- Donald Trump chose Hegseth as his candidate to lead the Department of Defense
- Hegseth was on Capitol Hill this week to press senators about his confirmation.
Pete Hegseth has spent the last two days on Capitol Hill fending off journalists who confront him about past controversies as he seeks to build support for his confirmation in the next administration.
Hegseth joked with reporters who followed him around the Capitol, including a Fox News reporter who was his colleague just a few weeks ago.
Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense faced questions about his past comments about excluding women from combat roles in the US military.
He also faced repeated questions over the past two days about a report that claimed he was forced to leave leadership positions at a veterans group due to excessive alcohol consumption.
—Have you ever been drunk while traveling for work? a reporter asked Hegseth as he walked through the Capitol on Monday.
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,” Hegseth responded.
He also ignored other questions shouted at him about this recent report.
Trump adviser Jason Miller downplayed the report during an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
Pete Hegseth joked, ignored and gave sarcastic responses to reporters who peppered him with questions during his final two days of meetings at the Capitol. He told a reporter who asked him about reports that he was drunk at work: “I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.”
“That was basically innuendo and gossip,” Miller said of the claim that Hegseth had to be dragged out of a strip club in Louisiana after allegedly harassing workers there.
Also on Tuesday, Hegseth criticized former Fox colleague Aishah Hasnie, who asked him about a previous comment he made about women serving in combat roles.
‘Many people are up in arms over those comments you made about women in combat. Do you want to solve it very quickly? What do you think of women in combat? -Hasnie asked.
‘We have incredible women serving in our military. Incredible women,’ he deflected.
Hasnie pressed: ‘Do you think they should be in combat?’
“I think they’re already in combat,” Hegseth responded.
During a podcast interview with host Shawn Ryan on Nov. 7, Hegseth made troubling comments.
“I am clearly saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” she said last month. ‘It hasn’t made us more effective. It hasn’t made us more lethal. It has made fights more complicated.
He states that while women have a place in the military, he does not believe they belong in special operations, artillery, infantry or armored units.
Pentagon pick faces fallout after New Yorker alleged in a report this week that he was drunk “to the point of needing to be removed from organization events” on multiple occasions while he was executive director of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA). ) between 2013 and 2016.
Hegseth “occasionally” drank too much at CVA events and previously acknowledged that he “drank too much,” a source close to him told CBS.
But they insist the report about Hegseth’s behavior is false.
Hegseth also joked with a former Fox News colleague who asked him about his past comments claiming that women in the military should not be able to perform combat roles.
Hegseth ignored many questions related to a report that he drank too much at work and was forced to leave a position at a veterans organization because of his drunkenness.
“The idea that an organization of combat veterans who had recently left the military drank or drank too much is not news,” the individual said.
“That’s not the kind of life Pete lives now,” they added about the character’s evolution. “He’s certainly matured a lot in the last decade.”
Hegseth is already a controversial pick, with many Democrats saying they oppose her nomination because of a lack of experience and some outlandish opinions, such as saying on a podcast that she doesn’t believe women in the military should serve in combat.
Now that Republicans regain control of the Senate, most of Trump’s picks are likely to win the simple majority needed to ascend to their respective positions.