Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Donald Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “not qualified for the job,” and addressed his previous comments that women should not serve in combat.
Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both her legs in combat in Iraq, said Hegseth’s comments about women in combat demonstrate “his lack of understanding of where our military is” and that if women were removed from the military, the US The army is said to be unprepared for deployment. She said it shows he is unqualified because he doesn’t understand that women are essential to a strong military.
“He’s wrong, because women have made us more effective. In fact, our military could not go to war without the 223,000 women who serve in uniform,” Duckworth said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “We would have an ineffective army that was unable to deploy. If we took all the women out and said, you can’t join the fight.’
Trump announced he will nominate Hegseth, a Fox News personality and former veteran, as his pick for Defense. Hegseth is now under scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault and past comments in which he said that “we shouldn’t have women in combat roles” because it has not made the military “more effective” or “lethal” and “makes fighting more complicated has made. ”
“This shows that Mr. Hegseth is not qualified for the position because he apparently does not understand, even after serving, that women are actually critical to an effective military,” Duckworth said. “With the recruitment challenges we face now, if we took all those women out and said, you can’t go into combat, we would be facing a serious workforce crisis in the military.”
Duckworth also questioned whether Hegseth’s experience made him qualified to lead the Defense Department. She noted that the Pentagon has 3 million military personnel and a budget of more than $900 billion — and that Hegseth “has never run anything close to that size.”
“He was a pretty low-ranking guy in the military, and he never had a command position,” Duckworth said. ‘He was a platoon leader once or twice, I think, but he never even commanded a company. is a man extremely unsuited for the position.”
She added that the women in these combat roles, such as the Special Forces or the SEALs, have had to pass the same standards and “rigorous testing” as the men. “Those who fill these roles have met the same standards as the men and have passed very rigorous testing. And so he’s just wrong,” Duckworth said in an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Hegseth’s comments, combined with past allegations of sexual assault, are “really disturbing,” Duckworth said.
Duckworth did say she wasn’t necessarily against all of Trump’s picks, as former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins as VA Secretary and her Senate colleague, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, as Secretary of State. She noted that she is friends with Rubio and wants to question Collins about the privatization of VA health care coverage.
But Duckworth also raised concerns about former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of National Intelligence, saying she believes Gabbard is “compromised” and worries she won’t be able to pass a background check.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a fellow member of the Armed Services Committee who supported Hegseth after meeting with him Thursday, said Duckworth is “completely wrong” about Gabbard.
“I have great respect for Tammy, and I have known her for years, we have served in the House together, but it is wrong for her to say such ridiculous and downright dangerous words,” Mullin said in an interview with Bash on “ State of the World Union.” “Tulsi Gabbard is still a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. She commands the Reserve Unit here in Oklahoma and Missouri. If she were doing her job, she wouldn’t still be in the Army.”
