No Fighting In the War Room: Pete Hegseth Confirmation Hearing Livestream Edition

Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The confirmation process for incoming President Trump’s cabinet picks is ramping up, and both parties are focusing on Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth as the front line in the congressional wars to come.

Watch the live steam from PBS here:

From Punchbowl News:

For the past several weeks, the former Fox News host has faced withering criticism about his fitness and qualifications for office, as well as explosive allegations of sexual and financial misconduct. Some GOP senators privately wondered last month whether Hegseth’s nomination would even make it this far. Hegseth has denied all allegations against him.

Hegseth also has benefitted from a Senate GOP Conference that has expressed a high level of deference to President-elect Donald Trump regarding his Cabinet choices. Democrats, however, want to make it untenable for Hegseth to continue as the Pentagon nominee, or for Republicans to back him.

Senate Republicans and Trump aides believe Hegseth will get confirmed if nothing new is revealed about the nominee during or immediately after the hearing.

Democrats’ strategy: The Armed Services Committee’s Democrats, led by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), plan to drill down on the allegations against Hegseth, in addition to his previously expressed views on major policy debates within the Pentagon.

This includes Hegseth’s long-standing opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military, as well as his advocacy on behalf of U.S. soldiers accused of committing war crimes. These and other issues outlined in a Democratic-authored memo viewed by Punchbowl News will guide their questioning.

The Armed Services Committee roster includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a sharp questioner; Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both of her legs in combat; and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who asks every judicial and executive nominee if they’ve been accused of sexual assault.

“I will ask him those questions and we will see what his answers are,” Hirono told us Monday night. “I’m focused on the things that are already out in public, such as him signing a [non-disclosure agreement] with the woman who alleges that he raped her.”

The intention may be to anger Hegseth and prompt a reaction that feeds further into the allegations about his personal conduct.

Democrats also tell us they want to spotlight the fact that Hegseth’s FBI file, which as we reported Monday, isn’t comprehensive.

The FBI didn’t interview the woman who filed a 2017 police report accusing Hegseth of sexual assault. Hegseth later reached a financial settlement in 2020 with the woman after she threatened to file a lawsuit. The accuser signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of that deal. Hegseth, whose lawyer said he was “visibly intoxicated” during the encounter, has denied any wrongdoing.

“There are very deeply personal allegations that I think the party should be afforded the privacy of being able to speak in confidence to the members of the committee,” Duckworth said of Hegseth’s accuser.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), another committee member, said she wants to hear from whistleblowers who raised concerns that Hegseth was drinking alcohol excessively at previous jobs.

Latest GOP moves: Senate Republicans seem determined to advance Hegseth’s nomination as quickly as possible. GOP leaders have said they want to prioritize confirming Trump’s national security nominees, and they’ve called on Democrats to eschew slowdown tactics.

This obviously won’t happen with Hegseth, which might be why Republicans scheduled an Armed Services Committee vote on Hegseth’s nomination for Monday — Inauguration Day — as we scooped.