president-elect Donald Trump will nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, the former president announced Tuesday evening.
Hegseth, 44, is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a master’s degree from Harvard.
“I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as Secretary of Defense,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Pete spent his life as a warrior for the troops and for the country. Pete is tough, smart and a true advocate of America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – our military will be great again and America will never back down.”
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Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 and became co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekends.”
He is the author of the recent New York Times bestseller “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” which exposes what he calls the “warped, woke and corrosive politics of our society.” ‘ denounces. current army.”
He previously headed Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
In 2012, Hegseth ran for the Senate as a Republican in his home state of Minnesota, but withdrew from the race after the state convention. Kurt Bills, a state representative, won the Republican nomination but lost to Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar in the general election.
Hegseth has “an excellent background as a junior officer, but does not have the senior national security experience that secretaries need,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Associated Press, adding that the lack of experience It could make it harder for Hegseth to get through Senate confirmation.
Asked about the choice Tuesday night, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa told CBS News that Hegseth “is going to be a very strong secretary.”
But initial reactions from other Republican senators varied.
Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama was asked what he thought and replied, “I’d have to think about it.”
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the choice “interesting,” while Senator Todd Young of Indiana said he has “no idea about his background.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska heard about the selection from a reporter and responded, “Wow.” When asked if it was a good choice, she said: ‘I’m just surprised. I’m not going to comment on whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. I’m only surprised because the names I’ve heard for Secretary of Defense haven’t included him.”
As for whether it would be difficult to confirm, Mukowski said: “I don’t know.”
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