Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary, faces crucial test at confirmation hearing

[January 14, 2025]  By LISA MASCARO and TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is heading into a potentially explosive confirmation hearing Tuesday as senators question whether the former combat veteran and TV news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military.

Hegseth’s former experience in the Army National Guard is widely viewed as an asset for the job, but he also brings a jarring record of past statements and actions, including allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and derisive views about women in military combat roles, minorities and “woke” generals. He has vowed to not drink alcohol if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon.

He is among the most endangered of Trump’s Cabinet choices, but GOP allies are determined to turn Hegseth into a cause célèbre for Trump’s governing approach amid the nation's culture wars. Outside groups, including those aligned with the Heritage Foundation, are running costly campaigns to prop up Hegseth's bid.

“He will be ripped, he will be demeaned. He will be talked about,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., at an event with former Navy SEALs, Army special forces and Marines supporting the nominee. “But we’re going to get him across the finish line.”

The hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee is the start of a weeklong marathon as senators begin scrutinizing Trump’s choices for more than a dozen top administrative positions. The Republican-led Senate is rushing to have some of Trump’s picks ready to be confirmed as soon as Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, despite potential opposition to some from both sides of the aisle.

“We’re going to grind them down,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on Fox News.

Hegseth faces perhaps the most difficult path to confirmation. He will be forced to confront allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied, and his own comments that are far from the military mainstream, though he has the support of some veterans’ groups that say his past indiscretions are not as important as his focus on improving military readiness to fight.

And Hegseth will have to answer for his comments that women should “straight up” not be in combat roles in the military, a view he has softened following recent meetings with senators. Two former female combat veterans, Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa and Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, are among those grilling him from the dais.

“He can try to walk back his comments on women in combat all he wants, but we know what he thinks, right?” said Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost her legs and partial use of her right arm when the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting in the Army National Guard was shot down. “He’s the most unqualified person to ever be nominated for secretary of defense.”

Many senators have not yet met with Hegseth and most do not have access to his FBI background check, as only committee leaders are briefed on its findings. The background check on Hegseth did not appear to probe or produce new information beyond what's already in the public realm about him, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

In many ways, the Hegseth hearing is expected to follow the template set during Trump’s first term, when one of his choices for Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, came under intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault from his teens but recouped to win confirmation to the high court.

Kavanaugh vigorously fought back during a volcanic 2018 hearing, portraying the sexual assault allegations against him as a smear job by liberal lawmakers and outside groups opposed to his judicial record, turning the tables in a way that many senators credit setting a new benchmark for partisanship.

 Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Defense Secretary, gives a thumbs-up as he walks with his wife Jennifer Rauchet, left, to meet with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Asked about advice for Hegseth, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referred to that earlier example.

“Go back and watch videos of the Kavanaugh hearings — give you a flavor,” he said.

Hegseth was largely unknown on Capitol Hill when Trump tapped him for the top Pentagon job.

A co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” he had been a contributor with the network since 2014, and apparently caught the eye of the president-elect, who is an avid consumer of television and the news channel, in particular.

Hegseth, 44, attended Princeton and served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011 and earning two Bronze Stars. But he lacks senior military and national security experience.

In 2017, a woman told police that 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 later paid the woman a confidential settlement to head off a potential lawsuit.

Hegseth also came under scrutiny amid reports of excessive drinking when he worked at a veterans' organization. But as he began meeting privately with GOP senators ahead of the hearing, he promised he would not drink if confirmed to the post.

If confirmed, Hegseth would take over a military juggling an array of crises on the global stage and domestic challenges in military recruitment, retention and ongoing funding.

In addition to being a key national security adviser to the president, the defense secretary oversees a massive organization, with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of roughly $850 billion.

He is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. troops deployed overseas and at sea, including in combat zones where they face attacks, such as in Syria and Iraq and in the waters around Yemen. The secretary makes all final recommendations to the president on what units are deployed, where they go and how long they stay.

His main job is to make sure the U.S. military is ready, trained and equipped to meet any call to duty. But the secretary also must ensure that American troops are safe and secure at home, with proper housing, healthcare, pay and support for programs dealing with suicide, sexual assault and financial scams.

Pentagon chiefs also routinely travel across the world, meeting with international leaders on a vast range of security issues including U.S. military aid, counterterrorism support, troop presence and global coalition building. And they play a key role at NATO as a critical partner to allies across the region.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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