Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick as Secretary of Defense, has said he believes women should not serve in combat and wants the military purged of “woke” officials pushing diversity, equality initiatives and support inclusivity.
Hegseth, 44, a Fox News host, has an extensive history of eyebrow-raising commentary, especially when it comes to military matters he would oversee if confirmed as a member of Trump’s second Cabinet and sixth in line would become the presidency.
Hegseth has long had a close relationship with Trump. The couple has often appeared together in photos on social media and on Fox’s airwaves. Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 as an on-air pundit and worked his way up to co-host of the weekend edition of “Fox & Friends,” the network’s flagship morning show.
Trump described Hegseth on Tuesday evening as “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,” he said.
Neither Fox News nor the Trump transition team immediately responded to requests for comment on Hegseth’s comments about the military. Hegseth was an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Hegseth has already given hints about how he would like to reshape the Defense Department, the largest and oldest U.S. government agency, with a budget of about $850 billion. Hegseth appeared on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast last week and said that during Trump’s second term, “every general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke up, gotta go.”
The first order of business, he said, would be to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who he said has been pushing a “woke” agenda.
He also stated that female soldiers should not be allowed to fight on the front lines.
“I’m just going to say honestly that we shouldn’t have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, it hasn’t made us more deadly, it hasn’t made fighting more complicated.”
The Pentagon opened all combat roles to women for the first time in 2015, a historic policy change intended to reflect the changing attitude of gender-related barriers within the military. According to the Department of Defense, women make up more than 17% of the active-duty armed forces, and they have proven themselves in training, excelled as fighter pilots in overseas combat and pioneered work in top positions within the armed forces.
Hegseth has also suggested that the rules of war should be reworked in favor of the US. In early 2020, after Iran fired missiles at U.S. troops based at Iraqi air bases in retaliation for the Trump-approved strike that killed top Iranian general Qassam Soleimani, he said. in the air that the US military would be allowed to bomb Iranian historical sites.
“I don’t care about Iranian cultural sites,” he said at once. Two days later he said: “If we are going to fight to prevent Iran from getting an atomic bomb, this regime, then we have to rewrite the rules that are beneficial to us,” adding: “I don’t want to deliberately attack cultural sites, but if you use one to house your most dangerous weapons, then that should be on the target list too.
In fact, Hegseth said on Ryan’s podcast last week, “the rules of war are for winners.”
Hegseth has also spoken out about defending members of the military in controversial cases.
He publicly lobbied Trump in 2019 to pardon three U.S. service members convicted or accused of war crimes. Among them was Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL platoon leader who was acquitted by a military jury in the 2017 killing of a militant in Iraq but was convicted on a related minor charge.
“They are not war criminals; they are warriors,” Hegseth said on air that year about the men he hoped Trump would pardon.
Trump reversed the verdict against Gallagher, downgrading his military rank and leading to the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, who opposed the decision. Trump also pardoned two others in separate cases involving killings of Afghans during war.
More recently, Hegseth defended Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran on trial in the chokehold of a homeless black man on a New York City subway last year, posting to to ruin.
Early in his career at Fox, Hegseth went viral in 2015 for an on-air incident in which he overshot a goal and hit a West Point drummer in the arm with an axe. The man, master sergeant. Jeffrey Prosperie has sued Hegseth. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the case was dropped in 2019 and that Prosperie’s attorney wrote in a statement: “The parties have resolved the matter and will have no further comment.” Prosperie could not be reached for comment.
Hegseth is among a string of Trump’s Cabinet-level picks, including longtime allies like Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., as attorney general, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and former House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
At least one of Hegseth’s cable news colleagues met his selection with some skepticism.
‘From crazy dinner interviews on Weekend Fox and Friends to Secretary of Defense? I never thought I’d say I’d be baffled by any post-election choice, but nominating Pete Hegseth for this incredibly important role? Yes, he is a veteran…and?” former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson said Tuesday night on X.
Hegseth’s Fox News colleagues, meanwhile, praised him.
“You don’t realize how qualified he is until you really look at the resume,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said Wednesday morning.
Hegseth, a decorated veteran, could face a challenging confirmation process. Republicans will have a slim majority in the Senate, and his comments and status as a relative unknown could prove to be obstacles.
“WHO?” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on Capitol Hill when asked Tuesday night about Trump’s choice of Hegseth. “I don’t know Pete. I just don’t know anything about him.”
Nevertheless, even skeptical Republican senators appear open to his confirmation.
“I’m not going to be negative right now because I want to know more about his background and, you know, and his approach to these types of things so that he will go through the regular process,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
