Published with the generous permission of Amee Vanderpool. For more of Amee's work, visit her Shero newsletter.
By Amee Vanderpool
I spent all of yesterday morning watching the Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee and let me tell you, it was painful. We should be calling it the “Kavanaugh: The Redux” considering how well Hegseth is able to lie through his smirks, and distract from the real questions at hand with his boisterous Fox News Narratives.
The FBI did not complete a full background check on Pete Hegseth, and instead they worked around issues that could harm him in the hearing process, much like they did with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Democratic Senator Jack Reed began the hearings by stating that the background check was “insufficient” as “there are still FBI obligations to talk to people.” Reed also attempted to have more evidence on the testimony of these character witnesses entered into the record by asking for an extended background check. Reed was procedurally denied by Republican Senator and Committee Chair Wicker at every turn.
Ultimately, Senator Blumenthal asked Hegseth directly if he’d be willing to submit to an expanded background check with interviews of former colleagues, ex-wives, “sexual assault survivors and others.”
Hegseth deflected answering by saying: “I’m not in charge of FBI background checks.” Blumenthal also dug into the line of questioning that concerned Hegseth’s financial records and the lack of information the committee had considering the poor performance Hegseth has maintained by bankrupting several organizations.
The Senate Committee obviously parsed through their many objections to the nomination of Pete Hegseth, and they assigned very specific roles to each US Senator who questioned him in order to highlight his massive mistakes and shortcomings. Senator Tim Kaine questioned Hegseth about the rape allegations and made this essential point: Pete Hegseth is at worst a rapist, and at very best, a man who continually shows poor judgment and a lack of fidelity. Kaine brilliantly pointed out in this portion that we don’t need to rely on the rape allegations, or the domestic violence allegations being true to prove that Hegseth is unqualified to serve as Defense Secretary.
Hegseth told explained in detail yesterday that Donald Trump’s primary charge to him as Trump is set to take office is: “to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense” and that “he wants a Pentagon laser-focused on war fighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness.” The battle lines were drawn again, with Hegseth focusing on past Democratic presidents and their focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Senator Hirono questioned Hegseth at length about her concern that he was not able to work across the aisle in any capacity and while she was able to emphasize his past statements to that point, she also got Hegseth to admit on the record that he would basically follow any order that Donald Trump gave him, even if it was unlawful.
Pete Hegseth made obvious and continuous overtures to women and Black troops in his opening statements, in an attempt to roll back criticism of his previous comments that women should “straight up” not serve in combat and his suggestions that some Black troops may not be qualified. Senator Gillibrand made a point to emphasize Hegseth’s demeaning quotes about women in service saying, “You will have to change how you see women to do this job.” Republicans next used Senator Ernst, an Iraq veteran and a survivor of sexual assault, to try and sell the non-existent premise that Hegseth would work hard to enforce Women’s Rights within the military during her allotted time for questioning.
Pete Hegseth has shown terrible financial judgment in the past. A prime example of this is the two small nonprofit organizations he ran from 2008 to 2016. Under his leadership, funds for Veterans for Freedom took a massive dive, from $8.7 million in 2008 to $265,000 in 2010. Hegseth also took a financial leadership role at Concerned Veterans for America and tax filings show that the nonprofit spent more money than it raised from donations and other charitable gifts avenues during three of the five years he ran the organization.
Ultimately, when a whistleblower report in 2016 accused him of financial mismanagement, Hegseth wrote off the claims as nothing more than a disgruntled employee.
“Your record of gross mismanagement of organizations you previously led raises alarm about your ability to manage a department with a budget of almost $850 billion, which accounts for over half of discretionary federal spending,” Senator Warren concluded during the hearing. Watch Warren work her magic to emphasize the concerning allegations of misappropriation and a lack of complete financial disclosure:
The Armed Services will vote in the near future on whether to advance Pete Hegseth to the Senate Floor for a full confirmation vote. The key to stopping his advancement is to make your objections known at every stage of the process. The first thing you can do is to forward this article to every person you know so that they are informed about the facts and about Pete Hegseth’s lack of character and qualifications. Next, you can contact the Republican Members of the Armed Services Committee, by calling their offices at (202) 224-3121 to demand that they vote “NO” against Pete Hegseth based on his lack of fitness.
If the Pete Hegseth nomination passes and makes it out of committee, I would ask that you stay tuned in order to call your own Senators to demand a no vote once his appointment reaches the Senate Floor. There is still a lot of work to do, and this is not over — Pete Hegseth leading the Department of Defense is too dangerous a proposition to simply overlook his confirmation process. Get involved now!
