Republicans Salute Hegseth at Confirmation Hearing

After the hearing wrapped up, Hegseth was treated as a hero by his supporters. He embraced his wife and a long line of well-wishers. He hugged many people — stretching his suit sleeves so that part of his “We the People” tattoo was visible — and took time to pose for selfies with fans. He eventually left to applause from those who remained. Needless to say, he did not take any questions from reporters.

The Pete Hegseth hearing was very appropriately brought to a close when the committee’s junior Republican Tim Sheehy of Montana asked the nominee a series of questions to establish what an experienced war fighter he was, including the dimensions of various items of ordinance, and most remarkably, his capacity for performing push-ups. The implied suggestion, which closely follows the narrative set out for Hegseth by his sponsors and backers, is that “dust on the boots” and being bloodied in combat are the only qualifications needed for a secretary of Defense in this day and age. Presumably everything else our troops need will be supplied by the non-veteran in the White House, whose main military experience is in commissioning parades and issuing constitutionally questionable orders.

During his allotted time, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, questioned Hegseth on the numerous allegations of excessive drinking that have emerged since his nomination.

One by one, Kelly asked Hegseth about individual incidents that have been reported from Hegseth’s time leading Concerned Veterans of America, and Hegseth, who has long denied the claims, rejected them as false.

“An event in North Carolina, drunk in front of three young female staff members after you had instituted a no-alcohol policy, then reversed it. True or false?,” Kelly asked. “Anonymous smears,” Hegseth responded.

“December of 2014 at the CVA Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. Is that true or false?,” Kelly asked. Hegseth again said, “Anonymous smears.” Kelly continued, “Another time, a CVA staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus. Is that true or false?” “Anonymous smears,” Hegseth repeated.

When repeatedly asked by Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona about whether specific allegations of workplace drunkenness were true or false, Hegseth responds by calling them “anonymous smears,” which, as an answer, does not opine on whether the allegations were true or not.

With just two senators to go after Eric Schmitt finishes his attack on the “cultural Marxism” of the Biden administration, it’s pretty clear that Hegseth has so far cleared the very low bar Armed Services Committee Republicans have set for him. Not one of them has showed anything other than deference to and support from the nominee, which means that any controversy Committee Democrats might raise or explore will be dismissed as “partisan politics” by Trump supporters and much of the mainstream media. You have to say that the nominee and his handlers did a good job preparing for this hearing, though it’s clear they may have relied on the implicit threat of a primary challenge for any Republican breaking ranks.

In a hearing already distinctive for its frequent religious references, Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin dismissed questions about Hegseth’s qualifications by suggesting that he’s as qualified as any of the senators interrogating him, who are guilty of the hypocrisy Jesus called out so often. He specifically charged that senators showed up drunk for night sessions and that all of them are morally flawed. And in the altar call heard so often in this strange hearing, Mullin thanked God and his wife for forgiving him of his sins, just as Hegseth should be forgiven.

Prior to today’s hearing, Hegseth notably did not meet with any of the Democrats that serve on the Armed Services Committee other than ranking member Jack Reed — despite sitting down with all of their Republican counterparts. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan raised the issue.

“Was there a reason that you were afraid to have one-on-one meetings with some of my colleagues before the hearing?” he asked. Hegseth insisted that this was merely a scheduling issue. “Senator, I know there was a great deal of outreach to multiple offices. Schedules get full. There’s a lot going on. And I welcome the opportunity, pending my schedule, to have an opportunity to sit down,” Hegseth said.

In a hallucinatory exchange with Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, Hegseth eagerly agreed with the former football coach’s assertions that the military academies have abandoned their mission in order to serve as “woke universities” and “breeding grounds of leftism.” The Trump administration, said the nominee, will purge the academies and produce a recruiting bonanza! It would be interesting to ask current and recent cadets and midshipmen if West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs are now soft beds of social-science indoctrination. Probably not.

After Senator Elizabeth Warren once again confronted the Pentagon nominee with his long record of expressing doubts and even contempt for the capacity of women to serve in combat roles in the military, and his sudden commitment to equality of women in the military now that he’s a Cabinet aspirant, Hegseth claimed consistent concern for equal standards for all “war fighters.” It just isn’t very compelling. He should just say Jesus Christ has redeemed him from sexism as well as adultery and other sins of the flesh. But I doubt his Jesus is so “woke.”

Each senator is limited to seven total minutes of question and answer with the Defense Department nominee. One of Hegseth’s key tools in the course of dealing with hostile questioning has been the filibuster. He talks and talks and talks and answers questions that have not been asked in effort to run out the clock on Democrats and deprive them of a gotcha moment.

In an extended exchange with independent (caucusing with Democrats) Senator Angus King, Hegseth claimed to acknowledge the Geneva Convention protocols and other international and domestic laws condemning war crimes, but with a maddening lack of specificity he called for ending enforcement of these laws and rules when they might interfere with battleground decisions by the troops. After King tried repeatedly to elicit a clearer answer on the authority of traditional rules of engagement, Hegseth tellingly observed that in an America-first administration, the United States would disregard any judgments of its conduct by international bodies. So much for international law.

Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia continued to press Hegseth, raising claims that Hegseth has a history of excessive drinking including while on the job. Hegseth denounced the allegations as anonymous smears.

“Another colleague — not anonymous, we have this — said that you took co-workers to a strip club. You were drunk; you tried to dance with strippers. You had to be helped off the stage,” Kaine said, adding that one employee filed a sexual-harassment claim following the incident.

He continued, “I know you deny these things. But isn’t that the kind of behavior that, if true, would be disqualifying for someone to be secretary of Defense?”

Hegseth responded, “Senator, anonymous false charges.”

In the sharpest exchange in the hearing yet, Virginia senator Tim Kaine blew up the nominee’s dismissal of sexual-assault charges from a hotel encounter in Monterey in 2017. Hegseth has maintained a police investigation of the incident “exonerated” him of wrongdoing, but Kaine pointed out that he was admittedly committing adultery and violating his marriage vows to this then wife. After repeatedly depicting himself as a victim of false allegations, Hegseth retreated to his ultimate defense for all past misconduct: his redemption by Jesus Christ.

In a notably hammer-headed series of remarks that never quite posed any questions, Alaska senator Dan Sullivan devoted his time to an extended attack on the Biden administration’s Pentagon officers for “wokeness” and politically charged concern with climate change. Perhaps he didn’t have the opportunity to challenge these nominees four years ago.

In a sign of the times, Hegseth dodged a question from Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii about whether he would carry out an order from Donald Trump to carry out a military invasion of Greenland.

It is likely this is the first instance any Cabinet nominee has been questioned on whether they would carry out a preemptive strike against a Danish property.

In an exchange with key Armed Services Committee Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa, Hegseth identified himself as a longtime supporter of efficiency in the Department of Defense who would be determined to cut out waste. It raises the rather pertinent question: If confirmed, will Hegseth’s DoD ask for less money in the president’s budget and in the next annual appropriations bill? I’m guessing not, based on many years of precedent before and since Donald Trump was first elected president. Ernst mentioned she is the chairman of the Senate’s DOGE oversight committee, and perhaps documentation and exposure of Pentagon waste will await DOGE’s final report in 2026.

In one of the morning’s sharper exchanges, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York grilled Hegseth on his past comments on women and LGBTQ+ people in combat roles.

Gillibrand had previously told the 19th that she is “seriously concerned about a nominee who has never led anything larger than a small nonprofit” or “held a senior national-security or foreign-affairs position.” On Tuesday, she was one of several Democrats to press Hegseth about prior statements regarding women and LGBTQ+ in the military. Hegseth has said repeatedly, in public comments and in his books, that women do not belong in combat roles and that policies that allow LGBTQ+ people to serve openly in the military are part of a Marxist agenda. During his contentious confirmation hearing on Tuesday, he insisted that his past positions do not really mean what they seemed to mean, a shifty dance that clearly did not impress Gillibrand or her Democratic colleagues.

For all the furor about Hegseth’s résumé and the allegations against him, it’s worth noting that the secretary of Defense is a hugely substantial job that oversees a complex military bureaucracy and procurement process.

Republicans are focusing on this aspect of the job. For instance, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota asked Hegseth about the availability of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum for the military as well as a broader strategy for how to approach a potential multi-theater war.

In a nifty little drive-by smear, Tom Cotton compared the “patriotic” audience members hooting their approval of Hegseth when he strode into the room with the “liberal critics” who disrupted the hearing with protests. He went on to accurately identify the protestors as members of Code Pink, then asserted that very marginal organization is a front for Chinese communists. Thus by transitive property, Cotton identified Hegseth’s “liberal critics” with Beijing.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen questioned Hegseth about his stance on women serving in the military, reading back past quotes of his from interviews and writings where Hegseth took issue with the practice.

Hegseth argued that his problem was less concern about women on the battlefield than in keeping the standards for prospective soldiers the same for everyone.

Shaheen asked Hegseth what he would say to the nearly 400,000 women serving in the military today. He responded, “I would say, ‘I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve alongside you, shoulder to shoulder, men and women, Black, white, all backgrounds with a shared purpose. Our differences are not what define us. Our unity in our shared purpose is what defines us.’”

Shaheen quipped, “Well, I appreciate the 11th-hour conversion.”

In the early phases of Hegseth’s hearing, there’s an unmistakable contrast in tone between the senators (from both parties) questioning him and the nominee. The lawmakers are mostly droning quietly as they read their prepared remarks and questions, and utilizing acronyms and program names. Hegseth is not playing the same game but is instead playing to the galleries with simple protestations of fidelity to God and country, claims of partisan persecution, and constant evocations of his own battlefield record. It will be interesting to see if Democrats can cut through his confident and even insolent demeanor.

In demanding permissive “rules of engagement” for “war fighters” who might violate the rules of war, Hegseth may be on shaky legal and moral ground but is firmly following the tradition of Donald Trump, who has defended the use of torture and made it clear that he regards the willingness to terrorize enemies with what others consider war crimes as a precious national-defense resource. Attacking those who try to enforce the international and domestic laws of war as “lawyers in Washington” who don’t understand the needs of troops with “dust on their boots” is right in the MAGA wheelhouse.

Pete Hegseth had barely begun his opening statement in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination as Defense secretary when he offered a shout-out to “my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is likely a sign that Hegseth and his MAGA sponsors have decided to sharpen rather than blunt his outspoken and (to some) controversial religious views. He makes no bones about his self-image as a Christian soldier.

“There was a coordinated smear campaign coordinated against us,” Hegseth says as he derides the “left-wing media” and ties it to “efforts to take down Donald Trump.”

The nominee does not explicitly deny any of the allegations against him. It’s almost certain he will be explicitly asked about all of them by Democrats.

Early on in the hearings, a protester denounced Hegseth as “a Christian Zionist” who “supports the war in Gaza by the Zionists.”

More followed. A man in a hot-pink leather jacket yelled at police, “Get your hands off me,” as he was confronted.

As Hegseth faced at least four protestors interrupting his opening statement, he relied on a term that began to be popular around the Iraq War: the war fighter, not the soldier.

“When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense,” Hegseth said. “He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on war fighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness … My only special interest is the war fighter,” he said. It has become the word of choice for many soldiers with a conservative bent to refer to service as a calling, not a job, and is often used to refer to both active duty and retired members. As Hegseth said, “When I took off my uniform, the mission never stopped.”

The first witness for Hegseth was former senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who served one term in the chamber from 2003 to 2009. He won his seat in a rather flukey election following the death of Paul Wellstone, then lost it in a close race against Al Franken. He has since become a lobbyist (representing among others the government of Saudi Arabia) and a bit of a symbol of the nearly extinct species of moderate Republicans, though his record on defense issues as a senator was firmly conservative. Despite undergoing cancer treatment, Coleman has served as Hegseth’s “sherpa” in guiding him through the confirmation process. It’s a token of the collective self-esteem of the Senate that former colleagues like Coleman invariably receive a respectful hearing.

The day before Pete Hegseth entered the Senate chamber to cheers, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reported that Republican senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine had refused to meet with the woman who accused Hegseth of rape in 2017. Ernst, a veteran and survivor of sexual assault, is seen as a particularly key vote in the Senate. The woman who accused Hegseth of rape will not testify publicly during his confirmation hearings, thanks largely to his attorney, Tim Parlatore, who has threatened to sue her for defamation. The New York Times reported in November that Hegseth’s accuser told police at the time that he “took her phone, blocked his hotel-room door when she tried to leave, and sexually assaulted her, ejaculating on her stomach.” That story hangs over Hegseth as he makes his case directly to senators on Tuesday.

Rhode Island senator Jack Reed, the Democratic ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, began his opening remarks by thanking Hegseth for his military service. However, he quickly made his opposition to Hegseth’s nomination clear. “Mr. Hegseth, I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job,” he said.

Reed noted the “concerning” public reports that have come out about Hegseth since Trump announced him as his Defense secretary nominee, including allegations of sexual assault and harassment, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, claims that Reed called “alarming.”

“Indeed, the totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any servicemember from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the secretary of Defense,” he said.

Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker opened the Hegseth confirmation hearing by meeting concerns about Pete Hegseth’s total lack of the credentials normally required of major Cabinet officers head-on. He briefly criticizing the Pentagon as it exists today as a sort of top-heavy dinosaur, then suggested it called for “unconventional leadership,” then compared the nominee to his maker, the soon-to-be 47th president of the United States, who equally lacked credentials when he first won election in 2016. Quite a bar Wicker has set!

Hegseth’s qualifications or lack thereof have been a major focus of scrutiny so far. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chair of the committee, has tried to paint that as a strength.

“Admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. This nominee is unconventional,” Wicker said as he positively compared Hegseth to Donald Trump.

The room is filled with all the pageantry of a big Washington hearing. Dozens of former Navy SEALs and Green Berets are wearing pro-Hegseth hats and shirts. The far-left CCP-linked activist group Code Pink also has people here ready to protest the nomination. When photographers were taking pictures of the latter, including a man in a pink leather jacket, one Hegseth supporter was perturbed that two opponents of the nomination were getting more attention than the dozens of supporters.

Trump allies are also in the room, including top aide Jason Miller, national security adviser in waiting Representative Michael Waltz, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna.

Rebecca Traister recently wrote about Iowa senator Joni Ernst, the former military officer whose support will be key to Hegseth getting confirmed. She notes that the threat of a potential primary challenge has loomed over the senators currently mulling their votes, including Ernst:

After a first meeting with Hegseth in December, Ernst suggested that she had not been persuaded to support him. But a few days later, Hegseth met with her again, as well as with the Republican Party’s remaining “moderates,” Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and suddenly began talking about how women are, contrary to his earlier statements, “some of our greatest warriors.” Ernst, who is up for reelection in 2026, described their second interview as “encouraging.” In November, a senior Trump adviser told ABC News that the president’s message to Republican lawmakers was “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary” and that “there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” Ernst’s receptivity to Hegseth came in the same days that Musk visited Capitol Hill with Vivek Ramaswamy and crowed about keeping “naughty” and “nice” lists of Republican lawmakers. “The Musk money, that’s real,” said one Senate aide, describing the bind that Republicans are in.

The nominee entered to loud chants of “USA” from the crowd, surrounded by an entourage that included Tennessee senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, soon-to-be national security Michael Waltz, and former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman. After he entered, a shout of “Go Get ’Em, Petey” was heard from the back of the room.

As Donald Trump’s Cabinet begins its formal public vetting with Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth today, the president-elect himself is enjoying an impressive honeymoon in public opinion, as FiveThirtyEight observes:

According to 538’s average of polls of Trump’s favorability rating, 47.2 percent of American adults have a favorable view of the president-elect, compared to 47.4 percent who have an unfavorable view. That means his net favorability rating — the difference between these two numbers — is now the highest it has been since our tracking began on January 30, 2021. It’s also higher than his average net approval rating — a related but different metric that measured how many Americans approved of his job performance while he was president — was at any point after February 2, 2017. Trump, in other words, is at or near an all-time high in popularity.

For all the anxiety outside MAGA-land about Trump’s extremist plans, and all the insider concerns about the kind of people the soon-to-be 47th president plans to assemble around him, none of this negativity seems to have been absorbed by the general public, which is likely happy about the suspension of political warfare after Trump’s narrow November victory, and reasonably optimistic about the future. That could begin to change as the glare of publicity gives greater attention to both his team and his plans in the week ahead. Hegseth has enough controversy surrounding his very surprising selection to give voice to misgivings about Trump 2.0 that have been muted so far.

When Hegseth appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, it will represent the start of Donald Trump’s efforts to mold the federal government in his image during his second term.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host facing allegations of sexual misconduct, has become a magnet for controversy for his selection to lead the Pentagon and oversee an organization of over 3 million people.

Democrats have a surplus of potential attacks on Hegseth ranging from questions about whether some of his tattoos were covert signals of white nationalism to whether a weekend talk-show host was capable of leading the Department of Defense.

Plenty of Republicans have expressed skepticism about Hegseth as well with one committee member, Joni Ernst of Iowa, facing a right-wing-media rebellion in December after she expressed concerns about his pick due to Hegseth’s past opposition to women serving in combat. Ernst is a combat veteran. There are also worries by some Republicans about Hegseth’s views on U.S. aid to Ukraine.

It is these Republicans that Hegseth should worry about. After surviving a near-death experience in December when his nomination was under severe strain after a cascade of negative stories, he needs to keep Republicans on his side to avoid putting his selection at risk. As to Democrats, it’s unclear how effective their attempts to undermine Hegseth through questioning will be, but it is far more likely that a clumsily worded question from a Democrat will rally support for Hegseth among Republicans rather than somehow demonstrate his unfitness to lead the Pentagon.