By LISA MASCARO and TARA COPP, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s selection for protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, is heading right into a doubtlessly explosive affirmation listening to Tuesday as senators query whether or not the previous fight veteran and TV information present host is match to guide the U.S. army.
Hegseth’s former expertise within the Military Nationwide Guard is broadly considered as an asset for the job, however he additionally brings a jarring document of previous statements and actions, together with allegations of sexual assault, extreme consuming and derisive views about girls in army fight roles, minorities and “woke” generals. He has vowed to not drink alcohol if he’s confirmed to guide the Pentagon.
He’s among the many most endangered of Trump’s Cupboard selections, however GOP allies are decided to show Hegseth right into a trigger célèbre for Trump’s governing strategy amid the nation’s tradition wars. Outdoors teams, together with these aligned with the Heritage Basis, are operating expensive campaigns to prop up Hegseth’s bid.
“He shall be ripped, he shall be demeaned. He shall be talked about,” stated Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., at an occasion with former Navy SEALs, Military particular forces and Marines supporting the nominee. “However we’re going to get him throughout the end line.”
The listening to on the Senate Armed Providers Committee is the beginning of a weeklong marathon as senators start scrutinizing Trump’s selections for greater than a dozen high administrative positions. The Republican-led Senate is speeding to have a few of Trump’s picks able to be confirmed as quickly as Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, regardless of potential opposition to some from either side of the aisle.
“We’re going to grind them down,” Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., stated on Fox Information.
Hegseth faces maybe essentially the most troublesome path to affirmation. He shall be pressured to confront allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied, and his personal feedback which are removed from the army mainstream, although he has the help of some veterans’ teams that say his previous indiscretions should not as vital as his give attention to enhancing army readiness to combat.
And Hegseth should reply for his feedback that girls ought to “straight up” not be in fight roles within the army, a view he has softened following current conferences with senators. Two former feminine fight veterans, Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa and Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, are amongst these grilling him from the dais.
“He can attempt to stroll again his feedback on girls in fight all he desires, however we all know what he thinks, proper?” stated Duckworth, an Iraq Struggle veteran who misplaced her legs and partial use of her proper arm when the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting within the Military Nationwide Guard was shot down. “He’s essentially the most unqualified individual to ever be nominated for secretary of protection.”
Many senators haven’t but met with Hegseth and most don’t have entry to his FBI background verify, as solely committee leaders are briefed on its findings. The background verify on Hegseth didn’t seem to probe or produce new data past what’s already within the public realm about him, in keeping with an individual acquainted with the state of affairs and granted anonymity to debate it.
In some ways, the Hegseth listening to is anticipated to comply with the template set throughout Trump’s first time period, when considered one of his selections for Supreme Court docket justice, Brett Kavanaugh, got here underneath intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault from his teenagers however recouped to win affirmation to the excessive courtroom.
Kavanaugh vigorously fought again throughout a volcanic 2018 listening to, portraying the sexual assault allegations in opposition to him as a smear job by liberal lawmakers and outdoors teams against his judicial document, turning the tables in a manner that many senators credit score setting a brand new benchmark for partisanship.
Requested about recommendation for Hegseth, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referred to that earlier instance.
“Return and watch movies of the Kavanaugh hearings — provide you with a taste,” he stated.
Hegseth was largely unknown on Capitol Hill when Trump tapped him for the highest Pentagon job.
A co-host of Fox Information Channel’s “Fox & Mates Weekend,” he had been a contributor with the community since 2014, and apparently caught the attention of the president-elect, who’s an avid shopper of tv and the information channel, particularly.
Hegseth, 44, attended Princeton and served within the Military Nationwide Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011 and incomes two Bronze Stars. However he lacks senior army and nationwide safety expertise.
In 2017, a lady instructed police that Hegseth sexually assaulted her, in keeping with an in depth investigative report not too long ago made public. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing and instructed police on the time that the encounter at a Republican girls’s occasion in California was consensual. He later paid the lady a confidential settlement to move off a possible lawsuit.
Hegseth additionally got here underneath scrutiny amid experiences of extreme consuming when he labored at a veterans’ group. However as he started assembly privately with GOP senators forward of the listening to, he promised he wouldn’t drink if confirmed to the submit.
If confirmed, Hegseth would take over a army juggling an array of crises on the worldwide stage and home challenges in army recruitment, retention and ongoing funding.
Along with being a key nationwide safety adviser to the president, the protection secretary oversees an enormous group, with almost 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a price range of roughly $850 billion.
He’s liable for tens of 1000’s of U.S. troops deployed abroad and at sea, together with in fight zones the place they face assaults, akin to in Syria and Iraq and within the waters round Yemen. The secretary makes all last suggestions to the president on what models are deployed, the place they go and the way lengthy they keep.
His most important job is to ensure the U.S. army is prepared, educated and geared up to fulfill any name to responsibility. However the secretary additionally should be sure that American troops are protected and safe at dwelling, with correct housing, healthcare, pay and help for applications coping with suicide, sexual assault and monetary scams.
Pentagon chiefs additionally routinely journey the world over, assembly with worldwide leaders on an enormous vary of safety points together with U.S. army assist, counterterrorism help, troop presence and international coalition constructing. They usually play a key position at NATO as a crucial companion to allies throughout the area.
Related Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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