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Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News personality and rightwing commentator who has said women should not serve in combat roles, recommended the military purge generals and faced allegations of sexual assault and alcoholism, has been confirmed as secretary of defense in the Senate by a tie-breaking vote from Vice-president JD Vance.
Almost the entire Republican conference supported Hegseth’s nomination while every Senate Democrat voted against his confirmation, resulting in a 50-50 vote. Three Republican senators – Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – opposed Hegseth’s nomination. Collins and Murkowski had earlier cited concerns about his personal history and inexperience as disqualifying.
Hegseth was among the most heavily scrutinized nominees for Donald Trump’s cabinet, owing to allegations of sexual assault and workplace misconduct that have surfaced in the last two months.
Shortly after Trump announced Hegseth as his defense secretary pick, extremism experts raised alarms about Hegseth’s apparent affinity for far-right symbols – noting that his tattoo sleeve featured at least two images associated with far-right and neo-Nazi groups. Hegseth himself has complained publicly that the US Army declined his service during Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration after a fellow servicemember flagged him as a potential insider threat.
In Hegseth’s hyperpartisan 2020 book, American Crusade, he writes that he believes the US is on course for factional violence and claims the country faces an existential threat from the left. “You must be thinking, ‘Pete, you laid this out in pretty simple terms. Us versus them. America versus the left. Good versus evil. You’re overplaying your hand. It’s not that bad,’” writes Hegseth. “Read on, and think again.”
Before the confirmation hearings, Hegseth declined to meet with Democratic members of the Senate armed services committee, spurring concerns about his willingness to run the agency in a nonpartisan manner.
During Hegseth’s 14 January confirmation hearing, the New Hampshire senator Jeanne Shaheen, said that since she joined the committee in 2011, every other nominee has met with her and her Democratic colleagues before their hearing and questioned Hegseth’s unwillingness to do the same.
After a report in the New Yorker uncovered reports of day drinking and Hegseth’s alleged belligerent, drunken behavior at the workplace, some Republican senators seemed skeptical about the former Fox News host’s viability as a nominee.
Hegseth refused to answer questions about his conduct during the hearing, repeatedly answering questions from the Arizona Democratic senator Mark Kelly about accusations of sexual misconduct and public, belligerent drunkenness with a two-word answer: “anonymous smears”.
“All anonymous, all false, all refuted by my colleagues who I’ve worked with for 10 years,” said Hegseth when Kelly pressed him to answer questions about his alleged alcoholism.
When the Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin asked whether he would refuse unconstitutional orders, and whether he would decline to deploy the military against US civilians, Hegseth evaded a direct answer, saying “I reject the premise” of the questions.
When questioned about his past support for three military officials accused of war crimes, Hegseth acknowledged that the Geneva convention was the “law of the land”, but complained of “burdensome rules of engagement” imposed by human rights law.
Hegseth also insisted that he would bring a “warrior culture” to the defense department and stressed his commitment to unravelling diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the military.
Trump’s allies unified behind Hegseth and pushed for his confirmation, and the little resistance within the Republican party to his nomination disappeared.
Even the Iowa senator Joni Ernst – a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor who initially cast doubt on Hegseth’s nomination – announced she would support him following his confirmation hearing, saying in a statement that she would “work with Pete to create the most lethal fighting force and hold him to his commitments of auditing the Pentagon, ensuring opportunity for women in combat while maintaining high standards, and selecting a senior official to address and prevent sexual assault in the ranks”.
