WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth has spent the week on Capitol Hill making an attempt to reassure Republican senators that he’s match to guide President-elect Donald Trump’s Division of Protection within the wake of high-profile allegations about extreme consuming and sexual assault.
However senators in each events have additionally expressed concern about one other subject — Hegseth’s frequent feedback that ladies shouldn’t serve in frontline navy fight jobs.
As the previous Military Nationwide Guard main and fight veteran fights to salvage his Cupboard nomination, assembly with senators for a fourth day Thursday with guarantees to not drink on the job and assurances he by no means engaged in sexual misconduct, his skilled views on ladies troops have additionally come beneath scrutiny. He mentioned as lately as final month that girls “straight up” shouldn’t serve in fight roles.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer mentioned Wednesday that he confronted Hegseth concerning the subject once they spoke one-on-one.
“I said to him, just so you know, Joni Ernst and Tammy Duckworth deserve a great deal of respect,” Cramer mentioned, referring to 2 feminine senators who sit on the Senate Armed Companies Committee. Each Ernst, R-Iowa, and Duckworth, D-Unwell., are fight veterans who served within the Iraq warfare, and Duckworth misplaced each legs when a Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Ernst, a former Military Nationwide Guard member and a retired lieutenant colonel who spent greater than twenty years within the service, was circumspect after her personal assembly with Hegseth, saying solely that they’d a “frank and thorough conversation.” She has spoken overtly about surviving sexual assault whereas in faculty and labored to make sure a secure atmosphere for girls in uniform.
Together with the reviews of his earlier conduct, the bipartisan considerations about Hegseth’s feedback on ladies have put his nomination in some peril, contributing to normal uncertainty about whether or not his nomination will make it to a listening to subsequent month. Whereas Hegseth mentioned that Trump is “behind us all the way,” and he’s put in a full week’s work explaining himself to senators, some Republicans aren’t but committing their assist.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds mentioned after assembly with Hegseth on Thursday that he “went a long way today” in getting his full assist, however “I want him to be able to answer in front of everybody else the questions that are there and to do a good job on it.”
Rounds mentioned the problem of ladies in fight didn’t come up in his assembly however that Hegseth can clarify himself in a listening to.
“Women are integrated into our armed forces today, and they do a great job,” Rounds mentioned.
The function of ladies within the navy is one other entry within the far-right’s efforts to return the armed forces again to an earlier period, one thing Hegseth has embraced with Trump’s strategy to finish “woke” applications that foster range, fairness and inclusion within the ranks and fireplace generals who mirror these values.
Navy and protection leaders, nevertheless, have argued that it will be essentially flawed to get rid of half the inhabitants from important fight posts, and so they have flatly denied that requirements have been lowered to permit ladies to qualify.
In remarks Wednesday, Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin touted the service of ladies, together with in his personal fight items when he was a commander in Iraq.
“If I get a little fired up about this, it’s just because this isn’t 1950. It isn’t 1948. It is 2024,” Austin mentioned.
Hegseth has to this point pushed again questions on his views.
“We have amazing women who serve our military,” Hegseth mentioned Tuesday, “amazing women who serve in our military.”
Pressed if they need to serve in fight, Hegseth mentioned they already do.
However he mentioned as lately as final month that girls “straight up” shouldn’t serve in fight. It “hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” he mentioned in a podcast earlier than he was nominated by Trump. In his personal writings, he has expanded on views of a extra masculine-focused navy.
As he tries to shore up votes in his personal occasion, Hegseth has but to fulfill with Duckworth or any of the opposite Democrats on the committee. Duckworth, a Democrat and Purple Coronary heart recipient, additionally rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel earlier than retiring after 23 years within the Reserve forces. She later served as an assistant secretary on the Division of Veterans Affairs.
North Dakota Sen. Cramer mentioned he instructed Hegseth that his affirmation listening to “won’t be pleasant” as Democrats, particularly, grill him on his views. As members of the Armed Companies panel, each Ernst and Duckworth can have an opportunity to ask him questions.
Trump, for now, seems to be standing apart as Hegseth fights to protect his nomination, whilst solutions float a few doable alternative choose, together with former Trump rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, to guide the Pentagon.
Trump’s closest allies within the Senate expressed cautious optimism that Hegseth won’t get replaced — instantly at the very least. “It’s not in trouble until it’s over,” mentioned Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. “Right now we’ve got to move forward.”
“We’re going to push as long as he’s wanting to be there, and as long as the president still wants him in place, we’re going to push and do all we can to get him confirmed,” Mullin mentioned.
On the similar time, The Heritage Basis, the conservative assume tank behind Venture 2025, mentioned it will be spending $1 million to place stress on senators unwilling to assist Hegseth, the group’s president instructed The Related Press on Thursday.
“The establishment is trying to take his scalp,” mentioned Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Basis after an occasion in Mar-a-Lago. “He would be a wonderful secretary of defense.”
About 17.5% of the greater than 1.3 million active-duty service members are ladies, a complete that has grown steadily over the previous twenty years. They’ve served in fight in a big selection of navy jobs, together with as pilots and intelligence officers for years.
The Pentagon formally opened all fight jobs to ladies in 2015, together with frontline infantry and armor posts, and since then 1000’s of ladies have been in jobs that till that point have been male-only.
As of this 12 months, almost 4,800 ladies are serving in Military infantry, armor and artillery job, greater than 150 have accomplished the Military Ranger course and a small quantity have certified for extra elite particular operations items, together with as Military Inexperienced Berets.