WASHINGTON — Peter Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s (R) intended nominee for Secretary of Defense, was questioned Tuesday by a Senate committee about his fitness for the role, including his knowledge of the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise.
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), whose state houses silos for land-based, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, asked whether Hegseth, a former television presenter on Fox & Friends and Army National Guard officer, supported the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM) program.
Hegseth said, “as of right now, Senator, based on what I know, I do,” but said he would need to “look under the hood” at classified information and how it measures up to “enemy capabilities.”
“What I know on the nuclear side is Russia and China are rushing to modernize and build arsenals larger than ours,” Hegseth said. “We need to match threats to capabilities.”
Fischer, who has spoken in the past about her frustration with delays in scheduling for Sentinel and the triad, also asked Hegseth how he would deal with scheduling delays.
Hegseth said he would be “focused first on the things that are most important” and “what are the priorities that need to be focused on?” Answering his own question, Hegseth said priorities would be “the nuclear triad” and shouted out the B-21, the Columbia-class submarine, and the Minuteman to Sentinel transition.
Hegseth did not elaborate on how he would speed up scheduling and how he would prioritize different parts of the triad.
Hegseth said he agreed with Trump’s 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, and agreed with Fischer that “our deterrence, our survival is reliant on… the perception and the reality of our capabilities of the triad. We have to invest in the triad for the defense of our nation.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee had not scheduled a vote on Hegseth’s nomination as of deadline this week for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Trump was scheduled to be inaugurated Monday.
In Hegseth’s opening statement, he said rebuilding the military and matching threats to capabilities would include “modernizing our nuclear triad.” In the advanced policy questions given for Hegseth to answer prior to his hearing, he discussed:
- The “proliferation risk” in the Middle East and Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon, all of which Hegseth said was one of the key U.S. national security interests in the Middle East.
- Convening a review of current missile-defense programs and pursuing systems to defend against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), among others.
- His opinion that the U.S. should limit options on “any future negotiation with Russia or China” on nuclear weapons reductions, and that “neither China nor most Russian nuclear forces are constrained in any way by arms control agreements” as both countries expand their nuclear arsenals at “extraordinary speed.”
- Improving missile-defense systems as North Korea builds up its nuclear arsenals and establishes a status as a nuclear power.
- Working with the Secretary of Energy and the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and supporting the “recapitalization and revitalization of NNSA infrastructure for improved and accelerated design, manufacture, and sustainment of the nuclear weapons stockpile to move faster and be more responsive to warfighter and strategic requirements” and “strike the right balance of cost, schedule, and performance.”
Hegseth also said in his advanced policy questions that the Secretary of Defense’s partnership with NNSA would be “one of my highest priorities,” and that he would work with the civilian agency to “accelerate production” on components for Columbia-class submarines, B-21, and Sentinel.
Democratic senators on the Armed Services Committee grilled Hegseth with concerns on allegations that came out about him drinking on the job, sexual misconduct, and his views on women in the military.
“You will have to change how you view women to do this job well,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said to Hegseth, “and I don’t know if you are capable of doing that.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor, said in the hearing that she and Hegseth had “very frank conversations.” During the hearing, she said the three issues most important to her were “the DoD and making sure we have a clean audit… women in combat… [and] maintaining high standards and making sure that we are combatting sexual assault in the military.”
“It is incredibly important that I stress, and I hope that if confirmed you continue to stress that every man and woman has opportunity to serve their country in uniform and do so in uniform as long as they are setting the standards that are set forward, and we talked about that in my office,” Ernest added.
Ernst got the nominee to say that he would if confirmed “appoint a senior level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and response” and “support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat roles.” After the hearing Ernst said she would support Hegseth.
Regarding allegations of alcohol abuse, Hegseth said the claims were “all anonymous.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was not satisfied with that and told Hegseth not “make this into some anonymous press thing… We have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) called critics of Hegseth “hypocritical.”
“The senator from Virginia starts bringing up the fact that, what if you showed up drunk to your job? How many senators have showed up drunk at night?” Mullin said. “Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job?”
“A man’s made a mistake, and you want to sit there and say that he’s not qualified,” Mullin added. “It is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself to this higher standard. You forget you got a big plank in your eye. We’ve all made mistakes.”
Democrats’ other concerns included personal conduct running smaller organizations, including Vets for Freedom, which Hegseth admitted had fewer than 10 employees and a much smaller budget.
According to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), “by the year of 2011, donors had become so dissatisfied with that mismanagement, they in effect, ousted you… that isn’t the kind of fiscal management we want at the Department of Defense.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed, saying about Hegseth, “I don’t know how he’s going to run an organization with an $850 billion budget.”
