Pete Hegseth came into the Dirksen Senate building, just off the Capitol, to tell the gathered senators of the Armed Services Committee that he has the right stuff to serve as the next secretary of defence: that “it is time to give someone with dust on their boots for helm”.
There were no arguments that the Minnesotan had gathered dust and scars of military service in platoons in Baghdad and Iraq in his military years. But outside, in the shiny morning corridors, the television voices were agog with the absolute dust storm of controversy generated by president-elect Donald Trump’s choice as someone who will reform and re-energise what he considers to be a bloated Pentagon. And like many of Trump’s choices, the 44-year-old former Fox News television host – he has the easy, evangelical communication skills of a well-greased preacher – comes with baggage.
Listing the likely themes over the lengthy US Senate confirmation hearing, one broadcaster’s voice rumbled through the corridor as he listed the charges against Hegseth as levelled by staff members in a series of reports: that he had “misused funds, he was drunk in front of them, he fostered an environment where sexual harassment was an issue; he spent the last seven years as a Fox News host where his alcohol consumption was also a concern among his co-workers. We would not tolerate this type of behaviour from recruits. Why should it be acceptable from the man who would be their leader? That gives you an idea of where the questioning from Democrats may go.”
All of those uncomfortable subjects were raised at the hearing, along with what many commentators believe is Hegseth’s singular lack of experience and qualification, someone who had voiced sexist and derogatory views of women in service, questioned the Geneva Convention and ran the budget of Concerned Veterans for America (with a staff of 50) into the ground.
The secretary of defence has a military combined staff of three million and a budget of $85 billion. Hegseth’s argument was that while he was “not a perfect person”, there had been “a co-ordinated media smear campaign” by the liberal left media and that the right-fit secretary of defence candidates of the past 30 years had led the US military and that, if confirmed, he would purge the Pentagon of needlessly woke policies and slipping fitness standards.
The Republican-controlled Senate will vote on Hegseth’s nomination, but he requires prior approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee. The seven-minute interrogations by the 27-person committee mirrored the ideological chasm between the Republicans and Democrats. Hegseth endured a few blistering encounters from the Democratic senators, with Tim Kaine (Virginia) peppering him with a series of questions about a sexual assault case (settled with a non-disclosure agreement) and Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois war veteran who lost her legs after the helicopter she piloted in Iraq was shot down in 2004, putting Hegseth through a withering series of factual questions relating to the post of defence secretary before concluding: “You are not fit for this station.”
The Democratic collective ire was further heightened by Hegseth’s refusal to meet them prior to the hearing for informal conversations, as is tradition.
Given the hostile nature of the inquisitions from the minority 13 Democratic members on the committee, Hegseth clearly decided seven public, squirming minutes with each was enough for one lifetime.
The Democratic arguments needed to convince just one Republican committee colleague: Joni Ernst, the Iowan representative with 23 years of military service, had voiced reservations before Christmas.
But her exchange with Hegseth in front of a hearing room filled with veterans wearing caps supporting the Trump nominee, was warm throughout. The entire process underlined for Democrats their newfound powerlessness. Sparks flew, but after the committee adjourned to consider what they had heard, the main sound of was backslaps issued to Hegseth by his supporters – the loudest signal that they felt their man had come through unscathed.
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