The tough questions Pete Hegseth will face at his Senate confirmation hearing
Pete Hegseth is preparing to face a panel of bipartisan senators on Tuesday who will grill him over allegations from his past and his credentials at the first of the Senate confirmation hearings.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Hegseth for one of the most senior jobs in the administration: secretary of defense.
But since the day Trump announced his unorthodox choice to head up the Pentagon, there have been serious questions hanging over the 44-year-old Fox News host.
The president-elect took the step of publicly defending his choice when Hegseth came under fierce scrutiny last month. Last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Trump that Hegseth has the required number of votes to survive the confirmation process, but he reiterated that the nominees would all have to “make their case in front of the committee.”
If every Democrat and independent senator votes against Hegseth, he can only afford three Republican defections to be confirmed.
From a serious allegation of sexual assault, which Hegseth denies, and accusations of financial mismanagement and misogyny, to concerns about his inexperience and relationship with alcohol, these are some of the issues that will likely arise for the nominee at Tuesday’s no-holds-barred hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sexual misconduct allegation and treatment of women
In 2017, police in Monterey, California, investigated an allegation that an intoxicated Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman — named Jane Doe in the report — in a hotel room after a Republican women’s conference, at one point physically blocking a door and stopping her from leaving, according to a police report. The woman signed an NDA.
The allegation resurfaced in November last year in the weeks after Trump announced Hegseth was his pick for defense secretary.
And it is likely that Democrats on the committee will read out some of the most controversial parts of the police report.
Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a 33-page letter to Hegseth last week about the “deeply concerning allegations and reports,” offering insight into the kinds of questions she would like Hegseth to be hit with at his hearing.
“Your attorney has threatened to sue ‘Jane Doe,’” Warren said. “What message do you think this sends to women who are serving or will serve in the military and are afraid to report sexual harassment or assault?”
Hegseth vehemently denies the allegations. “The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared,” he said.
Hegseth’s own mother wrote a letter, which she later said she regretted, in which she called her son “an abuser of women,” accusing him of routinely mistreating women for years.
The army veteran has said it was fair to call him a “serial cheater” but he “truly was changed by Jen and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and is now a different man.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa has since backed down on her criticism of Hegseth and said she was “encouraged” by pledges he has made to tackle sexual assault in the military after a meeting with him last month.
Financial mismanagement
Hegseth faces questions over allegations that he mismanaged the finances of nonprofits Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America when he was in leadership roles between 2008 – 2016, which he denies.
The Pentagon has a trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded budget, and Hegseth’s track record is worrying for some of his critics.
“V.F.F. soon ran up enormous debt, and financial records indicate that, by the end of 2008, it was unable to pay its creditors,” the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer wrote in a damning investigation last year.
“The group’s primary donors became concerned that their money was being wasted on inappropriate expenses, including rumors of parties that ‘could politely be called trysts,’ as the former associate of the group put it,” Meyer’s report read.
Hegseth was phased out as head of VFF after he admitted to donors in 2009 that the group had only $1,000 in the bank but owed $434,833 in unpaid bills, according to the outlet. It was Hegseth’s poor management of the organization that led some of the group’s former advisers to express “grave concerns” about his ability to lead a department as large as the Pentagon.
“You want someone serious and you want someone responsible,” Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada said. “And Hegseth, I’m afraid — with the allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations of financial mismanagement — how is he going to manage billions of dollars? How are people going to respect him?”
“I do not see how this committee can, in good conscience, consider Mr. Hegseth’s nomination without a full review of his conduct while leading these organizations,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said last week.
In response to the allegations, Hegseth’s lawyer Tim Parlatore declined to comment. He told the New Yorker that the claims were “outlandish,” citing a “petty and jealous disgruntled former associate.”
Women in the military
Hegseth’s opposition to women in the military — stated in his book and interviews — was simple and direct before his nomination on November 12. But, in the face of questions from Congress, he appears to have altered his stance.
“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” he said in a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan on November 7.
Women have a place in the military, he said, just not in special operations, artillery, infantry and armor units.
In his book, he said women have performed well in dangerous support roles during war, but “women in the infantry — women in combat on purpose — is another story.” He adds, “women cannot physically meet the same standards as men.”
He said, “Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.”
His views riled some members of Congress.
Asked about the issue on the Megyn Kelly Show in early December, Hegseth said he cares only that military standards are maintained. Women serve in combat, he said, and, “if we have the right standard and women meet that standard, roger. Let’s go.”
Relationship with alcohol
Revelations around Hegseth’s alleged relationship with alcohol also came to light in the New Yorker investigation, which centered on a whistleblower’s report on Hegseth’s tenure as the chief of Concerned Veterans for America.
According to the previously undisclosed report, which was compiled by several CVA employees and sent to the group’s management in 2015, Hegseth’s drunken behavior had become an embarrassment to the rest of the staff.
“I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary,” one of the whistleblowers told the New Yorker.
After the damaging allegations, Hegseth has since vowed not to consume alcohol if the Senate confirms his nomination.
“This is the biggest deployment of my life, and there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it,” Hegseth told Megyn Kelly.
Inexperience
Hegseth’s critics argue that despite having military experience — he is an army veteran who has served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan — he lacks the qualifications necessary to lead the country’s military.
The concern is especially grave given current threats the U.S. faces from Russia, Iran, China and others.
Having never run an organization bigger than a small nonprofit, those in the defense world are concerned, as he would be responsible for leading 1.3 million active-duty troops.
“He is not qualified to do the job,” said Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth , a member of the Armed Services Committee, said. Duckworth added that her “whole focus is going to be on [Hegseth’s] qualifications and experience in managing an organization.”
“Would you trust him to run Walmart?” a former defense official previously told Politico. “Because that’s how many employees we have.”
“Folks are shocked,” a current defense official told the outlet. “He’s just a Fox News personality that’s never worked in the government.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting