds fit in an M4 rifle, and how many push-ups he could do. . “You really represent a qualification that shows you understand what warfighters are dealing with every day on the battlefield,” the retired Navy SEAL told Hegseth. “You understand what happens on the front lines where our troops are.”
It’s great that the defense secretary nominee is close to the military. And Mr. Hegseth’s status as an “outlier candidate,” in the words of one of his sponsors, former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, is true to Mr. Trump’s successful outsider mystique. be. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance wrote to .
But the Pentagon chief needs more than just an understanding of guns and infantry. They must be good diplomats steeped in policy who can defuse dangerous conflicts that could escalate into war. And they need to be able to go head-to-head with the grizzled defense supremacists of Russia and China with years of experience. It is also important to explain whether the president is abiding by the law.
Leon Panetta, a Democrat who served as secretary of defense, White House chief of staff and CIA director, told CNN’s Dana Bash that winning Hegseth’s confirmation was a “close call.” “The main question[the senator]needs to reach a verdict is whether he can be trusted to tell the truth, because his primary role as secretary of defense is to tell the truth to the president.” To the people. ”
There is little such introspection among many of the Republican senators in the chamber who will decide Mr. Hegseth’s fate. This is not surprising, as Republicans increasingly seem to want to avoid confrontation with the new president. During his nine years in politics, the new president has consistently redefined conventional notions of who is worthy of the highest office.
