Republican senators uniformly rallied round Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choose for secretary of protection, throughout his Tuesday affirmation listening to – an indication that he’s on a probable glide path to affirmation, only one month after his nomination gave the impression to be in critical jeopardy.
Within the four-hour listening to earlier than the Senate Armed Providers Committee, Democrats raised sharp questions concerning the former Fox Information host’s {qualifications}, his private conduct, and his views on girls within the army. Republicans, alternatively, expressed robust assist for his years of army service and his outspoken opposition to what he described because the Biden administration’s struggle to prioritize variety over lethality within the army. Not a single Republican on the committee indicated that they have been more likely to oppose Mr. Hegseth, suggesting that he’ll win affirmation within the GOP-controlled Senate, the place he can lose not more than three Republican senators.
The listening to’s most telling second got here when GOP Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa provided him an opportunity to make clear his earlier statements criticizing girls serving in fight roles. Senator Ernst, an Military veteran who had been blocked by army coverage from serving in a fight position due to her gender, had expressed issues about Mr. Hegseth’s nomination, each over that problem in addition to issues about his private conduct. However she appeared to have had a change of coronary heart after a non-public assembly wherein Mr. Hegseth promised her that he would assist girls in fight roles, amid a concerted stress marketing campaign from Trump allies to again him or face a Trump-backed major opponent.
On Tuesday, she used her time to not grill Mr. Hegseth however to permit him to publicly decide to a place that girls will nonetheless be allowed to serve in fight roles, as long as they meet the identical bodily {qualifications} as male troops.
“Sure, girls may have entry to floor fight roles – given the requirements stay excessive,” Mr. Hegseth stated. Seemingly mollified, Senator Ernst spent a lot of her time targeted on her settlement with Mr. Hegseth that the Pentagon wanted to bear an audit. (Extra Monitor protection: Excessive stakes for girls preventing for respect and justice inside the army.)
The listening to marks the conclusion of a outstanding about-face for a lot of wavering Republicans. Only a month in the past, it appeared that the army veteran and Fox Information host could be sunk by experiences that he had been publicly intoxicated at totally different jobs he held after leaving the army, previous marital infidelities, and a 2017 allegation of sexual assault (he has repeatedly denied the accusation, however paid a confidential monetary settlement to his accuser to maintain the incident quiet).
Mr. Hegseth’s affirmation prospects appeared so dicey at one level that Mr. Trump reportedly mentioned changing him with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. However now, it appears to be like like he’ll be capable to win sufficient votes to be confirmed within the GOP-controlled Senate.
In the course of the listening to, Democrats pushed onerous on Mr. Hegseth’s private historical past and previous public remarks on girls in fight.
A number of senators requested him about repeated feedback he remodeled the span of a decade that girls shouldn’t serve in fight roles. That features an unequivocal comment made on a conservative podcast simply final summer season that “Girls shouldn’t be in fight in any respect.”
Mr. Hegseth repeatedly refused to confess his place had shifted however reiterated that he now supported girls in fight roles as long as they might meet the bodily necessities.
He dodged Democrats’ different questions all through the listening to, together with whether or not he’d obey a directive from the president to order troops to fireplace on protesters. He refused to say whether or not Protection Secretary Mark Esper, who served throughout President-elect Trump’s first time period, was proper to apologize for utilizing troops to filter out unarmed protesters from in entrance of the White Home. He repeatedly refused to reply questions from Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan about whether or not he’d personally been concerned in discussions of utilizing the energetic obligation army inside the USA, or whether or not he’d enable troopers for use at detention camps to deport unauthorized immigrants.
Democrats complained that Mr. Hegseth broke with longstanding norms by refusing to satisfy with any of them earlier than the listening to. They have been additionally annoyed that his FBI background test was solely shared with the committee’s chairman and rating member, solely got here in a number of days in the past, and wasn’t extra thorough – it didn’t embody interviews together with his sexual-assault accuser or considered one of his ex-wives. And so they expressed frustration that they have been restricted to at least one spherical of questioning, in contrast to at some earlier affirmation hearings.
