The U.S. Senate is set to begin hearings on Jan. 14 to consider the first of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
Much of the attention during the hearings is likely to focus on Pete Hegseth, a former Minnesota Army National Guard officer, whom Trump has nominated for the role of secretary of defense.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, leading off Hegseth’s confirmation process, could question him about his plans to reorient the military’s warfighting focus and his views on women serving in combat roles.
Separately, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee had scheduled a Tuesday hearing to consider Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. It has since postponed the hearing to Jan. 21.
The first hearing could set the tone for a slew of additional confirmation hearings this week, ahead of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Republicans hold a 53–47 majority in the Senate, leaving Trump’s nominees with little room to succeed if several Republicans break ranks.
Warfighting Focus
Hegseth has signaled that if he is confirmed as defense secretary, he will place a renewed focus on warfighting. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in December 2024, Hegseth said Trump told him to “get in there and clean out all the social justice and politically correct garbage” and “get back to lethality, warfighting, accountability, meritocracy, and readiness.”
Addressing the topic of women in combat in an early December 2024 interview on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Hegseth said his primary focus is not on barring women from combat roles but on ensuring that standards aren’t lowered simply to make those roles easier for women to enter.
“If we have the right standard and women meet that standard, roger, let’s go,” he said. “If they can’t—and that’s a product of physical differences because the standard’s high—then that’s just the reality.”
In a Nov. 7, 2024, interview with podcast host and former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, Hegseth said the placement of women in combat roles so far hasn’t made the military more effective, hasn’t made the military more lethal, and has made fighting more complicated.
Seven Senate Democrats authored a Dec. 17, 2024, letter declaring that Hegseth’s comments about women in combat, as well as allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017, are disqualifying for his nomination.
Countering US Adversaries
Hegseth’s confirmation hearing will also likely focus on his plans to lead the U.S. military amid rising competition with conventional military powers such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
In 2020, the Chinese regime overtook the United States as the nation with the largest naval fleet by sheer number of ships. China has continued to expand this lead while the U.S. fleet size has stagnated.
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has also tested the U.S. military-industrial base. In his November 2024 interview with Ryan, Hegseth said he had spoken to U.S. artillery troops who have seen their training time cut because so much of the U.S. supply of artillery shells is being diverted to Ukrainian forces.
North Korea and Iran have reportedly supplied Russian forces with missiles, artillery shells, and one-way attack drones.
Western officials have said that they believe that Pyongyang has sent thousands of its troops to help Moscow in the ongoing fighting in its western Kursk region. Last week, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Russia may soon transfer advanced space and satellite technology to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang’s troops.
Israel has struck Iran and degraded Iranian-backed forces throughout the Middle East over the past year. Still, some threats, such as Houthi terrorists in Yemen, continue to pose challenges for Israel.
Hegseth’s Personal Record
Beyond policy, Hegseth could face scrutiny over his personal life.
Some of that controversy has centered around allegations that Hegseth drinks alcohol in excess.
In his interview with journalist and podcaster Megyn Kelly, Hegseth said he has no drinking problem and pledged not to drink at all while serving as defense secretary.
“In a combat zone, you’re not allowed to drink,” said Hegseth, who saw combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantry officer.
“That’s how I view this role, as secretary of defense, is that I’m not going to have a drink at all, and it’s not hard for me because it’s not a problem for me.
“But I need to make sure the senators and the troops and President Trump and everybody else knows, when you call me 24/7, you’re getting fully dialed in Pete, just like you always did in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He is also facing scrutiny regarding allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. He reached a settlement agreement with the unnamed accuser, but the allegations resurfaced after Trump nominated him for the Pentagon role.
Hegseth has said that it was wrong for him to become sexually involved with his accuser while married but has maintained that the 2017 encounter with the other woman was consensual. His attorneys have said that his accuser may face a defamation lawsuit if she publicizes any false claims about the incident.
“I’ve been honest about that encounter, starting with law enforcement, from the beginning,” Hegseth told Kelly last month. “I may have been drinking, but I was cognizant enough to remember every single detail.”
Among those still undecided on Hegseth’s nomination are Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Hegseth has met with both lawmakers in recent weeks, and they have said that they had substantive discussions.
In a Dec. 15, 2024, interview with WMTW in Maine, Collins said her conversation with Hegseth covered both his views on women in combat and the sexual assault allegation he faces.
“I have been insistent on an FBI background check that, in his case, can investigate and probe the allegations that have been made against him,” Collins said.
So far, Trump has stood by Hegseth for the Pentagon position.
“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump said in a Dec. 6, 2024, post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump went on to describe Hegseth as a winner and wrote, “There is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Outside his military career, Hegseth has been a mainstay on Fox News, providing political commentary across the network.
He has also written multiple books, the most recent of which is “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” The book raises concerns that U.S. military leadership has been prioritizing political issues over maintaining warfighting capabilities.
The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a self-described conservative nonprofit government watchdog, has already begun compiling a list of high-ranking military officers they believe have been too focused on promoting political ideology and whom Hegseth should drive out of the military if he becomes defense secretary.
Hegseth could be questioned about whether he will act on the AAF list and his broader plans for reforming the military.
From The Epoch Times