CNN
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Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, acknowledged Tuesday he is “not a perfect person” but was he defiant in the face of multiple allegations surrounding his past conduct during a contentious confirmation hearing.
Hegseth dismissed the allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 as false and part of a “coordinated smear campaign,” claiming that the attacks against him were an attempt to use him to also smear the president-elect.
Democrats pressed Hegseth on allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking. In one particularly contentious exchange, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia pressed Hegseth on his infidelity stemming from the 2017 incident in a Monterey, California, hotel room, which prompted a sexual assault investigation by local police that did not result in any charges.
Democratic senators also confronted Hegseth with his prior comments suggesting that women should not serve in combat roles, raising quotes from his book published last year.
Hegseth responded that women make “amazing contributions” to the military, arguing that his comments questioning women serving in combat were tied to the military’s standards and readiness.
Hegseth’s confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee is the first of a flurry of hearings for Trump’s Cabinet selections this week ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration on January 20. Hegseth’s hearing set a defiant tone for Trump’s nominees ahead of the multiple controversial hearings ahead for the Senate in the coming weeks.
Ultimately, Hegseth’s nomination to become the next secretary of defense will depend on how Republicans view his confirmation. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning he does not need any Democratic support to win confirmation so long as he doesn’t lose more than three Republicans.
Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s confirmation hearing:
Tuesday’s hearing was the first time for Democrats on the committee – Hegseth did not meet with any Democrats beyond ranking member Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island – to press Hegseth on the allegations of sexual assault, workplace drinking and financial mismanagement.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, pressed Hegseth on the 2017 sexual assault investigation, asking if he’d ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature.
“I was falsely accused in October of 2017, it was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared,” Hegseth said.
“I don’t think ‘completely cleared’ is accurate,” Hirono responded, noting his lawyer has said he entered into a non-disclosure agreement with his accuser as part of a settlement.
Kaine grilled Hegseth further, questioning the nominee’s judgement and pushing Hegseth to acknowledge his infidelity from the 2017 Monterey incident that he’s described as a consensual sexual encounter.
“Senator, I was falsely charged, fully investigated and completely cleared,” Hegseth responded.
“So, you think you are completely cleared because you committed no crime. That’s your definition of cleared?” Kaine responded. “You had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife. I am shocked that you would say you’re completely cleared.”
Hegseth also denied allegations of workplace drinking, while Democrats pressed him about not drinking if he was in charge of the Pentagon.
“You recently promised some of my Republican colleagues that you stopped drinking and won’t drink if confirmed, correct?” Hirono asked.
“Absolutely,” Hegseth responded.
“Will you resign as secretary of defense if you drink on the job, which is a 24/7 position?” she said.
“I’ve made this commitment on behalf of the men and women I am serving,” Hegseth responded.
Hirono asked her question a second time, receiving a similar response. “I’m not hearing an answer to my question, so I’m going to move on,” Hirono said.
Hegseth, an Army combat veteran and weekend former host of “Fox and Friends,” told senators that Trump chose him to be defense secretary specifically because he’s not like the defense secretaries of the past several decades.
“He believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. A change agent,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s nomination has been imperiled by multiple allegations that have emerged since he was tapped for the Pentagon role in November, including sexual assault, excessive drinking in the workplace and mismanagement of his nonprofits.
He initially appeared to be in jeopardy as Republican senators, including Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, initially expressed concerns. But Trump has stood by his pick, and skeptical GOP senators have largely backed down amid a concerted campaign among Trump-allied activists to target Republicans who oppose his nominees.
Hegseth dismissed the allegations during Tuesday’s hearing as false and anonymous attacks that were orchestrated by a “coordinated smear campaign.”
“What became very evident to us from the beginning, there was a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us,” Hegseth said, adding that the allegations were an attempt to through him to smear Trump, “who’s had to endure the very same thing for much longer amounts of time.”
Several Senate Democrats pushed Hegseth to answer for his past public comments and writings in his 2023 book about women in the military, questioning whether he could give female service members a fair shot if he’s in charge of the Pentagon.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, asked Hegseth why women in the military should “believe that they would have a fair shot and an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks?”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand accused Hegseth of denigrating active-duty service members, pointing to his past comments saying, “We need moms, but not in the military, especially in combat units.”
“If you are saying that women shouldn’t be serving in the military — and I’m going to read you your quotes, because the quotes themselves are terrible — you will have to change how you see women to do this job well,” Gillibrand said. “And I don’t know if you are capable of that.”
Hegseth responded that he has “never disparaged” women who serve in the military, and said he had “personal experience” of instances of standards being lowered, pointing to examples he was told by others while writing his book “The War on Warriors.”
He did not, however, provide a specific example of standards being lowered to bring women into units when pushed by Gillibrand to do so.
“When I’m talking about that issue, it’s not about the capabilities of men and women; it’s about standards,” Hegseth said Tuesday.
In perhaps the best sign for Hegseth’s confirmation chances, Ernst’s questioning of Hegseth offered no fireworks, and her line of questioning suggested she and Hegseth have privately hashed out many of her initial concerns.
In November, Ernst first met with Hegseth as the allegations against him swirled. She declined to immediately back him, saying she still had questions, prompting Trump allies to launch a significant campaign to get her and any other wayward GOP senators on board with Hegseth’s nomination.
The Iowa Republican had follow-up conversations with Hegseth, and she signaled she was willing to support his confirmation process moving forward.
When it was her turn to question Hegseth, Ernst acknowledged the “many frank conversations” that she had with Hegseth.
“You know that I don’t keep any anything hidden. Pull no punches,” Ernst said.
During her questioning, Ernst, an Army veteran, noted that she was not allowed to serve in a combat role when she was in the military. She said she wanted every man and woman to have the opportunity to serve in combat so long as they met the high standards, teeing up Hegseth on whether he agreed with her.
“My answer is yes, exactly the way you caveated it,” Hegseth said. “Yes, women will have access to ground combat roles, given the standards will remain high.”
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky Michael Conte, Lauren Fox, Kaanita Iyer, Manu Raju and Haley Talbot contributed to this report.
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