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to spe will so ter am know e [Music] supp why e un to e e he e spe e I for e for e got your com e take akor e e e e e e guys e is everything saw you're e e e e e I sec I e you EX the e than e e e you there e w [Applause] us us for your good morning the hearing will come to order the committee on armed services has convened this hearing to consider the pending nomination of Mr Pete hexi to be Secretary of Defense

and and uh at this point um in light of the continued suffering and um death in in and around Los Angeles California I'm I'm going to ask uh my colleagues and those in the audience to um observe a moment of silence amen thank you um I also want to take this opportunity to thank my good friend um ranking member Jack Reed this is um my first opportunity to chair this committee and this Congress I want to thank Senator Reed under his chairmanship he proved time after time that he cares deeply about National Security and about

the United States of America and particularly the men and women who wear the uniform and stand watch both here and around the world to protect the United States Senator Reed I want to thank you for the many courtesies that you have extended to me in the past and I look forward to working with you again in a bipartisan fashion this Congress um it's also appropriate to recognize and welcome three Senators attending their very first Senate arm service Committee hearing as members Senator Banks of Indiana senator sheii of Montana and senator slotkin of Michigan we are

excited to have you as committee colleagues and look forward to many important contrib contributions from each of you and uh Senator slotkin as I look down at the end um of the Das there it seems that only a week or two ago I was sitting in that very chair um being recognized by the chairman of the committee the distinguished senator from Michigan so um time time flies now um let me say this we had a uh very appropriate expression of approval um by the members of the pardon me members of the audience as um as

our nominee and his family walked in um the the distinguished ranking member and I sincerely hope that that is the last uh signal of approval or disapproval in uh in today's hearing um people uh of the public are here they're welcome to observe today's hearing and um Senator Reed and I agree though that no disruptions will be allowed audience members may not verbally or physically distract from the hearing to include shouting standing or raising signage or gestures that block the view of the audience um and we're we're very serious about this um aren't we um

Mr Reed and um absolutely sir the those who do so will be immediately escorted from the room um so um again welcome to the witnesses to his friends and uh to interested members of U of the public um if confirmed um Mr Pete hexi would assume the role in a moment of Consequence the United States faces the most dangerous security environment since World War II we're witnessing the explosive growth and reach of China's hard power we're also observing the emergence of an axis of aggressors that Coalition is characterized by broadening and deepening military cooperation among

the dictatorships ruling China Russia Iran and North Korea terrorism remains a threat as Israel wages war against Hamas and Hezbollah and as the Assad regime collapses in Syria America has entered a window of Maximum danger and the department needs energetic and focused civilian leadership those values begin at the top with the Secretary of Defense many of my distinguished colleagues colleagues have served in a significant tenure on this committee and our meetings are fairly long we should reflect over previous secretaries of defense and their hearings and ask ourselves a simple question has the the civilian leadership

of the Pentagon under the administration of both parties proven up to the challenge often the answer has been no the civilian leadership has not built the Department of Defense to meet the moment and this is our moment to correct that a few examples illustrate how leaders in the past have fallen short most of the department signature programs run years behind schedule and billions of dollars over cost vital initiatives have suffered such as the F-35 the new Sentinel ICBM and the Navy's ship building program including the constellation class frigate the Department of Defense desperately needs civilian

leaders who listen to the advice of combatant commanders many of whom would benefit from Innovative systems yet a risk averse DOD culture has kept too many promising Technologies on the wrong side of the so-called Valley of Death that continuous period between experimental prototypes and production contracts defense companies backed by Venture Capital receive less than 1% of Defense contracts as we all know the Pentagon still cannot even pass an audit the department must simplify and streamline its bureaucracy so it can respond to Innovation staffs have ballooned organizations are topheavy civilian leaders have promised time and again

to slim down the bureaucracy and perhaps genuinely hoped to every day men and women in uniform make tremendous contributions to US security they and the American people deserve a pentagon that does same today's Department of Defense is no longer prepared for great power competition it is not a National Defense institution ready to achieve and sustain technological Supremacy across the range of operations admittedly this nomination is unconventional the nominee is unconventional just like that New York developer who wrode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidate candidacy for president that may be what makes Mr

heith an excellent choice to improve this unacceptable status quo that I just described he is a decorated post 911 combat veteran he will inject a new Warrior ethos into the Pentagon a spirit that can Cascade from the top down Mr hexi will bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the bureaucracy he will focus relentlessly on the war fighter and the military's core missions deterring Wars and winning the ones we must fight he will bring a swift end to corrosive distraction such as Dei today many simply acknowledge and live with the systemic problems I have

mentioned earlier in acquisition accountability technology transition and organizational civil service reform Mr hexi will actually move to fix these issues decisively in short I'm confident that Mr hexi supported by a team of experienced top officials will get the job done the secretary of defense is an incredibly important position but the secretary's span of control is limited the Pentagon is vast with 3 million plus Personnel uniformed civilian and contractor a successful secretary understands that steering the ship means focusing his attention on strategic level priorities the secretary must be supported with exceptional subordinates who will run the

day-to-day Affairs of the office of the Secretary of Defense the military services and the other DOD components I'm also confident that as an infantryman MR hexi understands the military principle of commander's intent communicate the clear objective Empower subordinates to use initiative and judgment and hold everybody accountable we must not underestimate the importance of having a topshelf communicator as Secretary of Defense other than the president no official plays a larger role in telling the men and women in uniform the Congress and the public about the threats we face in the need for a peace through strength

defense policy I have no doubt Mr hexi will excel in a skill in which many of his predecessors have fallen short much has been made of both Mr hexi personal life and some of his policy pronouncements regarding his personal conduct Mr hexi has admitted to Falling short as we all do from time to time it is noteworthy that the vast majority of the accusations leveled at Mr hexi have come from Anonymous sources contrast these Anonymous accusations with the many public letters of support and Commendation we have seen letters from people who served with Mr hexi

these individuals have worked with him professionally they really know him and his character these patriotic Americans have been willing to put their names and reputations on the line to support Mr hexi I look forward to sharing these testimonials with the American people let me mention one right now it comes from David bellavia who earned the Medal of Honor for Heroic actions in combat in fua Iraq David Belo writes the following Pete is fearless unflappable and confronts conflicts headon he's a leader to the core when Pete is confirmed as the next secretary of defense of the

United States of America this country will finally know the privilege of having a true Ambassador able to speak on behalf of this generation and its two decade global war on terror Washington doesn't build men like Pete combat builds men like Pete as I said um there are more letters expressing the same endorsement today we'll hear from the nominee directly I want to thank Mr heith as well as his loved on for being here today I look forward to discussing his nomination I look forward to hearing from Mr hexi about the ways he hopes to rebuild

the American strength that secures the peace and so now I turn to my friend and colleague ranking member Reed for his opening remarks well thank you very much Mr chairman I'd like to First congratulate you on your chairmanship uh I look forward to contining our committee's strong tradition of bipartisanship and uh collaboration and thank you for your thoughtful and conscious service the committee over many years thank you very much Mr chairman also like to take a moment to join chairman Wicker in welcoming our new members Senator slotkin Senator Banks and Senator sheii welcome we look

forward to working with you Mr Heth uh I welcome you and your family to today's hearing and I'm also glad to recognize my former colleague Norm Coleman and uh Congressman Mike walz thank you Congressman Mr hexit I want to begin by saying that I respect and appreciate your military service in the Army National Guard I know from experience that there is no greater privilege than to lead American soldiers and I thank you for answering the call you have been nominated to be the Secretary of Defense the secretary is responsible for leading an Department of three

and A5 million service members and civilians an annual budget of nearly $900 billion and hundreds of thousands of aircraft ships submarines combat Vehicles satellites and the nuclear Arsenal the secretary also plays a powerful role with our allies partners and adversaries abroad and as we speak China is seeking to undermine our interests intimidate our friends and challenge our standing in the world Russia's campaign against Ukraine threatens not only Europe but the entire Global Order ongoing violence in the Middle East has heered on the edge of allout War and the ideologies and actions of violent extremists endanger

our citizens even on our own soil as the recent tragedy in New Orleans painfully reminds us these are perilous times and the position of Secretary of Defense Demands a leader of unparalleled experience wisdom and above all else character the secretary is expected to be a fair nonpartisan and responsible leader as well as a trustworthy advocate for the men and women that he leaves Mr heg said I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job we must acknowledge the concerning public reports against you a variety of sources including your

own writings implicate you with disregarding the laws of war Financial mismanagement racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform alcohol abuse sexual assault sexual harassment and other troubling issues I have reviewed many of these allegations and find them extreme alarming indeed the totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military much less being confirmed as the Secretary of Defense nonetheless I understand that you reject many of these reports as they involve whistleblowers non-disclosure agreements and Anonymous although numerous sources including those who

have faced political intimidation for sharing their experiences I hope hope you will address each of these allegations thoroughly and truthfully during your testimony just as importantly I hope you will pledge to prevent any repercussions for whistleblowers both civilian and military if confirmed Mr hex during our meeting last week you said that if confirmed your top priority would be quote restoring a warrior culture to the Department of Defense because you believe the US military has been weakened by political correctness over the years you have made clear your opinion of the military's diversity initiatives as you have

said quote diversity is not our strength Unity is and a recent podcast you said quote I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles when I joined the army as a young officer in the 1970s the US military was Rife with racial tension women were prohibited from serving in most roles gay service members were banned and we relied on a national draft to fill our ranks the soldiers I served with were proud to do so but it was certainly not the nation's most capable military by any standard we had made great

progress since then today the Department of Defense is fully integrated every race and religion is accepted women serve in all combat roles and Leadership positions sexual orientation is irrelevant to service and the all volunteer Force visibly reflects the nation it protects our military is more diverse than it has ever been but more importantly it is more lethal than her's ever been this is not a coincidence Mr hexad I hope you'll explain why you believe such diversity is making the military weak and how you propose to undo that without undermining military leadership and harming Readiness Recruitment

and Retention Mr hex said another reason I'm deeply concerned about your nomination is your disregard for the LW of armed conflict and your support for cious members who have been convicted of war crimes you have champag the pardoning of military members who were Tred in by their fellow soldiers and seals and let me emphasize that they weren't discovered by reporters they were turned in by fellow soldiers and fellow seals and also pardoning of military contractors convicted of killing 14 Iraqi citizens without course you have also advocated for the restitution of interrogation methods like water boarding

that have been defined as torture and you have belittle the advice and counsil of J Advocates General while on deployment in your book the war on Warriors you write quote should we follow the Geneva Convention if our Warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that International tribunals feel better about themselves aren't we just better off in winning our Wars according to our own rules Mr hexit I would ask that you explain how you if confirmed would maintain good order and discipline within our forces and the support of our

allies and partners by rejecting international law and the law of War I'm also concerned about your abilities as a competent manager of organizations far less complex than the Department of Defense from 2008 to 2010 you led the organization Veterans for Freedom which had an annual budget of less than $10 million in each year you were in charge expenses far exceeded revenues until the organiz ation teetered on bankruptcy and had to be merge with another group in fact according to public reporting an independent forensic accountant reviewed the organization's finances and discovered evidence of gross Financial mismanagement

I would note that this report has not been AA made available to any government agencies which is I think alarming but a republican advisor to you during your tenure at the organization who read report stated and I quote I watched him run an organization very poorly lose the confidence of donors the organization ultimately fold it and was forced to merge with another organization who individuals felt could run and manage funds on behalf of donors more responsibly than he could I don't know how he's going to run an organization with an $857 billion budget and 3

million individuals and that is the only comment we've had and the only access we've had to the forensic report a similar thing happened with the Concerned Veterans for America a second veterans group that you led from 2011 until 2016 during those five years tax records show that the organization spent more than it raised just as troubling are reports that a significant amount of debt was incurred from social events in parties filled with excessive drinking and questionable personal Behavior Mr heck said I hope you will explain what actions you will take if confirmed to be a

better Steward of Defense Department's large budget finally while I appreciate our meeting last week it is unacceptable that you did not meet with any other Democratic members of this committee before this hearing as has been our bipartisan tradition during my time in the Senate I have voted for and worked closely with Secretary of Defense appointed by Republican presidents while we may disagree politically there was always an understanding that rank partisanship should have no place when it comes to Prov fting for the men and women who serve in uniform and Mr hexit I am troubled by

the many comments you have made both as a commentator and in your published writings for example in your book American Crusade you wrote quote modern leftist who represent the soul of the modern democratic party literally hate the foundational ideas of America you also wrote The Other Side the left is not our friend we are not esteemed colleagues nor mere political opponent we are foes either we win or they win we agree on nothing else Mr heg said if confirmed a secret defense you would lead an organization that like the country it represents is composed of

Democrats and Republicans yet your language suggests that you regard many of these men and women as foes and I would ask you to explain why service members and civilians who do not share your political opinions can trust that they will not be targeted during your tenure indeed the challenge of the secretary of defense is to remove partisan politics from the military you propose to inject it this would be an insult to the men and women who have sworn to uphold their own apolitical duty to the Constitution Mr hexad you are the ninth nominee for secret

defense that I've had the honor to consider as a member of the Senate armed services committee I have voted in favor of all your predecessors including those in the first Trump Administration unfortunately you lack the character and composure and competence to hold the position of secretary defense thank you thank you Senator Reed and now U it's my privilege and U honor and pleasure to recognize uh two witnesses who have come forward to introduce our nominee uh first um I recognize my former colleague and former Senator Norm Coleman uh of Minnesota for the purpose of an

introduction Norm we are glad to to see you and glad to have you back and and you are uh recognized for an introduction thank you Mr chairman right member Reed members of the committee my former colleagues I'm honored to introduce a son of Minnesota to you Pete Heth as a senator from Minnesota I spent many hours with this young man as he walked the halls of Congress advocating on behalf of America's veterans and he is young in the best sense of the word he is strong focused intelligent incisive a great listener and is almost supernaturally

energetic just what we need in a secretary of defense in times of massive change he is the real deal F Scott Fitzgerald was a writer in my city of St Paul and said the problem with America is that there are no second acts he was wrong Pete was a brave Soldier has been an able communic Ator and I believe is about to begin a great second act as our secretary of defense he has struggled and overcome great personal challenges please don't give into the cynical notion that people can't change we need the ones who can

change to lead us to be beacons of Hope and to remind us that Grace can lead us home four years ago President Biden's nominee Lloyd Austin a good and honorable man received 97 votes on the floor of the Senate and we went through the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal Putin invaded Ukraine the houes and danger our shipping lanes we witnessed Israeli Miracles against America's enemies in the Middle East with the United States more of an impediment than a help our recruitment numbers have sunk dramatically and our Southern border has suffered a slow but dangerous Invasion

yes Pete Heth is an outof thebox nominee and I say it's high time to get out of the box one more thought the country Longs for a government of less Division and more respect and dignity My Hope Is that this Committee hearing provides what they are asking for disagree yes strongly if necessary but then come together to support the nominee this nominee Pete hegf of the one President we have at a time laying aside partisan politics for the essential mission of National Security upon which everything else depends Mr chairman I yield uh thank you Norm

I I do appreciate uh that and appreciate your presence today I now um have the honor and pleasure of um of introducing Congressman wals I understand Congressman you are still a member of the House for another day or two another day or two okay and um um I uh now recognized Congressman wals for whatever opening statement and introduction he might make thank you chairman wicker and and chairman has a very nice ring to it so uh can congratulations ranking member Reed distinguished uh members of this committee it is a privilege to appear before you today

and urge the members of this committee to confirm Pete hegseth is our next secretary of defense and I'm not here today just to Advocate on behalf of a future colleague but to speak on behalf of someone someone I consider a dear friend uh for over a decade and now decade now like Pete I served in the US Army uh like Pete I'm a veteran we deployed to Afghanistan and all over the world at the height of the war on terror which is the war of Our Generation uh and like thousands of other Warf Fighters we've

witnessed the hardships of War we've experienced the loss of friends in combat we've endured too much time away from family and friends and no one I can promise you this no one hates War more than those who have had to go fight it no one does Pete's story though isn't that much different from the millions of other veterans and they know it and they appreciate him for the experiences that he's gone through and after our country was brutally attacked on 911 Pete Heth and answered the call of duty like so many others he put the

interests of this country ahead of his own and I can tell you firstand as can the heroes sitting in this audience behind me Pete's character of country his selflessness his duty these are the key tenants that have shaped him into the leader that he is today these are the traits that President Trump recognized when making the decision to nominate Pete for this critical role he will bring the perspective of being the first Secretary of Defense to have served as a junior officer on the front lines not in the headquarters on the front lines in the

war on terror and recognizes the human costs the financial costs and the policy drift that was discussed often In This Very Room that led us to decades and Decades of War so not only does he understand the threats he faces but as the chairman mentioned he is brilliant in my mind at communicating those to the American people in a way that is often not communicated in Washington DC to reach out to the American people so that they understand why the military needs to do uh what it needs to do and look I have no doubt

that he is going to get the Pentagon back to its primary Mission lethal Readiness that Warrior ethos is what our enemies will respect that Warrior ethos is what our enemies will fear and it's that Warrior ethos that will keep the peace and so look ladies and gentlemen in my uh humble opinion our military deserves better than it's getting our country faces a devastating recruitment crisis men and women are not volunteering to serve at the levels required our Readiness is down our costs are up and it seems like nearly every major weapon system again often discussed

In This Very Room is costing too much delivering too little and taking way too long the bottom line is the status quo is unacceptable it's not working and the members of this committee you all know it you know it's not working and the members of the House arm Services know it's not working and we have hearing after hearing year after year and here we are decades later describing the same problems the Pentagon has continuously failed audits the businesses that want to do business with the Pentagon have to pass an audit but the entity itself fails

an audit Innovation is stalled morale is down standards have been weakened and meritocracy is less valued and as a result our adversaries have been emboldened all over the world ladies and gentlemen it's time for change it is time for change you all have literally seen thousands of Veterans as the chairman cited one amazing Medal of Honor recipient but we have seen thousands of veterans expressing their support for Pete this is a man who can reinvigorate that Warrior ethos and this is a man that will lead I can't imagine having a more capable partner in my

position as National Security adviser Pete is a man of family of faith and he's committed to making our Country Strong again and most importantly brother I know this in my core he will always have as a first principal the service members that are out there on the front lines for all of us at the heart of every decision he makes so Senators I urge you to support this confirmation it is critical that President Trump has his National Security team in place for the challenges ahead and I thank you thank you Mike for your testimony and

um I'm guessing that each and every member of this committee will want to have you um on speed dial for um the next um few years so thank you both um our two guests may stay or I know they they have other uh engagements and responsibilities also but thank you both for your testimony at this point Mr hexi um I'm required to ask you you as a nominee a series of questions that the committee asks all civilian nominees who appear before it if you would police simply respond in the affirmative or negative to each question

have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest yes sir have you assumed any duties or taken any actions that would appear to presume the outcome of the confirmation process no sir exercising our our legislative and oversight responsibilities makes it important that this committee its subcommittees and other appropriate Committees of Congress receive testimony briefings reports records and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis do you agree if confirmed to appear and testify before this committee when requested yes sir do you agree to provide records documents and Electronic Communications in

a timely manner when requested by this Comm committee its subcommittees or other appropriate Committees of Congress and to consult with the requestor regarding the basis for any good faith delay or Denial in providing such records yes sir will you ensure that your staff complies with deadlines established by this committee for the production of reports records and other information including timely responding to hearing questions for the record yes sir will you cooperate in providing Witnesses and briefers in response to Congressional requests yes sir will those Witnesses and briefers be protected from reprisal for their testimony or

briefings yes sir all right [Music] um so so at at this point um Mr heith you recognize for your opening statement well thank you chairman wicker ranking member member Reed and all the members of this committee for this opportunity today I'm grateful for and have learned a great deal from this advise and consent process our Founders knew what they were doing should I be confirmed I look forward to working with this committee senators from both parties to secure our nation I want to thank the former senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman for his mentorship and friendship

in this process and the incoming National Security adviser congressman and more importantly for our Pur is Colonel Mike walz for his powerful words I'm grateful to them both thank you to my incredible wife Jennifer who has changed my life and been with me throughout this entire process I love you sweetheart and I thank God for you and as Jenny and I pray together every morning all glory regardless of the outcome belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Jesus Christ his grace and mercy abounds each day may his will be done thank you to my father

Brian and mother Penny as well as our entire family including our seven wonderful kids gunar Jackson Peter Boone Kensington Luke Jack Rex sorry it's a lot of them and gwendaline their future Safety and Security is in all of our hands and to all the troops and Veterans watching and here in the room Navy Seals Green Berets soldiers Pilots Sailors Marines gold stars and more too many friends to name officers enlisted black and white young and old men and women all Americans all Warriors this hearing is for you thank you for figuratively and literally having my

back mogist not only that you are a Christian s and support the War I want to thank the authorities for their Swift reaction to that outburst and U state that that U similar uh interruptions will be uh treated in like manner Mr heith you may continue well as I'll say again thank you for figuratively and literally having my back I pledge to do the same for all of you it's an honored to come before this committee today as president Donald Trump's nominee for the office of Secretary of Defense two months ago 77 million Americans gave

president Trump a powerful mandate for change to put America First at home and abroad I want to thank president Trump for his faith in me and his selfless leadership for our Republic the troops have no better commanderin-chief than Donald Trump as I've said to many of you in private meetings when President Trump chose me for this position the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense he like me wants a pentagon laser focused on lethality meritocracy War fighting accountability and [Music] [Music] Readiness you may continue sir

returning the penon back to war fighting that's it that's my job um Mr hexi uh suspend your remarks U let me just say this um the the Capitol Police are are going to remove immediately individuals that are disrupting the hearing I see a pattern um attempted uh to um be inflicted on the committee and and we're simply not going to tolerate that you may proceed to bring back War fighting if confirmed I'm going to work with President Trump and this committee to one restore the warrior ethos to the Pentagon and throughout our fighting force in

doing so we will reestablish trust in our military addressing the recruiting crisis retention crisis and Readiness crisis in our ranks me members of the security force will remove members M Mr Mr heith you may you may the strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose not our differences number two we're going to rebuild our M military always matching threats to capabilities this includes Reviving our defense in industrial base reforming the Acquisitions process as you mentioned Mr chairman no more valley of death for new defense companies modernizing our nuclear Triad ensuring the Pentagon

can pass an audit and rapidly Fielding emerging Technologies and number three we're going to reestablish deterrence first and foremost we will defend our homeland our borders and our skies second we will work with our partners and allies to deter aggression in the indopacific from the Communist Chinese and finally we will responsibly end Wars to ensure that we prioritize our resources to reorient to larger threats we can no longer count on reputational deterrence we need real deterrence the Department of Defense under Donald Trump will achieve peace through strength and in pursuing these America First National Security

goals will remain patriotically apolitical and strident constitutional unlike the current Administration politics should play no part in military matters we are not Republicans we are not Democrats we are American warriors our standards will be high and they will be equal not Equitable that's a very different word we need to make sure every Warrior is fully qualified on their assigned weapon system Pilots fully qualified and current on the aircraft they are flying and every general or flag officer is selected for leadership or promotion purely based on performance Readiness and Merit leaders at all levels will be

held accountable and War fighting and lethality and the Readiness of the troops and their families will be our only focus this has been my focus ever since since I first put on the uniform as a young Army RC Cadet at Princeton University in 2001 I joined the military because I love my country and felt an obligation to defend it I served with Incredible Americans in Guantanamo Bay in Iraq in Afghanistan and on the streets of Washington DC many of which are with me here today this includes enlisted soldiers I helped become American citizens and Muslim

allies I helped immigrate from Iraq and Afghanistan because when I took off the uniform my mission never stopped now it is true and has been acknowledged that I don't have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years but as president Trump also told me we've repeatedly placed people at top the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials whether they are retired generals academics or defense contractor Executives and where has it gotten us he believes and I humbly agree that it's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm a change agent

someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives my only special interest is the war fighter deterring Wars and if called upon winning wars by ensuring our Warriors never enter a fair fight we let them win and we bring them home like many of my generation I've been there I've LED troops in combat I've been on patrol for days I've pulled a trigger down range heard bullets whiz by Flex cuffed insurgents called in close air support LED metax dodged IEDs pulled out dead bodies and knelt before a battlefield cross this

is not academic for me this is my life I led then and I will lead now ask anyone who's ever worked for me or with me I know what I don't know my success as a leader and I very much look forward to discussing my organizations's successes at Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America I'm incredibly proud of the work that we've done but my success as a leader has always been setting a Clear Vision hiring people smarter and more capable than me empowering them to succeed holding everyone accountable and driving toward clear mat

metrics build the plan work the plan and then work harder than everyone else around you I've sworn an oath to the Constitution before and if confirmed I will proudly do it again this time for the most important deployment of my life I pledge to be a faithful partner partner to this committee taking input and respecting oversight we share the same goals a ready lethal military the health and well-being of our troops and a strong and secure America thank you for the time and I look forward to your questions thank you very much Mr hagith um

before we begin with member questions I would like to remind my colleagues that consistent with the bipartisan staff agreement from December and in concert with exactly how this committee dealt with the last Secretary of Defense nominee each member will be recognized for one round of seven minutes to question the nominee out of respect for the time of all members of this committee the time limits will be tightly enforced it we've now been here 45 minutes and I think we've done uh very well with the time but uh at this point I will begin um my

questioning of the nominee Mr hex say um you and your family have endured criticism of your nomination since it was announced in November um let's get into this allegation about um sexual assault inappropriate workplace Behavior alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement during your time as a nonprofit executive uh I should note that the majority of these have come from Anonymous sources in um liberal media Publications but I want want to give you an opportunity to respond to these allegations Sir Mr chairman thank Mr chairman thank you for that opportunity um you are correct um we undertook

this responsibility with an obligation to the Troops to do right by them for our war Fighters and what became very evident to us from the beginning there was a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us uh that was clear from Moment One um and what we knew is that it wasn't about me most of it was about President Donald Trump who's had to endure the very same thing for much longer amounts of time uh and he endured it incred incredibly strong ways so we in some ways knew it was coming we didn't understand

the depth of the dishonesty that would come with it uh so from story after Story in the media leftwing media we saw anonymous source after anonymous source uh based on second or third hand accounts and time and time again stories would come out and people would reach out to me and say you know I've reach I've spoken to this reporter about who you really are and I was willing to go on the record but they didn't print my quote they didn't print any of my quotes or I've worked with you for 10 years or I

was your accountant or I was your Chief Operating Officer or I was your board member or I was with with you on aund different tour stops for Concerned Veterans for America no one called me no one asked about your conduct on the record or off the Record instead a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign an agenda about me because our left-wing media in America today sadly doesn't care about the truth all they were out to do Mr chairman was to destroy me and why do they want to destroy me

because I'm a change agent and a threat to them because Donald Trump was willing to choose me to empower me to bring the defense department back to what it really should be which is war fighting so I am willing to endure these attacks but what I will do is stand up for the truth and for my reputation false attacks Anonymous attacks repeated ad nauseum printed as naum nauseum as facts um we have provided to the committee Mr chairman and I know you're going to share on the record statement after on the record statement from people

who have served with me worked with me at Fox News concern vets Vets For Freedom you name it from the top of the chain to the bottom who will say I treat them with respect with kindness with dignity that's men that's women that's black that's white that's every background I have prided myself as a leader of respecting people being professional that is the balance of mind I'm not a perfect person as has been acknowledged Sav by the the grace of God by Jesus and Jenny I'm not a perfect person but Redemption is real and God

forged me in ways that I know I'm prepared for and I I'm honored by the people standing and sitting behind me and look forward to Leading this Pentagon on behalf of the warfighters thank you Mr hexi and and U frankly I'm I'm sure there are millions of Americans watching who would would agree that that they've experienced that same sort of redemption so I do appreciate that um I realize that it it involves a little bearing of the soul but thank you for that now let's talk about top line defense spending I have a plan I

think you've read it I issued another plan of for uh freedoms Forge uh which you've also had a chance to look at and you have noted correctly that um the current trend line of defense spending falling below 3% of our GDP is a threat to National Security uh you also said building the strongest and most powerful military in the world must be done responsibly but it cannot be done on the cheap you still agree with that do you not yes sir I do um um so um tell us what you think about uh particularly about

my plan to make the defense department uh less bureaucratic less topheavy cut out some of the bureaucracy and layers make it more um more friendly to uh startups and to new ideas um contained in my 20 U or so page white paper um um defending freedoms Forge um Senator I've had a chance to review the forged act that paper um those are precisely the kinds of ideas that need to be pursued and I look forward to working with this committee to ensure we cut the red tape we incentivize Innovation we rebuild the defense industrial base

cut out the bureaucracy all the things that are preventing the Platforms in the tools from getting rapidly from our great defense companies here that should and those that want to compete into the hands of Warf Fighters but past his prologue on this sir and I would just look at what president Trump after the did after the draw Downs of lead from behind under President Obama president Trump rebuilt our military he didn't start wars he ended them and he didn't allow Wars to start on his watch we've had the same kind of Defense cuts under the

Biden Administration and so look I would I would present to the committee the reputation of President Donald Trump and me coming alongside him to ensure we have peace through strength by rebuilding our military investing as necessary going under 3% Mr chairman is very dangerous okay we got 45 seconds tell us um in in that point get us started at least talking about deterring China in the Indo Pacific it starts with priorities the 2017 National defense strategy uh was the first step in reorienting away from from Simply entanglement in the Middle East which Our Generation knows

a lot about and reorienting the Behemoth that is the Pentagon toward new priorities specifically the indo-pacific so that strategy has started it was barely followed through on under the B Administration so we're going to start by ensuring the institution understands that as far as threats abroad um the TCP uh is front and center also obviously defending our homeland as well thank you very much uh Senator Reed you recognized well thank you very much Mr before I begin my questioning I would like to make three requests first many of my members uh would like a second

round that has been the custom uh Senator Hegel was afforded three rounds uh Senator uh Ash cter two rounds uh and that was done by Republican chairman with the consent and the appropriate uh guidance of uh Democrats I must say too my recollection is I've never denied anyone uh the opportunity to ask the second round of questions as I shared I would request the second round and my time is running I think these are admin oh yeah you're using your time no uh if the timekeeper will uh will pause the uh the time um I

I I I must say I think we're going to have adequate time for questioning and I know Democrat members have um have coordinated their questions as much as we have and we are we are following the the same exact precedent on on all things that we did with secretary Austin so u i I um I respectfully understand what you're saying but I think we have an agreement it's been known for quite some time and I intend to to stick with that that agreement which we made last December what is your second request second uh as

been public report you and I have both seen the FBI background investigation Mr heg said and I want to stay for the record I believe the investigation was insufficient frankly uh there are still FBI uh obligations to talk to people uh they have not had access to the forensic audit which I referenced to and the person who had access to was quite uh critical of Mr Hixon uh and I think people in both both sides have suggested that they get the report I know your colleagues have asked for it Senator th assured me personally that

he thought it was an appropriate idea uh so I would ask and I would say too as a president uh one of President Trump's appointees had similar very complicated uh personal issues the report was made available to all the members of the committee we would be following precedent and I ask that that be made possible again we we are there's been much discussion about this and what I intend to do is follow the exact precedent that we've had for the last two um hearings with regard to secretaries of defense um not only secretary Austin but

secretary Mattis eight years ago and and and that was for the chair and the ranking member to see the report and so um that is my intention as chair of this committee uh finally Mr chairman I have several letters that I would include for the record uh one from count every hero which is an organization of retired four star generals and former Secretary of Defense that is critical of the proposed Purge panels one from a Organization for domestic violence one for a council on uh American relations uh and and also uh excuse me and also

uh several letters uh that raise questions I would ask they be uh submitted for the record without objection they will be submitted and and uh Mr Reed Your Time Is Now expired just kidding yeah you're recognized for seven minutes thank you you're a very understanding chairman I like that I like that uh Miss exit you've written then it's quote Oh yeah and fire any general who is in carried water for Obama and Biden's extra Constitution and agenda-driven transformation for our military clean house and start over it's come to my attention that current serving military personnel

have received emails threatening them with being fired for supporting the current DOD policies one mail that was sent to a military officer with the subject line clean house reminiscent of your specific comment States and I quote with the incoming Administration looking to remove disloyal corrupt traitorous liberal officers such as yourself we will certainly be putting your name into the list of those Personnel to be removed we know you support the woke Dei policies and will ensure you never again influence anyone in the future you and redacted spouse's name will be lucky if you're able to

collect your military requirement and quote now I want to remind everyone that these policies that are being referred to uh bait back decades to the 1940s and 50s with respect to racial discrimination particularly and administrations of both parties including the Trump Administration and their first party uh caused those policies to be enforce Mr he heg said are you aware of these emails being sent to offices Senator you mentioned the word accountability which is something we have not had for the last four years are you aware of these messages being sent to officers certainly I'm not

aware of that it's not one of my efforts but there's been no accountability for the disaster of the withdrawal in Afghanistan and that's precisely why we're here today excuse me is that leadership has been unwilling to take accountability it's the time to restore that to our sen most senior ranks youve written publicly that Di policy of distraction and have military personnel walking on Ed shells do you believe that emails like that that are Sally threatening both a serving officer and a spouse and claiming that they'll lose their pension will have a distraction and detract from

The lethality Senator you mentioned the 40s and 50s and you're precisely right uh the military was a forerunner in courageous racial integration in ways no other institutions were willing to do I served with men and women of all backgrounds because of the courage of people Dees incredibly important however the Dei policies of today are not the same as what happened back then they're dividing troops inside formations causing commanders to walk on eggshells not putting meritocracy first that's the indictment that's made by those serving right now excuse me and why we're having this conversation all of

your public comments don't talk about Merit Ry they talk about liberal Democratic efforts that are destroying the military that those people are our enemies that's not meritocracy that's a political view and your goal as I see emerging is to politicize the military in favor of your particular positions which you've outlined extensively which would be the worst blow to the professionalism of the United States military and would undercut Readiness undercut retention because I can see officers receiving these emails beginning to wonder very seriously if they should continue uh let me change subject for a moment here

uh You've Been instrumental in securing pardons for several convicted war criminals um in at least two of these cases the military personnel who served in combat with these con IED service members were not supportive of the parts they did their Duty as soldiers to report war crimes um your definition of lethality seems to embrace those people who do commit law crimes rather than those who stand up and say this is not right so what's the response to your service members who personally witnessed these and took courageously reported them to their superiors Senator as someone who's

led men in combat directly and had to make very difficult decisions I've thought very deeply about the balance between legality and lethality ensuring that the men and women on the front lines have the opportunity to destroy with and close the enemy and that lawyers aren't the ones getting in the way I'm not talking about disavowing uh the laws of war or the Geneva conventions or the uniform code of military Justice sir I'm talking about restrictive rules of Eng engagement that these men and women behind me understand they've lived with on the battlefield which has made

it more difficult to to defeat our enemies in many of the cases you're talking about in particular sir there was evidence withheld there was Pro prosecutorial misconduct and as someone who looks Case by case and defaults to the warf fighter to the men and women with dust on their boots not the second guessers in air conditioned offices in Washington DC I look Case by case and was proud to work with President Trump to understand those cases and ensure that our Warriors are always looked out for those cases were adjudicated were by adjudicated by who people

in Washington or fellow non-commissioned officers who had also served sacrificed and believed in the ethic of the military who who were the who were the court Marshal uh senator in multiple cases they were actually acquitted but charges lingered regardless of where those conving authorities were yes sir some were but others were convicted and you asked for part that's the only reason you asked for pardon because they were convicted but the other Factor too is you've already disparaged in writing the Geneva Convention the rules of law all of these things how will you be able to

effectively lead a military in which one of the principal elements is discipline respect for lawful Authority you have made statements to your platoon after being pred by a Jag officer well by the way would you explain what a jag off is I don't think I need to Sir why not because the men and women watching understand well perhaps some of my colleagues don't understand it would be a Jag officer who puts uh his or her own priorities in front of the war Fighters their promotions their medals in front of having the backs of those are

making the tough calls on the front lines thank you Senator interesting thank you Senator thank you very much Senator Fischer thank you Mr chairman and welcome Mr Heth to to you and to your family uh thank you for the meeting that we had we talked about a number of things uh first and foremost was that nuclear weapons are foundational to our National Defense and having a safe effective and credible nuclear deterrent underpins our alliances and as you know it deters our adversaries nuclear deterrence has been and you and I I believe agreed on this it

must continue to be unequivocally the highest priority mission of the Department of Defense but deterrence only works if our adversaries believe our nuclear forces are effective and credible all three legs of our Triad are undergoing that generational recapitalization uh programs and we cannot afford any more delays in those programs uh sir do you believe um uh and agree with President Trump's 2018 nuclear posture review that preventing adversary nuclear taxs is quote the highest priority of the United States uh Senator yes I do if confirmed will you commit to supporting all three legs of the nuclear

Triad and using every tool available to deliver these systems on schedule Senator yes I do because ultimately our deterrence our survival is Reliant upon the capability the perception and the reality of the capability of our nuclear Triad we have to invest in its modernization for the defense of our nation while former secretaries of defense have stated that nuclear deterrence is the highest priority we haven't really seen that translated into budget requests or using the tools like the defense production Act uh you've spoken about increasing lethality you've spoken about getting programs done faster how would you

actually Implement a culture change so that we can see these delivery schedules um move forward be rewarded uh I can tell you in most every briefing we have um the schedules were on or too late so what would you do well ultim ultimately focused first on the things that are most important we have discussed Senator the nuclear Triad understanding whether it's the B21 or the minute man to The Sentinel uh all all aspects or the Columbia class submarines ballistic missiles um what are the priorities that need to be focused on and ensure that in those

particular cases you mentioned it Senator the defense production act emergency Powers if we're at a place where our nuclear capabilities are perceived to not be what they are that is an emergency and we have an ally in our incoming commander-in-chief in president Donald Trump who has spoken about these things understands the power and strength of nuclear deterrence will not allow them it's the threat it's the existential threat to this nation how do you change the how do you change the culture it's not just the production act that's going to be able to do it how

are you going to um move forward faster competition Senator is important critically important the Death Valley that was talked about leveraging the innovation of Silicon Valley which for the first time in Generations has shown a willingness desire and capability to bring its best Technologies to bear at the Pentagon a pentagon that has become too insular uh tries to block new technologies from coming in so we have to embrace that provide there's some great office of strategic Capital diu initiatives that provide loans to companies to participate because you have to invest in you have to invest

in the defense industrial base for the longer term projects we have the capability the missiles and the ammunitions but also to rapidly field emerging Technologies that we need on the battlefield right now so as we learn things say in the war in Ukraine those Technologies as we look at threats we're going to face find ways to rapidly field those using off-the-shelf Technologies or or standard designs uh modular designs another easy one Senator that became evident in the process is digital designs the Pentagon often builds entire systems without first using a digital design okay which means

you build prototypes and then scrap them and start over again no private sector business could survive doing business that way so there's a lot of innovation and I'm going to hire a lot of smart people already have to help with that uh in um the 2025 uh ndaa it was established to a new position the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear deterrence chemical and biological defense policy and programs and that was established uh so we could cut through a lot of the bureaucratic stove pip types that uh that we see in the office of the

Secretary of Defense if confirmed will you direct the Department of Defense uh components to expeditiously implement this reform I it sounds I would would want to look directly at exactly what that reform is I take your word that it's great Senator I will review it robustly and I look forward to implementing okay thank you uh during the first Trump Administration the 2018 nuclear posture review concluded that the US needed to once again develop and deploy a nuclear armed sea launch cruise missile uh known as slickum to offset significant Russian and Chinese advantages in theater range

nuclear capabilities uh since then Congress on a strong bipartisan basis has directed the Navy and the national nuclear Security Administration to continue this effort do you support the slickum program as of right now Senator based on what I know I do but one of my answers I'll have repeatedly throughout uh this this morning is getting an opportunity to look under the hood classified material get an understanding of true capabilities vvv enemy capabilities because what we know right now on the nuclear sorry Senator what I know on the nuclear side is that Russia and China are

rushing to modernize and build arsenals larger than ours we need to match threats to capabilities and the systems we Elevate will be tied to whether those capabilities are needed based on the adversaries we would you um would you ensure that this program is executed according to law absolutely absolutely Senator what uh short short here uh what is your plan to revitalize the industrial base in this country needs to be real short real short um serious investment targeted at systems that we truly need by also incentivizing competition and laser focus from the OSD from the office

of secretary defense to all the particular strategic initiatives to revive them so it's not just one system it's multiple systems you may want to expand on that on the record at this point um thank you my colleagues I would um ask unanimous con consent to enter into the record a letter organized by a group called flag officers for America which has 120 retired generals and Admirals offering their support for Mr hexus nomination I ask unanimous consent without objection it is entered into the record Senator Shaheen good morning Mr hegf good morning Senator I was pleased

when I was contacted on your behalf about meeting before this hearing I've been on this committee since 2011 and during that time I voted to confirm six nominees to be Secretary of Defense from three administrations two Democratic and one Republican the first Trump administration every one of those nominees met with me and my Democratic colleagues on this committee before the hearing so as you can imagine I was disappointed when no one ever followed up when we followed up with your office you were not able to meet do you understand that if you're confirmed to be

Secretary of Defense that you will have a responsibility to meet with all members of this committee not just Republicans Senator I very much appreciate and understand the traditionally bipartisan nature of this committee their National Defense is not partisan it should not be about Republicans Or democrats and so I look forward to working together with you and your colleagues on on priorities facing this nation yes I think we would expect that and one reason that I wanted to meet with you was because I thought it would be really helpful to better understand your views on women

in the military um because you've made a number of surprising statements about women serving in the military um as recently as November the 7th of 2024 on the Shawn Ryan Show um you said and I quote I'm straight up saying that we should not have women in combat roles it hasn't made us more effective the quote went on a little longer but that was the gist of it um that was before you were nominated to be Secretary of Defense um Mr Heth do you know what percentage of our military is comprised of women um I

believe it's 18 to 20% Senator it's almost 18% and in fact dod's 2023 demographic report indicated that there are more women serving now and there are fewer separations so they make up a critical part of our military wouldn't you agree yes ma'am women in our military as I have said publicly have and continue to make amazing contributions across all aspects of our Battlefield well you also write in your book uh the war on warriors with the chapter the deadly obsession with women warriors that quote not only are women comparatively less effective than men in combat

roles but they are more likely to be objectified by the enemy and their own nation in the moral Realms of War Mr hegf should we take it to believe that you believe that the two women on this committee who have served honorably and with distinction made our military less effective and less capable I'm incredibly grateful for the for the two women who've served our military in uniform and including uh in the Central Intelligence Agency contributions on the battlefield indispensible contribution Senator I would like to clarify when I'm talking about that issue it's not about the

capabilities of men and women it's about standards and this committee has talked a lot about standards standards what that we unfortunately over time have seen eroded in certain certain Duty positions certain schools certain places which affects Readiness which is what I care about the most read on the B and so my comments time and time again to standards your statements publicly have not been to that effect um after your nomination you did state to a group of reporters that you quot support all women serving in our military today who do a fantastic job across the

globe including combat um so what I'm confused about Mr Heth is which is it why should women in our military if you were the Secretary of Defense believe that they would have a fair shot and an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks if on the one hand you say that women are not competent they make our military less effective and on the other hand you say oh know now that I've been nominated to be the Secretary of Defense I've changed my view on women in the military what do you have to say to the

almost 400,000 women who are serving today about your position on whether they should be capable to rise through the highest ranks of our military Senator I would say I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve alongside you shoulder-to-shoulder men and women black white all backgrounds with a shared purpose our differences are not what Define us our unity and our shared purpose is what Define us and you will be treated fairly with dignity honor and respect just like every man and woman in uniform just like the men and women that I've worked with in

my veterans organizations to include when I was a headquarters and headquarters company commander in the Minnesota National Guard well I appreciate your 11th hour conversion but Mr chairman for the record I would like to submit chapter 5 the deadly obsession with women warriors for the record um Mr heg said without objection will be uh submitted are you familiar with the women peace and security agenda at the Department of Defense uh yes ma'am I am um this is a law that was signed during president-elect Trump's first term it was legislation that I sponsored with Republican senator

Capo of West Virginia it was co-sponsored by Marco Rubio the nominee to be the president-elect Secretary of State it was led in the House of Representatives by Christy gome the president-elect's nominee to be the Secretary of Homeland Security it mandates that women be included in all aspects of our national security including conflict resolution and peace negotiations and at the Department of Defense it has been the law for eight years under both the Trump and Biden administrations the dod has incorporated women throughout its decision making as a result every single combatant Commander across two administrations has

told this committee that this law and its implementation at the Department of Defense provides them a strategic Advantage operationally based on your comments it appears that the example that you would like to set not only for women in this country but for women across the globe 50% of the world's population as the pro prospective nominee to lead the most combat credible military in the entire world is that women should not have an equal opportunity in our military so will you commit to preserving the women peace and Security Law at DOD and including in your budget

the requisite funding to continue to restore and resource these programs throughout the dod uh Senator I will commit to reviewing that program and ensuring it aligns with America First National Security priorities meritocracy lethality and Readiness and if it advances American interests it's something uh we would Advance if it doesn't it's something we would since former president Trump signed the law I hope that he agrees with you uh thank you Senator Shaheen at this point I would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record five letters of support from female service members and combat veterans who

support Mr hgi's nomination these women represent diverse viewpoints from a retired Colonel with over 25 years of service to an active duty Navy surface Warfare command Commander to a senior Airman they support Mr heith and uh comment on his focus on Merit War fighting Readiness military training status and the warrior ethos so without objection it will be entered into the records um and now um I'm honored to recognize Senator cotton for seven minutes Mr hex let's continue on this line of questioning about what sometimes referred to as women and combat I think that phrase is

C something of misnomer um many members of this committee have served in combat in the last 25 years to include women and men I'm sure all those men served with women whether they were military police officers or they were pilots or whether they were intelligence analysts or Medics or what have you you served I assume you served with women who were on the front lines as well is that correct sir and were those women anything other than skilled Brave and honorable in their service they were some of the best soldiers I worked with so women

have been serving in combat for a long time women have even been serving in combat units like infantry battalions for a long time in roles like Medics or mechanics or what have you so what we're talking about here specifically is women in ground combat roles in jobs like infantrymen or artillerymen or Special Forces now until about 10 years ago that wasn't the case uh under secretary Panetta those roles were opened up to women to serve in um does has president Trump indicated at all that he plans to resend or alter that guidance um you're correct

to point out Senator that these are the decisions that the commander-in-chief will have the prerogative to make uh he has not indicated me to me that he has plans to change whether or not women would have access to these roles however I would point out ensuring that standards are equal and high is of importance to him and great importance to me because in those ground combat roles what is true is that the weight of the Ruck on your back doesn't change the weight of the5 round that you have to carry doesn't change uh the weight

of the 240 Bravo machine gun you might have to carry doesn't change and so whether it's a man or a woman they have to meet the same high standards and senator in any place where those things have been eroded or in courses criteria have been changed in order to meet quotas uh racial quotas or gender quotas that is putting a focus on something other than Readiness standards meritocracy and lethality so that's the kind of review I'm talking about not whether women have access to ground combat okay so thank you so you expect no change that

guidance but as you point out in these specific jobs there are irreducible physical demands we expect our intelligence analysts and our mechanics to be physically fit in the military but it's different when you're in the Infantry or the artill you just mentioned a few things let me point it out an artillery shell weighs almost 100 PB and Abram's tank round weighs around 50 PBS the m240 Bravo machine gun with its tripod weighs almost 50 pounds the average weight of a full kit ammo water Comm body armor for a soldier is over 100 pounds nothing you

can do it can change any of those things right that is physical reality uh go ahead yes senator and I would say the requirements to handle those things in a ground combat unit as far as standards can look different than those of a medic or a drone pilot and so it's not that it has to be the same standard throughout it's standards to maximize efficacy of that particular position let let me read a quote here from one army officer while it may be difficult for a 120 PB woman to lift or drag 250 PBS the

Army cannot artificially absolve women of that responsibility it may still exist on the battlefield the entire purpose of creating a gender gender neutral test was to acknowledge the reality that each job has objective physical standards to which all soldiers should be held regardless of gender the intent was not to ensure that women and men will have an equal likelihood of Meeting those standards I assume based on your testimony you agree with that army officer uh absolutely the standards need to be the same and they need to be high uh and they need to be set

by the people closest to the problem set closest to the understanding of what is required by that job commanders commanding officers and ccoms and elsewhere who understand the reality of what they face that's the feedback we should get that's what should be enshrined and enforced and no other set of political prerogatives when I talk about removing politics ideological or political proog prerogatives should contribute to those determinations nothing other than the execution of the mission thank you for the record that army officer was Captain Kristen Greece the Army's first female infantry officer and one of its

first female Ranger school graduates one final point you said they need to be objective gender neutral and high that's because the demands are in fact very high the current physical fitness test for the Army has a minimum two- mile run of 22 miles run and I I want the reporters note that I'm putting run in air quotes because 22 miles at 2 miles is not running it may be it's probably walking fast um let's move on got a big 22 minutes thank we've got a big audience here many of them seem to be patriotic supporters

of you Mr hexat some of them seem to be liberal critics of you I would note that it's only the liberal critics that have disrupted this hearing as was my custom during the Biden Administration I I want to give you a chance respond to what they said about you I think the first one accused you of being a Christian Zionist I'm not really sure why that is a bad thing I'm a Christian I'm a Zionist Zionism is that the Jewish people deserve a Homeland in the ancient holy land where they've lived since the dawn of

History do you consider yourself a Christian Zionist Senator I support I am a Christian and I robustly support the state of Israel and its existential defense and the way uh America comes alongside them is their a great thank you because another one another protester and I think this one was a member of code pink which by the way is a Chinese Communist front group these days uh said that you support Israel's war in Gaza I support Israel's existential war in Gaza I assume like me and president Trump you support that war as well don't you

Senator I do I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas and the third protester said something about 20 years of genocide I assume that's our Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan do you think our troops are committing genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan Senator I do not I think our Senator our troops as you know as so many in this committee know did the best they could with what they have we're not the outcomes and tragically the outcome we saw in Afghanistan under the Biden Administration put a stain on that but it doesn't put

a stain on what those men and women did in uniform as you know full well Senator thank you Mr X thank you Senator cotton at this point I I offer I ask unanimous consent to offer to the record a letter submitted by Omar Abasi son of former city council president of Samra Iraq who worked with Mr hexi in Iraq without objection that will be entered Senator Gill brand thank you Mr chairman um thank you Mr hagath I do want to thank you for your service and I want to thank you for your willingness to serve

in this capacity thank you senator have many concerns about your record and particularly your public statements because they are so hurtful to the men and women who are currently serving in the US military harmful to morale harmful to good order and discipline if you are saying that women shouldn't be serving in the military and I'm going to read you your quotes because the quotes themselves are terrible you will have to change how you see women to do this job well and I don't know if you are capable of that so I want to press on

these issues that my colleague jeene Shaheen brought up because she said it so well so first of all you answered your questionnaire do you believe that any American who wants to serve their country in the military and can meet objective standards set by the military should be allowed to serve without limitation you've said yes to that question but then in all of these other circumstances you've denigrated active duty service members we have hundreds hundreds of women who are currently in the Infantry lethal members of our military serving in the Infantry but you degrade them you

say we need moms but not in the military especially in combat units so specific to Senator kon's question because Senator cotton was giving you layups to differentiate between different types of combat and specifically as secretary would you take any action to reinstitute the combat arms exclusion for female service members no going full well you have hundreds of women doing that job right now and the standards you your your two mile run Tom is about the Army Combat fitness test it is not the requirements to have an mos1 Bravo which is the Infantry these are the

requirements today for people serving in the industry men and women they are gender neutral and they are very difficult to meet they have not been reduced in any way and our combat units our infantry is lethal so please explain specifically because you will be in charge of 3 million Personnel it is a big job and when you make these public statements and I get you were not Secretary of Defense then I get you were on TV I get you were helping veterans I get it was a different job but most recently you said this in

November of 2024 knowing full well you might have been named as Secretary of Defense defense so please explain these types of statements CU they're brutal and they're mean and they disrespect men and women who are willing to die for this country well Senator I I appreciate your your comments and I would point out I have never disparaged women serving in the military I respect every single female service member that has put on the uniform past and present my critiques Senator recently and in the past and from personal experience have been instances where I've seen standards

lowered and you mentioned 11 Alpha 11 Bravo uh MOS places in units and it the book that has been ref referenced multiple times here the war on Warriors I spent months talking to active duty service members men and women low ranks high ranks combat arms and not combat arms and what each and every one of them told me and which personal instances have told shown me is that in ways direct indirect overt and subtle standards have been changed inside infantry training units Ranger School uh infantry battalions to ensure that commanders example please give me an

example I get you're making these generalized quotas to have a certain number of female infantry officers or infantry enlisted and that disparages those womenred for theant commanders do not have to have a quota for women in the Infantry that does not exist it does not exist and your statements are creating the impression that they that these exist because they do not they are not quotas we want the most lethal Force but I'm telling you having having been here for 15 years listening to testimony about men and women in combat and the type of operations that

were successful in Afghanistan and in Iraq women were essential for many of those units when Ranger units went in to find where are the terrorists hiding in Afghanistan or in Iraq if they had a woman in the unit they could go in talk to the women in a village say where are the terrorists hiding where are the weapons hiding and get crucial information to make sure that we can win that battle so just you cannot denigrate women in general and your statements do that we don't want women in the military especially in combat what a

terrible statement so please do not deny that you've made those statements you have we take the responsibility of Standards very seriously and we will work with you I'm equally distressed you would not meet with me before this hearing we could have covered all of this before you came here so I could get to the 15 other questions that I want to get to so women you have denigrated you have also denigrated members of the lgbtq community did you know that when donat don't tell was in in place we lost so many crucial Personnel over a

thousand in Mission critical areas we lost 10% of all our foreign language speakers because of a political policy you said in your statement you don't want politics in the dod every everything you've said in these public statements is politics I don't want women I don't want moms what's wrong with a mom by the way once you have babies you therefore are no longer able to be lethal I mean you're basically saying women after they have children can't ever serve in the military in a combat role it's it's a it's a silly thing to say it's

a silly thing to say beneath the position that you are aspiring to to denigrate lgbtq service members is is a mistake if you are a sharpshooter you're as lethal regardless of what your gender identity is regardless of who you love so please know this to be a true statement so you say you say it was a political thing you say um it undermined us social engineering I don't know why having someone having to publicly say um or not publicly say who they love is social engineering I think having that policy in the first place was

highly problematic and as you said in your statement do you agree anybody should be able to serve in the military if they meet the standards Senator as the president has stated um I don't uh disagree with the overturn of donel great because I don't want you thinking can't serve if you're a mom can't serve if you're lgbtq and then last um can't serve if you're a leftist the statements you said about people who have views differently than you that we're the enemy are you saying the 50% of the dod if they hold liberal views or

leftist views or our Democrats are not welcoming the military are you saying that Senator I volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan under Democrat President Barack Obama I also volunteered to guard the inauguration of Joe Biden but was denied the opportunity to serve because I was identified as an extremist by my own unit for a Christian tattoo uh thank you very much U Senator gilland you um you held up a document um and referred to it during your questioning would you like that entered into the record it may be War without my marks okay okay we'll we'll

delete we'll without objection that will be admitted at the at the point of your question and I would like to enter into the record at this point a letter of support from retired Air Force Colonel Melissa Cunningham Colonel Cunningham supports Mr hexi and mentions his Warrior ethos combat Effectiveness and maintaining military training standards so without objection both of those will be admitted and I now recognize CER rounds thank you Mr chairman um first of all good morning uh I'd like to thank you for your service to our nation in uniform and also your work on

behalf of your fellow veterans and for your willingness to enter into this malstrom of Public Service I think the presence of so many veterans who have showed up to support you speaks volumes I also want to recognize your family service and sacrifice you know as well as anyone that it's not just the man that enters the arena but it's the entire family who also works their way through this process as well uh I appreciated our meeting of with you and with your wife Jennifer this last month and I thought that we had an excellent conversation

and I appreciate your statement and your answers to the advanced policy questions especially your desire to bring a renewed focus on war fighting and lethality back to the Pentagon um I also respect and I appreciate my friend and colleague Senator Gilla brand in some of her questions and I know that she had a number of them in there you had an opportunity to respond very briefly were there any other responses that you would like to make or clarifications that you would like to make before I move on to my questions Senator thank you very much

uh for the opportunity to meet and for the question uh I would I would also acknowledge um you were mentioning female engagement teams uh which have shown a great deal of success on the battlefield uh it would be and universally acknowledged as such um I've been in Iraqi homes uh where the language and gender barrier was real uh and the ability to have someone there to help in that process uh would be a massive accelerant in Mission success so I recognize uh that real I also recognize that female engagement teams assigned to a Seal Team

or a a a Green Beret team meet different standards also which is okay because the duty positions involved in that job uh as far as politics uh Senator I it has been the joy of my life to lead men and women uh in military uh outfits when you're in combat or or in training there's a lot of conversations that happen and you start to realize that a lot of people you're serving with share your political ideals or they don't uh you find out there's Republicans there's Democrats there's Libertarians there's Independence there's vegetarians everything in between

none of that matters it never mattered in how I led men and women how I interacted with them what missions we undertook politics has nothing to do with the battlefield which is why president Trump has asked me to say let's make sure all of that comes out this is about war fighting capability setting standards high and making sure we we give our boys our men and women everything they need to be successful on the battlefield so politics can play no part in that and I look forward to using that as we always have inside our

units I I appreciate you making that very clear and I one of the areas that we want to do our best is to provide for the equipment and the technical capabilities so that no young man or woman enters into a battle as a fair fight and that they always have the advantage those are the types of questions that I'd like to get into right now and I want to start by talking about something that sometimes gets a little bit into the weeds but I think it's critical um Mr heg said from what I've heard from

24 senior DOD officials in hearings over the last two years including the Secretary of Defense every Service Chief and eight combatant commanders is that sharing the portion of the spectrum and this is in the weeds I know but I'm going to ask it to get it on the record the 3.1 to 3.5 gigahertz band would have extremely serious consequences and very costly con consequences on our war fighting capabilities in fact the department of the Navy alone has estimated that relocating their systems to a different part of the spectrum band would cost them $250 billion that's

just for the Destroyers that defend our Coast with The Radars that they have in them if confirmed what will you do to make sure that the Department of Defense can maintain its access to and the use and to be able to maneuver within the electromagnetic spectrum at home and abroad and would you be willing to literally go to the mat with the inner agency to protect Warfare requirements for the use of the spectrum well Senator thank you for the question and my job in part will be to go to the mat when necessary for things

I believe are an act absolute requirement for the Department of Defense and the men and women in uniform there's no doubt about that on this in this particular case as far as Spectrum I look forward as I've said before get getting a full class because I this issue has come up a number of times in meetings it's critically important with how how our war Fighters communicate uh across all services so I'm going to get a classified briefing immediately about what that would how it would impact the Spectrum uh if it were to allow other companies

or other it to be China China would love to have our ability to use that part of the spectrum restrict they would love that absolutely right and so I will go in with eyes only toward ensuring we have the capabilities we need and there's no disruption when I take that brief thank you in your Advanced policy questions you recognize a Cooperative approach by China Russia Iran and North Korea to undermine US influence around the world as you point out aggression by one by any one actor would be an opportunity for others to engage the US

on multiple fronts along the Continuum of the conflict as we discussed in my office neither of us wants to send our troops into a fair fight we want to make sure that they have every advantage that the United States can give them and that requires resources and reforms given the growing potential of a multi- theater conflict involving near-peer adversaries what steps would you take to prepare the Department of Defense to simultaneously execute and sustain operations across multiple regions while maintaining Readiness and deterrence globally and I just have to make note and I want to make

it clear we have language in this year's fiscal year 2025 National Defense authorization act calling for a review of the Department's operational plans and uh I just want to make sure that you've that you're aware of that and that we will have if we have a fight with one the chances are very good that we're going to have two battles or two different Battlegrounds at the same time Senator which what which is why I believe our country is incredibly fortunate to have a new commander-in-chief in Donald Trump who through the Strategic approach he has taken

with allies and against foes has prevented Wars and is determined to do the same that's our chief job is deter and prevent Wars my job should I be confirmed at secretary of defense is to ensure we have the right prioritization of assets and strategy and then the tools in the toolbox necessary the pointiest possible spear for president Trump to wield if necessary as the last resort uh so president Trump at the helm I think will go a long way in making sure our enemies know there's a new sheriff in town thank you thank you Mr

chairman and thank you very much uh Senator Blumenthal thanks Mr chairman uh thank you for having this hearing thank you for being here Mr hex and I want to join in expressing appreciation and respect for your service to our country and thanks to all the veterans who are here today and thank you for your service as the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs committee I hope we can focus on doing better for our veterans and doing better in management of the Department of Defense there's always room for improvement I think what we need in that

position is not just better but the best in financial management because those decisions are life and death decisions affecting the 3.4 million Americans who serve our national security and our nation defense and put their lives on the line I want to talk about financial mismanagement at the two organizations that you headed which are the only test of your financial management that we have before this committee the Veterans for freedom and Concerned Veterans for America you took over the Veterans for freedom in 2007 in 2008 you raised $8.7 million but spent more than 9 million creating

a deficit by January 2009 you told donors that the organization had less than ,000 in the bank and debts of $434,000 by 2010 Revenue at the Veterans for Freedom had dropped to about $265,000 in the next year it had dropped further to $222,000 you don't dispute these numbers do you Senator I'm extremely proud of the work me and my fellow vets did at at Vets For Freedom a bunch of young vets with no political experience a small group working hard every single day we rais we raised donor funds and I took and and we have

letters submitted for the record from almost everyone that worked with me every single day including our chief operating officer who will attest that every dollar we raised was used intentionally toward the execution of our mission which is supporting the warf Fighters exactly why we're here today the warf fighters in the Iraq surge there was a campaign in 2008 Senator Barack Obama John M believe John McCain would be the right person to win and so we spent returns from that organization I'm glad for the I am going to ask to be entered into the record Mr

um W without objection these tax returns are yours they have your signature and I'm going to ask that members of the committee review them because they're the only documents I've asked for others I've asked for the FBI report that would presumably document it should have documented this kind of Financial mismanagement and uh these are the 990s from that organization by the year of 2011 donors had become so dissatisfied with that mismanagement they in effect ousted you they merged that organization with military families United and thereafter you joined a second organization as executive director went to

Har ask question I want to ask you questions about Concerned Veterans America again another set of tax returns the 990s from that organization I asked they be made part of the record Mr chairman without objection th both of those returns are now part of the record 2011 to 2016 at the end of 2013 shortfall of $130,000 at the end of 2014 shortfall of $428,000 you had a surplus the following year but then another deficit of $437,000 by the time you left that organization had deep debts including credit card transaction debts of about $75,000 that isn't

the kind of fiscal management we want at the Department of Defense we can't tolerate it at the Department of Defense that's an organization with a budget of 850 billion dollar not 10 or 15 million which was the case at those two organizations and it has command responsibility for 3.4 million Americans the highest number that you managed in those two organizations was maybe 50 people let me ask you how many men and women now serve in the United States Army what is send strength Senator I would liked an opportunity respond to of my leadership of veter

organization concern Veterans for America you're on the VA committee sir and I appreciate your service there um the the VA accountability Act and the mission act were all brainchildsmusic that bettered the lives of Mr Heth I'm asking you a very simple question how many men and women women currently serve in the United States Army Senator the United States Army 450,000 on active duty sir and how many in the Navy in the Navy is 425 sir well it's 337 this year how many in the Marine Core 175 175,000 sir 172,00 those numbers dwarf any experience you

had by many multiples I don't believe that you can tell this committee or the people of America that you are qualified to lead them I would support you as the spokesperson for the Pentagon I don't dispute your communication skills but I believe that we are entitled to the facts here I've asked for more documents I assume you'd be willing to submit to an expanded FBI background check that interviews your colleagues accountants Ex-Wives former spouses sexual assault survivors and others uh and enable them to come forward Senator I'm not in charge of FBI and background checks

but you would submit to it and support it I'm not in charge of FBI background checks thank you Senator Blum I I uh at this point want to submit a letter from Captain Wade zurl the found found ER of vets for freedom and the person who hired Pete hexi to run the organization although the two two8 financial crisis dried up fundraising for nonprofits Captain zurel says and I quote Pete responded to this crisis with decisive action by reducing staff and renegotiating all debts with creditors until they were fairly resolved an impressive feat and a testament

to Pete's character Pete departed vff in 2010 to take on a new role with Concerned Veterans for America Pete departed on good terms without objection that will be added to the record Senator erns you're recognized for seven minutes thank you Mr chair and I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter submitted by Mr Mark lcas who is a fellow Iowan and Iowa Army National Guard member um Mr Lucas and I served together in the Iowa Army National Guard he succeeded Pete Heth as executive director of Concerned Veterans for America and in his

letter Mr Lucas says that Mr hegseth quote laid a strong Foundation that postured CVA for long-term success end quote and that Mr Heath quote continued to be an invaluable asset to both me as a leader and the organization end quote so I would ask for unanimous consent to enter this Washington Times article and the letter from Mr Mark Lucas into the record without without objection okay thank you Mr chair uh good morning Mr hegseth and thank you very much um I appreciate your service to our nation um it's something that I know you are very

proud of and it is something that we have in common and that we share um you and I have had many productive conversations and just uh for our audience um we have had very Frank conversations is that correct Mr Heth Senator that is a correct characterization you know that I don't uh keep any anything hidden pull no punches um my colleagues know that as well so I do appreciate you sitting down and allowing me the opportunity to question you thoroughly on those issues that are of great importance to me um just to recap those issues

um three that are very important one is um the dod and making sure that we have a clean audit uh the second is women in combat and we'll talk a little bit more about that uh in a moment and the third was uh maintaining high standards and making sure that we are combating sexual assault in the military okay so Mr Heth um I'm going to address the issue because this will tie into some of the the financial concerns that have been raised here as well and it's why you know I trusting my uh fellow Ian

uh asked for unanimous consent of his letter to go into the record but like me a lot of Ians are really really concerned and upset about uh the wasteful Washington spending and and of course in our Pentagon it's an issue that I have been combating for years so there's sign ific an room for greater efficiency and cost cutting within the department and the dod is the only Federal agency uh that has never passed an audit uh as the Senate Doge caucus chair and founder that's unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to you as

well so I appreciate that you mentioned that in your opening statement what are those steps that you will take to ensuring the Pentagon has a clean audit by the year 2028 Senator I appreciate your work on this topic which you've been involved in for a long time you mentioned um Concerned Veterans for America um I just want to clarify we have very generous donors who set a very clear budget that we stuck to every single year so the latitude there was was restricted and we worked very hard and diligently inside it you've also been a

leader on the Pentagon audit audit for a very long time I I think when we met Senator I said 2014 was the first year we discovered a 13 oped I wrote about the need for a pentagon audit because an audit is an issue of National Security and frankly respect to American taxpayers who give $850 billion doll over to the defense department and expect that we know where that money goes and if that money is going somewhere that doesn't add to tooth and instead goes to fat or tail we need to know that or if it's

wasted we need to know that so I think previous secretaries of defense with all due respect haven't necessarily emphasized the Strategic Pro prerogative of an audit and myself my Deputy uh SEF and others already know that a pentagon audit will be the comproller others Central to ensuring uh we find those dollars that can be used elsewhere uh legally under the law inside the Pentagon so you have my word it will be a priority okay thank you okay moving on to women in combat and I had the privilege of serving in uniform for over 23 years

uh between our Army Reserves and our Iowa Army National Guard uh did serve in Kuwait and missions in Iraq and so it is incredibly important uh 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 at any level as long as they are meeting the standards that are set forward and we we talked about that in my office I do believe in high standards um now I was denied the opportunity uh to serve in any combat role

um because I have a lot of gray hair and the policy has changed since then okay so I've been around for quite a while but for the young women that are out there now and can meet those standards and again I'll emphasize they should be very very high standards they must physically be able to achieve those standards so that they can complete their mission um but I want to know again let's make it very clear for everyone here today as Secretary of Defense will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat

roles Senator first of all thank you for your service as we discussed extensively as well my privilege and my answer is yes exactly the way that you caveat it it yes women will have access to ground combat roles combat rows given the standards remain high and we'll have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded uh in any one of these cases that'll be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon is reviewing that in a gender neutral way the standards ensuring readiness uh and meritocracy is front and center

but absolutely it would be the privilege of a lifetime uh to if confirmed to be the secretary of defense for all men and women in uniform who fight so heroic they have so many other options they decide to put their right hand up uh for our country and it would be an honor to have a chance to lead them thank you and just very briefly we only have less than a minute left but uh we have also discussed this in my office a priority priority of mine has been combating sexual assault in the military and

making sure that all of our service members are treated with dignity and respect um this has been so important Senator Gilla brand and I have worked on this and we were able to get changes made to the uniform code of military Justice to make sure that we have improvements and on how we address the tragic and life-altering um issues of rape sexual assault it will demand time and attention from the Pentagon under your watch if you are confirmed so as Secretary of Defense will you appoint a senior level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and

response Senator as we have discussed yes I will okay and my time has expired thank you for your answers Heron thank you Mr chairman Mr heg welcome thank you I am focused on your Fitness to serve including your character and temperament and your overall qualifications to do the job and I do appreciate the comments of ranking member Reed uh with his concerns regarding your nomination because I share those concerns as part of my responsibility as a member of this committee to ensure the fitness of all nominees to come before any of the Committees on which

I sit I ask the following to initial questions first since you became a legal adult have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature no Senator have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement relating to this kind of conduct Senator I was falsely accused in October of 2017 uh it was fully investigated and I was completely cleared I don't think uh completely cleared is accurate but my the the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an an

NDA and paid a person who accused you of raping her a some sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint moving on as secretary you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform cour of military Justice UCMJ in addition to the sexual assault allegations and by the way the answer to my second question should have been yes I have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work including by people who worked with you Fox News do you know that being drunk at work

is prohibited for service members under the UCMJ Senator those are multiple false Anonymous reports pedal by NBC run directly contradictory to the dozens of men and women at Fox News Chanel who I work with to my question and said in your opening statement Mr hexi you commit to holding leaders accountable at all levels that includes you of course and um and frankly as secretary you will be on the job 247 you recently promised some of my Republican colleagues that you stopped drinking and won't drink if confirmed correct uh absolutely will you resign as Secretary of

Defense if you drink on the job which is a 247 position I've made this commitment on behalf of resign Secretary of Defense I've made this commitment on behalf of the men and women I'm serving because the most important deployment not hearing an answer to my question so I'm going to move on while you have made that commitment you will not commit to resigning if you drink on the job um as Secretary of Defense you will SW swear an oath to the Constitution and not an oath to any man woman or president correct Senator on multiple

occasions including as a young second Lieutenant I have sworn an oath to the Constitution and I'm proud to do so yes ma'am in June of 2020 then president Trump directed former Secretary of Defense Mark esper to shoot protesters in the legs in downtown DC an order secretary esper refused to comply with would you carry out such an order from president Trump Senator I was in the Washington DC National Guard unit that was in Lafayette Square during those EV country in the legs I saw 50 Secret Service agents get injured by Riders trying to jump over

the fence set a church on fire and Destroy St SS to me that you will comply with such an order you will shoot protesters in the in the leg moving on president elik has attacked our allies in recent weeks refusing to rule out using military force to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal and threatening to take uh to make Canada the 51st state which you carry out an order from president Trump to seize Greenland a territory of our NATO Ally Denmark by force or would you comply with an order to take over the Panama

Canal senator I will emphasize that President Trump received 77 million votes to be the lawful Commander talking about the election my question is would you use mil our military to take over Greenland or an ally uh of of Denmark Senator one of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand and so I would never in this public forum give one way or another direct what orders the president give me in any context it sounds to me that you would contemplate uh carrying out such an order to basically invade

Greenland and take over the Panama Canal current DOD policy allows service members and eligible dependents to be reimbursed for travel associated with non-covered reproductive health care including abortions will you maintain this Common Sense policy Senator I've always been personally pro-life I know president Trump has as well and we will review all policies but our our standard is whatever the president wants on this particular issue with my advice I will take a look president tells you that this policy will not be maintained you will not enable our service members to seek reproductive care so I don't

believe the federal government I'm not hearing answers to my questions Mr chairman I just want to note that the other other area that of serious concern to me is President Trump saying that he wants to use a Mil AR to help help with mass deportations which will cost billions of dollars and what that will do to Readiness is uh very very concerning oh Mr hexx I have noticed a disturbing pattern you previously have made a series of inflammatory statements about women in combat lgbtq service members Muslim Americans and Democrats since your nominations however you have

walked those back on TV in interviews and most recently in your opening statements you are no longer on Fox and Friends Mr hex said if confirmed your words actions and decisions will have real impacts on National Security and our service members lives there are close to three million Personnel in the Department of Defense $900 billion budget I hardly think you are prepared to do the job thank you Mr chor thank thank you that wasn't a question Mr hex um thank you um Senator Rono Senator Sullivan thank you Mr chairman and Mr heg congratulations on your

nomination and thank you and your family for your service and sacrifice thank you senator now for the most important question you will receive all day in 1935 before the Congress the father of the United States Air Force General Billy Mitchell was testifying about a certain place in the world he said quote I believe that in the future whoever holds this place will control the world this location is the most strategic place in the world what place was Billy Mitchell talking about and let me give you a hint it wasn't Greenland I believe he was talking

about the great state of Alaska he was talking about the great state of Alaska great answer if confirmed will you commit to come with me to the great state of Alaska meet our Warriors who are on the front lines every day Senator I have and as I mentioned to you in the past I did a brief training exercise up at Fort Wright uh at a pre previous part of my military life I look forward to returning great and and I will say we are on the front lines with this new air of authoritarian aggression in

Alaska last two years we've had Chinese and Russian naval task forces joint strategic bom task forces in our e in our a is and um after his election President Trump put on an extensive statement on Alaska which included the following statement we will ensure Alaska gets even more defense Investments as we fully rebuild our military especially as Russia and China are making menacing moves in the Pacific Mr hex if confirmed will you work with me this committee and the incoming commander-in chief on continuing to build up our military assets and infrastructure in Alaska to reestablish

deterrence in the Arctic and in the Indo Pacific if confirmed Senator it would be a pleasure uh to work alongside you and this entire committee to recognize the very real threat in the Indo Pacific uh the very real ways even these past couple of weeks that Russia has attempted to probe and push in and around Alaska and also the very real strategic significance of Alaska Visa V shipping lanes through the Arctic uh there are many many ways in which Alaska is is strategically significant and with a shift toward a necessary shift toward Indo paycom Alaska

uh by necessity will play an important role in that thank you Miss heg I uh very much appreciate your focus on lethality in war fighting we desperately need it I want to provide a few examples of the Biden woke military which is not focused on Readiness or lethality and want to your comments on it nobody wants an extremist or racist in our military but one of the most disgraceful and shameful things I've seen over the past four years as a senator on this committee and as a Marine Corps Reserve officer was on day one the

Biden Administration played up a false and insulting narrative that our military was chalk full of racists and violent extremists this reached a pinnacle in this committee when Biden's under Secretary of policy colon called the number three guy at the Pentagon testified that one of his top goals would be to quote ending violent extremism and systemic racism within the ranks of the military he had no data on this the media loved it fan the Flames wrote baloney stories on this false narrative disappointingly some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle here reinforce this

ridiculous ridiculous narrative one even suggesting that almost 10% of our uniform military was extremist 200,000 members Ridiculous by the way from this committee on the other side of the aisle Mr hex unlike under secretary call you have a lot of experience with our military do you believe the military is a systemically racist organization and if confirmed will you commit to defend not denigrate our troops Senator I was also offended by those comments because anyone who's been on active duty in the National Guard man woman in units understand that is fundamentally false by the way there's

three studies to his credit secretary Aon put out one of them that said exactly what you just said fundamentally false senator they knew it anyone who'd been in a unit knew it the one could argue that if not the least one of the least racist institutions in our country is the United States military being a racist in our military has not been tolerated for a very long time one greatest civil rights organizations inica would you agree the US military is one of the most forward leaning probably one of the greatest civil rights organizations in American

history no doubt let me turn to another one uh last year at a hearing before this committee I called on the Biden Secretary of the Navy to resign because he's failing in his ability to build ships we are being completely outb built in terms of ships by the Chinese and yet this Secretary of the Navy has been focused on climate change not building ships in lethality Mr secret Mr hegi if your secetary of the Navy ends up focusing on climate change more than ship building and lethality will you commit to me to fire him my

secretary of the Navy should I be confirmed sir will not be focused on climate change uh in the Navy just like the secretary of the Air Force won't be focused on LG powered uh fighter jets or the secretary of the Army will not be focused on electric powered tanks let me ask I we're going to be focused on lethality defeating our enemy and I appreciate that the other thing President Biden did his first executive order as president was to focus on transgender surgeries for active duty troops this is all I'm describing the woke military here

under Biden over the last four years if confirmed and you issued an order saying we are going to rip the Biden woke yoke off the neck of our military and focus on lethality and War fighting how do you think the troops will react Senator I know the troops Will Rejoice they will love it they will love it and we've already seen it in recruiting numbers there's already been a surge since president Trump won the election of recruiting the Army says milary and our military will follow that order our military will follow that order gladly because

they want to focus on lethality and War fighting and get all the woke political prerogative politically correct social justice political stuff out of the military thank you Senator Sullivan Senator Kane thank you Mr heith I'm looking forward to this opportunity to talk I want to return to the incident that you referenced a minute ago that occurred in montere California in October 2 17 at that time you were still married to your second wife correct uh I believe so and you had just fathered a child by a woman who would later become your third wife correct

Senator I was falsely charged complet fully investigated and completely cleared so you think you are completely cleared because you committed no crime that's your definition of cleared you had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife I am shocked that you would stand here and say you're completely cleared can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child that had been born two months before and you tell us you were completely cleared how was that a complete clear Senator her child's name

is gwendelyn Hope hegseth and she's a child of God and she's seven years old and she was and you cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that daughter was born didn't you those were false charges well fully investigate it and I was completely cleared and I am so grateful for the marriage I have to this you've admitted that you had sex at that hotel on October 2017 you said it was consensual isn't that correct anything uh you've admitted that it was consensual and you were still married and you just had

a child by another woman again how do you explain your judgment completely false charges against me you you fully investigated and I was completely clear you have admitted that you had while you were married to wife 2 after you just had fed a child by wife three you've admitted that now if it had been a sexual assault that would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense wouldn't it it was a false claim then and a false claim now if it had been a sexual assault that would be disqualifying to be a secretary of defense wouldn't

it that was a false claim so you talking about a hypothetical so you can't tell me whether someone who has committed a sexual assault is disqualified from being Secretary of Defense Senator I know in my instance and I'm talking about my instance only it was a false claim but you acknowledge you acknowledge that you cheated on your wife and that you cheated on the woman who by whom you had just fathered a child you've admitted that I will allow your words to speak for themselves you're not retracting that today that's good I assume that in

each of your weddings you've pledge to be faithful to your wife you've taken an oath to do that haven't you Senator as I've acknowledged to everyone in this committee not a perfect person not claiming to be but no I just asked the simple question you've taken an oath like you would take an oath to be Secretary of Defense and all of your weddings to be faithful to your wife is that correct I have failed in things in my life and thankfully I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in finalizing divorces from your first

and second wives were there non-disclosure agreements in connection with those divorces Senator not that I'm aware of if there were would you agree to release um those first and second wives from confidentiality agreement Senator it's not something I'm aware of but but if there were you would agree to release them from a confidentiality agreement Senator that's not my responsibility did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives Senator absolutely not but you would agree with me that if someone had committed physical violence against a spouse that would be disqualifying

to serve as Secretary of Defense correct Senator absolutely not have I ever done that you would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense would you not Senator you're talking about a hypothetical um I don't think it's a hypothetical violence against spouses occurs every day and if you as a leader are not capable of saying that physical violence against a spouse should be a disqualifying fact for being Secretary of the most powerful nation in the world you're demonstrating an astonishing lack of judgment the incident in Monterey led to a criminal charge a criminal investigation a

private settlement and and a cash payment to the woman who filed the complaint and there was also a non-disclosure agreement correct it was a confid confidential settlement agreement off of a nuisance lawsuit right uh during an interview you claimed that you settled the matter because you were worried that if it became public it might hurt your career do you maintain that you were blackmailed Senator I maintain that false claims were made against me and ultimately fala I have the opportunity to attest my inocence in those false claims um but you didn't reveal any of this

to president Trump or the transition team as they were considering you to be nominated for secretary of defense you didn't you didn't reveal the the action you didn't reveal the criminal complaint you didn't reveal the criminal investigation you didn't reveal the settlement you didn't reveal the cash payment why didn't you inform the commanderin-chief in the transition team of this very relevant event Senator I've appreciated every part of the process with the transition team they have been open and honest with me we've had great conversations between the two of us and uh I appreciate the opportunity

that president-elect Trump but you you chose not to reveal this right because you knew it would hurt your chances so you chose not to reveal this really important thing to the commander-in-chief and the transition team because you were worried about your chances rather than trying to be candid with the future president of the United States are there any other important facts that you chose not to reveal to the president- elect and his team as they were considering you to be Secretary of Defense Senator I sit here before you in open book as everyone who's watched

this process with with multiple non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements tying the hands of many people who would like to comment to us uh much much has been made uh of your workplace Behavior as a leader of nonprofit veterans organizations and as a Fox News contributor um were you fired from either of the leadership positions with the nonprofit I was the leader I was the CEO of concern for America director were you fired from I was never fired from you have non-disclosure agreements with either of those organizations not that I'm aware of Senator many of your work

colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk I know you've denied that but you would agree with me right that if that was the case that would be disqualifying for somebody to be Secretary of Defense Senator those are all Anonymous false claims and the totality not they're not Anonymous letters on the record here on the record we seen records with Nam Freedom concern Vets For America and Fox News one of your colleagues work hard every day onf one of your colleagues said that you got drunk at an

event at a bar Enchanted kill all Muslims another colleague not Anonymous we have this said that you took co-workers to a strip club you were drunk you tried to dance with strippers you had to be held off the stage and one of your employees in that event filed a sexual harassment charge as a result of it now I know you deny these things but isn't that the kind of behavior that if true would be disqualifying for somebody to be Secretary of Defense Senator Anonymous false charges they're not Anonymous and and I'll just conclude and say

this to to the chairman you claimed that this was all Anonymous we have seen records with names attached to all of these including the name of your own mother so don't make this into some Anonymous press thing we have seen multiple names of colleagues consistently throughout your career that have talked about your abusive actions I think he's over his time he's way over his time I now yield and uh thank thank you very much I um I now asked unanimous consent to enter into the record a family court order um concerning the appointment of parenting

time between Mr hexi and Mrs Samantha hexit it states that there were no claims of domestic abuse or probable evidence of abuse in the relationship without objection that will be added to the record and we we now um we now move to uh Senator Kramer thank you mi thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr Heth for your service for your willingness to endure this and I'm sorry um for what has been happening to you particularly the very idea that you should have to sit there and answer hypothetical potential in somebody's imagination crimes that may take

place at some point and wouldn't that disqualify you if you were a murderer or if you were a rapist unfair unfair and I'm I'm embarrassed for for for this Behavior but first I want to say thank you for your strong Proclamation unapology Unapologetic proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ I sat here and listened to your opening statement and thought wow this is a guy who in today's culture is willing to stand up and say the first thing is first faith in Jesus Christ and I was reminded of what Christ said in Matthew seek ye first

the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you you are going to have a great future as our secretary and I look forward to to that day happening I uh I was want to get back to you mentioned and it got rather dismissed quickly pivoted as a lot of things do you you'd mentioned that you were not able to serve with your National Guard unit in the protection of the inauguration of Joe Biden because of a tattoo a Christian tattoo can you elaborate just a little bit on what what

that what is this very offensive extremist racist tattoo that you you have uh it's a tattoo I have right here Senator it's called the Jerusalem cross it's a historic Christian symbol in fact interestingly um recently we i i i attended briefly the memorial ceremony of former President Jimmy Carter um on the floor of Our National Cathedral on the front page of his program was the very same Jerusalem cross it is a Christian religious symbol and when uh the events happened preceding the Biden inauguration I was a part of the mobilization to defend that inauguration as

someone who'd been a proud supporter of Donald Trump but also a member of of the military had orders to come to Washington DC to guard that inauguration and at the last minute those orders were revoked I'd never had orders revoked before I'd been on orders to a lot of places to do a lot of difficult and dangerous things they were revoked and I was not told why later when I wrote my book I was able to get information it was because I had been identified sorry someone who' served in Iraq in Afghanistan in Guantanamo Bay

holding a riot shield outside the White House I'd been identified as an extremist someone Unworthy of guarding the inauguration of an incoming American president and if that's happening to me Senator how many other men and women how many other Patriots how many other people of conscience we haven't even talked about covid and the 10 tens of thousands of service members who are kicked out because of an experimental vaccine in president Trump's defense department they will be apologized to they will be reinstituted reinstituted with pay and rank things like focusing on extremism Senator have created a

climate inside our ranks that feel political when it has hasn't ever been political those are the types of things that are going to change and and and Senator solivan you mentioned that study after a whole study was held extremism working group study a 100 extremists were identified in in the ranks of three million and most of those were gang related so it was a madeup boogeyman to begin with you Mr HTH are not the extremist the people who would deny you your expression of Faith are the extremists they're the racists they're the bigots you're the

one that is protecting their right to be one thank you for that I want to go to your another point in your opening statement and it's summarizing this beauti for one sentence paragraph you said quote leaders at all levels will be held accountable and War fighting and lethality and the Readiness of the troops and their families will be our only focus at that moment in my mind's eye I heard soldiers Airmen Marines Sailors guardians from the Pentagon to the Pacific and everywhere in between applaud applaud and they're thinking it's a about time I can get

on board with that idea and and quite honestly and and I want to get to this because I think it's so important I would say N I don't know just about every maybe everyone I I'm trying to think of an exception to this that that wears the uniform that has ever come before this committee or that I've met with privately publicly that I've been on tours with that I've traveled with that wear the uniform whether it's with four stars or no stars agrees with that statement and I just want to caution you and I'd be

interested in your feedback on this you know there's been a lot of talk about firing woke generals creating The Purge group and all those things you and I have talked about I would say give those men and women a chance under new leadership you know my favorite painting in in the Rotunda is of of uh George Washington retiring his his commission establishing on day one a man who could have been King chose to be a civilian leader of this country and I just I I just would encourage you to um to trust them first and

uh and and look forward to them saluting saluting the civilian leadership of this of this country so just maybe if you could spend a minute just elaborating a little bit about the wokeness where it comes from and who will be held accountable the wokeness comes not from the uniform ranked senator from from the political class um on day one on January 20th when President Trump is sworn in he will ISS issue a new set of lawful orders and the leadership of our services will have an opportunity to follow those lawful orders or not those lawful

orders will not be based on politics they will be based on Readiness accountability standards and lethality that is the process by which leaders will be judged and accountability is coming because everybody in this room knows if you're a Rifleman and you lose your rifle they're throwing the book at you mhm but if you're a general who loses War you get a promotion that's not going to happen in Donald Trump's Pentagon there will be real standards uh for Success everyone from the top from from the most senior General to the most lowly private uh will ensure

that they're treated fairly men and women inside that system I also just want to commend you for your answers to Senator Fischer's questions about nuclear deterrence but I also appreciate the fact that you emphasize reputational deterrence because deterrence is not a weapon system is an attitude and you project an attitude of deterrence thank you thank you Mr chairman thank you Senator kraber Senator King thank you Mr chairman M Mr HK welcome welcome to the committee thank you Senator you've made several references to your religion today I share that Devotion to Christianity uh but I must

say I've been reminded somewhat of Saul on his way to Damascus you seem to have been converted over the last several weeks and several months uh you wrote in your book just last year that but if we're going to this is the book War on warriors uh but if we're going to send our boys to fight and it should be boys we need to unleash them to win later on our boys should not fight by rules written by dignified men which is it is it is it only boys can fight I mean you've you've testified

here today that you believe in women in combat but you didn't just uh last year how do you explain your conversion Senator my testimony is clear um writing a book is different than being secretary defense and I look forward to Leading the men and women of our military and my comment there Senator was about the burdensome Rules of Engagement that members of our of Our Generation men and women have seen on the battlefield and one thing president Trump changed in meaningful ways that led to meaningful developments on the battlefield when President Trump took control in

the first term Isis was raging across Iraq and is someone who spent a lot of time there with with with other men and women who invested in that mission it was a very difficult moment to see the black flag of Isis fly and what president Trump did was untie the hands of today it changed the Rules of Engagement untied the hands of War Fighters and allowed them to complete their mission and Crush Isis it has not just T tactical uh implications operational and strategic implications how you allow War fighters to go about winning winning and

fighting their Wars president Trump understands that and within the laws of war and the uniform code of military Justice we are going to unleash War fighters to win Wars so that Wars don't drag on forever as our generation has seen so are you rejecting Title 18 uh and and title 42 I think also has Provisions that incorporate the Geneva Convention and the laws of armed combat are you saying that those laws should be repealed that is the law of the land right now Senator we have laws on the books from the Geneva conventions into the

uniform code of military Justice and then underneath that you have layers in which um standard or temporary rules of engagements are are are put into place um we fight enemies also Senator as as our generation understands that play by no rules they use civilians as human Shields so are you say they target women children the gention we follow rules we follow rules but we don't need burdens some Rules of Engagement make it impossible for us to win these wars saying we follow rules but we don't have to follow the rules in all cases is that

correct sen some rules Senator I'm making an important tactical distinction that Warf Fighters will understand that there are the rules we swear and oath to defend which are incredibly important and this committee understands and helps set them and then there are those echelons uh above reality from you know core to division to Brigade to Battalion and by the time time it trickles down to a company or a platoon or a squad level you have a Rules of Engagement that nobody recognizes and then it makes you incredibly difficult to actually do your job on the battlefield

that's the kind of assessment and look that an Army Major will give to this process if I was confirmed to be the secretary defense your qu is true understanding that your quote in 2024 our boys should not fight by rules written by dignified men in Mahogany rooms 80 years ago that would be the Geneva Convention America should fight by its own rules and we should fight to win or not go in at all are you saying that the Geneva Convention Provisions which Pro which clearly Outlaw torture of prisoners do not should not apply in the

future Senator how we treat our wounded how we treat our Prisoners the applications of the Jenia conventions are incredibly important but we would all have to acknowledge that the way we fought our Wars back when the Geneva conventions were written are a lot different than the asymmetric non- conventional environment of counterinsurgency that I confronted in Iraq and Afghanistan I was the senior counterinsurgency instructor in Afghanistan my job was to understand how the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operated so that NATO units coming in could be informed of what was happening they knew our Rules of Engagement and

when they were more restrictive they took advantage of them and it put our men and women in a more dangerous and difficult place for future Wars we fight we need to have someone a top the Pentagon sir who understands how those Ripple effects I just understand your position your position is torture is okay is that correct water boarding torture is is is no longer prohibited uh given uh uh the circumstances of whatever War we're in is that correct Senator that is not what I said I've never been party to torture uh we are a country

that fights by the rule of law and our men and women always do and yet we have too many people here in air conditioned offices that like to point fingers at the guys in dark and dangerous places the GS in enemy territory who are do things that people in Washington DC would never dare to do or send in many cases in one of your interviews you said they're willing to do this you're talking about Donald Trump and Trump and Senator Cruz they're willing to do something like water boarding if it's going to keep us safe

are you okay with water boarding Senator the law of the land is that water boarding is not legal so the statement that you made you you now recant is that correct they are willing to do something like water boarding going to keep us safe you you express that with approval Senator I'm very familiar with that as a concept having spent a year at guantan Mo Bay Cuba guarding 700 of those that attacked us on 911 I just want to be clear are we are we going to abide by the by the Geneva Convention and the

prohibitions on torture or are we not is it going to on the circumstances as I've stated multiple times the Geneva conventions are what we base our but what what an American first national security policy is not going to do is hand its prerogatives over to International bodies that make decisions about how our men and women make decisions on the battlefield America First understands we send Americans for a clear Mission and a clear objective we equip them properly for that objective we give them everything they need and then we stand behind them with the Rules of

Engagement that allow them to fight decisively America's enem which is why we say I just have a few seconds left Mr if you could I was very disturbed in your opening statement where you you talked about the priorities that you have we will work with our partners and allies to deter aggression the indopacific from the Communist Chinese there's not a single mention in this statement about Ukraine or Russia is this code for we're going to abandon Ukraine Senator the president this is that's a presidential level policy decision he's made it very clear that he would

like to see a end to that conflict uh we know who the aggressor is we know who the good guy is we'd like to see it as advantageous for the ukrainians is possible but that war needs to come you talk a lot about deterrence of China I would submit that ji jingping is watching what we do very carefully if we abandon Ukraine that would be the strongest signal possible to ji jingping that he can take Taiwan without significant resistance from this country thank you Senator King Senator Scott of Florida Mr chairman I'd like to enter

into the record two letters which testify to Mr HTH leadership record at Concerned Veterans for America the first letter submitted by Mr Darren selnick a senior advisor CFA stated that there's been no better leader policy Champion or Fighter for the military and Veterans and Peete he was instrumental in 2014 and 2017 in ensuring that veterans had healthc care Choice the second letter submitted by Mr KAS sparo digital media director of CVA from 2015 to 2017 stated Pete brought incredible energy focus and a Clear Vision to the organization and showed everything that the team accomplished together

and I um similarly um asked U to submit to the record a letter from Paul J Roberts retired Colonel US Army Special Forces speaking to the unwavering Integrity of Mr heith uh is there um is there objection without objection those three will be admitted Senator Scott right first congratulations on your nomination thank you Senator and uh thank you for being willing to serve our nation um I I served in the Navy I'm really proud of my dad he was crazy he did all four combat jumps with the ASC Airborne he after that survived all that

and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and um what they went through it was hell um so I have a lot of respect for him and for everybody that puts on the uniform and serves in battle and has to lead people in battle because it um uh being on a ship that didn't happen to me but uh I had a lot of friends it happened to and my it clearly happened to my dad I've served on this committee for six years two years under President Trump and the past four under President Joe Biden I've

seen how the Biden Harris Administration pushed the dod to prioritize wokeness over being the most lethal military force in the world it's our Readiness our national security and our ability to recruit people who are willing to put their lives on the line for our country can you talk about some of the changes we can make to improve Recruitment and rebuild our military into the most lethal force in the world first of all Senator thank you for the question thank you for your time um I think the first and most important thing we could have done

is elect Donald Trump as the new commander-in-chief because past is prologue uh our war Fighters understand what kind of commander-in-chief they're going to get in president Donald Trump someone who stands behind them someone who gives them clear missions someone who ends Wars decisively and the issue of Ukraine was mentioned uh and ensures new Wars are not started uh there was a minor incursion under Barack Obama into Crimea followed by nothing under President Trump followed by an allout uh assault by Vladimir Putin into Ukraine under the Biden Administration that did not happen under Donald Trump Donald

Trump managed the Taliban under the Biden Administration uh Afghanistan collapsed tragically ending in the lives of 13 at abig gate who we remember every single day and no one was held accountable for that Chinese spy balloons were flying over the country none of that happened under Donald Trump and our war Fighters understand that so there's no better recruiter in my mind for our military than president Donald Trump um my job is to come alongside him should I be confirmed and continue to emphasize his emphasis on war fighting on getting anything that doesn't contribute to meritocracy

out of how decisions are made inside the Pentagon what gender you are what race you are your views on climate change or whether you are a PE person of conscience uh and your faith should have no bearing on whether you get promoted or whether you're selected to go to West Point or whether you graduate from Ranger school the only thing that should matter is how capable are you at your job how excellent are you at your job I served in multiethnic units in every place that I were every place that I served none of that

mattered but suddenly we re-inject Dei and critical race Theory dividing troops into different categories oppressor and oppressed in ways that they otherwise just want to work together that's why I've pointed out before and I'll say it again and because I'm sure it'll be quoted to me at some point um the dumbest phrase in military history is our Unity is our strength no our shared purpose is our strength our shared mission is our strength We Are One DOD community of all committed to the same Mission has nothing to do with your background has to do with

what you what you're commitment is to the country and that is my solemn pledge to every single person that would put the uniform on and and and reflects president Trump's priorities as well Senator thank you you know we talked a little bit about uh this the fact that Pentagon can't uh can't um do an audit all right um can you talk about mean to me that's I've run big businesses it's all about accountability if you want to get an audit done you can get an audit done uh you might get a letter saying there's things

you have to fix but it all goes to accountability and we haven't had it so can you talk about what how what you bring how what how you bring accountability to the table what you've done in the past and what you're going to do with regard to Bringing accountability to the Pentagon I meant it when I said it in the opening statement Senator I know what I don't know I know I've never run an organization of three million people with a budget of 850 billion but what I do know is that I've Led Led men

and women I've LED people and it's leadership of people and motivation of people and a Clear Vision of people where you build team cast that Vision Empower people properly I want smarter and more capable people around me than me and you will get that at the department I cast the Clear Vision build the plan work it we set the metrics and everyone is held accountable I know our business incoming businessman president believes in accountability and holding people accountable that will happen at the Pentagon I mean this has been a problem for a long time Secretary

Rumsfeld gave a speech on SE September 10th 2001 that's mostly forgotten but it was about the need for acquisition reform cutting cutting tail to give to teeth to war Fighters and then 911 happened and and these are problems that have been persistent for a long time but now we have new threats and we need the urgency of this moment as you said Mr chairman the most dangerous moment we've been since the end of the Cold War and possibly since World War II the urgency to do everything possible to get the capabilities into the hands of

War Fighters emergency Powers defense production act whatever it takes and an audit is certainly part of it why do you want to do this why do you want to do this job what your what drives you you have 30 seconds doing because I love my country Senator and I've dedicated my life to the warf Fighters people see me as someone who hosts a morning show on television but people that really know me know where my heart's at it's with the guys in this audience who've had my back and I've had theirs we've been in some

of the darkest and most difficult places you can ever be in you come back a different person uh and only by the grace of God am I here before you today I'm doing this job for them for all of them thank you Mr hexit Senator Warren uh thank you Mr chairman and Mr heg thank you thank you for your service so if you're confirmed as secretary of Defense you will oversee our military including about a quarter of a million women who currently serve on active duty in the Army the Navy the Air Force the space

forces and the Marines and I have serious concerns that your behavior toward women disqualifies you from serving in this role now I've been trying to get answers from you for quite some time on this you haven't wanted to meet or to answer any of my questions so we'll just have to do it here and dive in I want to pick up on some of the questions asked by Senators Shaheen and jel bran and her Rono and I just want to make sure we have a list of some of the facts that I think are Undisputed

I'm not going to talk about Anonymous sources I'm just going to quote you directly we've got the video we've got it in print so going back to January 2013 you told a Fox News interviewer that women in the military simply couldn't measure up to men in the military saying that allowing women to serve in combat roles would force the military to lower the bar you picked up on that same theme in 2015 making remarks on Fox News referring to women in combat as quote a road it would erode standards June 2024 you said on Ben

Shapiro's podcast quote women shouldn't be in combat at all and then of course we've talked about it in 2024 you published a book and you say on page 26 of your book we need moms but not in the milit milary especially in combat units page 48 of your book you claim that women should not be in combat roles men because men are distracted by women and then 10 weeks ago you appeared on the Sha Ryan Show and said I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles now I presume you recall

making all these statements Senator I'm not familiar with the article you're pointing to in 2013 but it underscores my argument completely because in that 2013 argument I was talking about standards standards what it's always been about have this same fight always about quoted you directly we've got the video we're happy to show it but I want to be clear here for 12 years you were quite open about your views and your views were consistently the same women are inferior soldiers Sailors Marines Airmen and Guardians and in case anyone missed the point and these are your

words from 10 weeks ago women absolutely straight up should not be permitted to serve in combat and I notice on each of these quotes those are said without qualification it's not by how much you can lift or how fast you can run they don't belong in combat period or your words straight up and then on November 9th 2024 just 32 days days after your last public comment saying that women absolutely should not be in Comet you decare that quote some of our greatest warriors are women and you support having them serve in combat now that

is a very very big about face in a very very short period of time so help me understand Mr heg Seth what extreme ordinary event happened in that 32-day period that made you change the core values you had expressed for the preceding 12 years Senator again I I very much appreciate you bringing up my comments from 2013 because for me this issue has always been about standards and unfortunately because of some of the people that have been in political power stand anden quoting you from the podcast women shouldn't be in combat at all where is

the reference to standards that they should be there if they can carry if they can run I don't see that at all Mr hegf what I see is there's a 32-day period in which you suddenly have another description about your views of women in the military and I just want to know what changed in the 32 days that the song you sang is not the song you come in here today to sing Senator the concerns I have and the concerns of many have had especially in ground combat units is that in pursuit of certain percentages

or quotas standards have been changed and that makes the combat more difficult let a about what happened in that 32 days you got a nomination from president Trump now I've heard of deathbed conversions but this is the first time I've heard of a nomination conversion and I hope you understand that many women serving in the military right now might think that if you can convert so rapidly your L held and aggressively pursued views in just 32 days that 32 days after you get confirmed maybe you'll just reverse those views and go back to the old

guy who said straight up women do not belong in combat now Mr Heath you have written that after they retire generals should be banned from working for the defense industry for 10 years you and I agree on the corrosive effects of the revolving door between the Pentagon and defense contractors it's something I would have liked to talk with you about if you'd come and been willing to visit with me but the question I have for you on this is will you put your money where your mouth is and agree that when you leave this job

you will not work for the defense industry for 10 years Senator it's not even a question I've thought about because it's think about it right now it's not one my motivation for this job has never been about come next time is short I just need a yes or no I would consult with the president about what the policy should be words you're quite sure that every General who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years you're not willing to make that same pledge I'm not a general Senator you'll be the one

let us just be clear in charge of the generals so you're saying sauce for the goose but certainly not sauce for the gander I would want to see what the policy of the president I'll bet you would thank you Senator Warren um Senator tuberville thank you Mr chairman and thanks for your hard work and your committee's hard work Mr chairman this is uh this is going well uh I'd like to submit this letter uh topic conduct at Vets For Freedom for Heth I'd like to submit that for the record please without that objection General Heth

I mean Mr Heth uh thankks thanks for being here today and with your family I know this is tough that's what it's all about though uh you're a tough guy been here for a while never seen this many people that here for a support of a nominee that's impressive I met with a lot of them yesterday and they are very passionate so thank you for willing to take this on and congratulations on your nomination uh I'm worried about recruiting I mean we can look at everything out there and and talk about all these things these

narratives but at the end of the day I came from a team sport where you we the people the players actually won the games and that's what's going to happen here you're not going to win the game now you're going to set the prent you're going to get to blame or the or the credit but there's going people that's going to be under you that's going to set the prent for the future of our country now uh the war games that we play on our computers with our adversaries right now for us it don't look

good because our military we're in trouble our whole country is in trouble thank God president Trump got elected November the 5th we couldn't kept down this same path we could not that could not happen I met with a general a couple of generals this summer coach were spending more money on transgender restrooms than we are coverings for $100 million airplanes that's not acceptable we can't do that that's not what this is about met with uh a couple of Navy Seals not too long ago they just got back from crawling around in the mud and the

muck overseas unknown places couldn't tell you where they've been carrying a weapon obviously protecting us and our allies and the first week they're back what' they do they had to go through a week of Dei training both are now out they give it up it was embarrassing to them of what they had to do we've lost all sight of what we're doing in our military lost all sight it starts with leadership and it starts with recruiting why would a young man used to when I was growing up if you couldn't afford to go to college

you had the opportunity to go to the military where you could learn a trade you could learn you could make a living for your family and eventually possibly get an education that was a good alternative uh We've forgotten that we've forgotten it we we can't give up on our young people young people are our number one commodity in this country and they're the ones that's going to live and die for the freedom of this country in the future so again thank you for taking this on uh recruiting uh our service acmis are meant to serve

as our primary commissioning source of officers it now appears that they are a breeding ground for Le leftist activists and champions of Dei and critical theory now not all but some and some is way too much uh how are we going to eliminate this uh Mr ex how how are we going to get this back on track to where we we grow our leaders I had a young man that for every he wanted to go to West Point I got him a nomination I got him accepted and he turned it down he says coach I'm

not getting involved with that mess how are we going to overcome this Senator thank you for the question and I think it comes down to leadership clear leadership from president Trump through me should I be not should I be uh nominated um in in and that's what soldier Sailors Airmen Marines and Guardians see is clear leadership it says this is what we believe this is the mission we're going to give you here's the equipment we're going to give you and here's how we're going to support you because the military at a lot of levels Senator

has been for Generations a family business you know my my grandfather served uh I my father served I served my daughter served the chain is that chain has started to break with generations of people my age and older talking to their kids and grandkids wondering pondering do I want them to serve will my country use them responsibly when that kind of doubt is cast you get serious recruiting problems like we do right now you get questions about whether I want my son or daughter to follow my path in W West Point which I've heard multiple

times would I want my and so you have to rip root and Branch the politics and divisive policies out of these institutions and then focus them on creating and preparing actual future military leadership West Point traditionally is focused on engineering and rightfully so because in our fighting forces across all services we need the best and brightest Minds in Engineering in addition to military studies that's what I did at Roc at Princeton military science that and we need more uniformed members going back into West Point the Air Force Academy the Naval Academy as a tour to

teach with their wisdom of what they've learned in uniform instead of just more civilian professors that came from the same leftwing woke universities that they left and then try to push that into service when that changes Senator I truly believe under Donal Trump we will have a recruiting Renaissance that sends signals to the world to our enemies and our allies alike that America's back and thankfully then we have the men and women of our country willing to want to serve thank you and it's about attitude too and I love your attitude you've got to be

motivated you've got to understand the people they will they will hook up with you they will understand and learn under their leaders um why would you fight for a country that you don't love that's what I keep hearing from a lot of our college kids that they getting from they're getting from these woke universities that they go to now and I worked at a lot of them uh that is one of the excuses I get from our kids uh we've got to break that um another one according to the Pentagon between 2001 and 2024 the

number of Civilian employees in the office of the Secretary of Defense has nearly doubled from 1500 to 3,000 civilians on Joint Chiefs has increased from 191 to almost a, th000 our military end strength goes down our staff numbers are exploding what are you going to do about that Senator we're going to address that um we won World War II with seven four-star generals today we have 44 fourstar generals there's an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield uh we don't need more bureaucracy at the top we need more war Fighters

and Power at the bottom so it's going to be my job working with those that we hire and those inside the administration to identify those places where fat can be cut so it can go toward lethality thank you Senator tuberville Senator Peters thank you Mr chairman stri off welcome to this committee thank you you know the we uh have far too much partisanship uh in our country right now I think it's eating away at the the fabric of what has always made this country great about bringing people together from all sorts of backgrounds uh all

sorts of experiences and we know that uh in our motto together uh as one we are strong and so we in this committee and certainly I speak for myself but I think I speak for many of my colleagues want to take partisanship out of this proceeding as much as we can I'm not naive it's out there I get it but we've got to try to to take that out uh and I want you to know that uh I was a member of of this committee I have voted in a bipartisan way for secretaries of defense

I voted for two secretaries of defense When Donald Trump uh was uh previously president uh we had those two we had I think five total secretaries of defense during that four-year period so we want to keep that in mind as to what we might see in this coming uh Administration but I voted and we voted by a big margin for those folks as well but part of that was the process and having an opportunity to get to know the person and understand their qualifications and understand the standards you know I made repeated requests to to

meet with you prior to this meeting I know many of my other colleagues also wanted to meet with you I did that with other nominees that I was uh happy to vote for I thought they were highly qualified individuals and and true professionals and yet I could never get a meeting with you was there a reason you were afraid to have one-on-one meetings with some of my colleagues before the hearing uh Senator I know there was a great deal of Outreach to multiple offices schedules get full there's a lot going on I was ready and

I welcome the opportunity my schedule to to have an opportunity to sit down I was ready it would have been so much better to have that opportunity to talk beforehand I think that's a big mistake and it doesn't set us on a good course when you refuse to meet with people and have a professional conversation about the huge challenges that we face at the Department of Defense my colleagues the folks who introduced you and others the chairman has mentioned about the management of the dod as a concern cost overruns delays on weapon systems we need

strong management at the Department of Defense first and foremost we've got to have someone who's going to grab the reins and give the taxpayers value for having the most lethal fighting force in the world that defends freedoms but we got to do it in an efficient way I've heard about the the jobs you've had in the past this just talk about qualifications I know you had two previous positions how many people reported to you in those positions Senator at Vets For Freedom we were a small upstart our Focus was just just the number working on

Capitol Hill going back to the battlefield War Fighters just the number please uh we probably had 8 to 10 full-time staff and lots of volunteers so eight has there been any other we've heard about the two and certainly there's been a lot of talk about the mismanagement etc etc I'm just I'm just curious I won't go into that just curious so you had eight there uh have you what's the largest number of people you've ever supervised or head in an organization in your career not 3 million no I don't expect that no one very few

people have ever had that experience but how many it's a straightup question I think we had over a hundred uh full-time staff at concerned vets Vets For America roughly with thousands of volunteers I was also a headquarters company Commander which would have been couple of hundred so nothing nothing remotely near the size of the defense department I would acknowledge that actually not remotely near even a medium-sized company in America let alone a big company in America especially a major corporation and you're basically we're hiring you to be the CEO of one of the most complex

largest organizations in the world we're the board of directors here I don't know of any corporate board of directors that would hire a CEO for a major company if they came and said you know I supervised 100 people before they'd ask you well what kind of experiences you had we need Innovation can you give me an experience or your actual experience of driving innovation in an organization tell give me an example of where you have done that oh my goodness Senator absolutely a Concerned Veterans for America we created the fixing Health veterans Healthcare task force

a bipartisan task force that never been done before to create policy to drive policy change on Capitol Hill that organizations fought ferociously against we got the VA accountability Act passed and the mission Act passed in a way that a nonprofit our siiz veterans organization has never done and it's testified in all the letters that we put forward to the committee which are okay I have limited time thank you for that give me an example of where you've driven down cost I've heard examples that Senator Blumenthal gave the cost was a real problem for you in

your 50 person organization that you actually raised a lot less than what you actually spent did you drive cost down if if in a 50 person organization let me tell you we've got to drive cost down dramatically in a organization of three million people and hundreds of billions of dollars you don't have that experience that that you can talk about to me this is uh or acquisition reform acquisition reform you bring that up have you had experience in acquisition reform I I've written about and studied on acquisition reform have you done it because what we

need in the hands of our war Fighters better change because we're not doing it well right now it better and we need people to have experience actually doing that you know you talk about standards again I'm going to go back to a CEO of the most complex organization in the world I don't think there's a board of directors in America that would hire you as a CEO with the kind of experience you have on your resume you talk about standards you talk about raising or low that we have a problem of standards in the dod

and we have to raise standards for the men and women who serve do you think that the way to raise the minimum standards of the people who serve us is to lower the standards for the Secretary of Defense that we have someone who has never managed an organization more more than a 100 people is going to come in and manage this incredibly important organization and do it with a professionalism and has no experience that they can tell us that they have actually done that I have real problems with that this is not about other issues

that have brought up they're all very important I'm just about trying to get things done managing efficiently and having the best people who have demonstrated that in a large organization and I'm sorry but I don't see that in your background there are a lot of other things you can do do very well you're a capable person but I'm not I do not you have not convinced me that you're able to take on this tremendous responsibility with a complex organization and having little or no significant management experience Senator I'm grateful to be hired by one of

the most successful CEOs in American history should I be confirmed um Mr hexi that it it seems to me that you've supervised far more people than the average United States Senator supervises typ and um except for except for former governors Mr chairman Senator Mullen I understand you are yielding back your time and do not wish to ask question I was I was misinformed am Senator Mullen okay right CAU me totally off guard there uh I'd like to uh submit for the record uh signatures by 32 members of the House Representatives who are veterans the signatures

call on the Senate to honor the Constitutional duty of advis and consent by conducting a fair thorough confirmation process that evaluates his nomination solely on the substance and merits his distinguished military service academic credentials and a bold vision for revitalizing the national offense I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record without objection um you know there's a lot talk going about talking about qualifications and then about us hiring him if we are the board but there's a lot of senators here I wouldn't have on my board uh because there is no qualifications except your

age and you got to be living in the state and you're a citizen of the United States to be a senator other than the fact we got to convince a lot of people to vote for us and then when we start talking about qualifications um for if you're qualified for could the chairman tell me what the qualifications are for the Secretary of Defense Mr chair could you tell me what the qualifications are for the Secretary of Defense I I'd be happy uh for I I'll read it for you to to do that let me let

me read it for you because I I go I was getting some advice from second in command yeah but I'm just I'm just making a point because there's a lot about qualifications and I think it's so hypocritical of senators especially on the other side of the H be talking about his qualifications not going to lead the secretary or be the secretary defense and yet your qualifications aren't any better you guys aren't any more qualified to be the senator than I'm qualified to be the senator except we're lucky enough to be here but let me read

you what the qualifications of the secretary of defense is because I Googled it and I Googled it and went through a lot of different sites and really it's hard to see but in general the US Secretary of Defense position is filled by a civilian that's it if you have served in the US army forces and have been in the service for uh you had to be retired retired for at least 7even years and Congress can can weigh that and then there's questions that my that the that the senator from uh for Massachusetts brought up about

serving on a uh on a board uh inside the military industry and yet your own secretary that you all voted for Secretary of Austin we had to vote on a waiver because he stepped off the board of Ron but I guess that's okay because that's a Democrat Secretary of Defense but but you so quickly forget about that and then Senator Kane or I guess I better use 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 to vote at night

have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign for their job and don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have and then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives did you ask them to St down no but it's for show you guys make sure you make a Big Show and point out the hypocrisy because a man's made a mistake and you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified give me a joke it is so ridiculous that you guys

hold yourself as this higher standard and you forget you got a big plank in your eye we've all made mistakes I've made mistakes and Jennifer thank you for loving him through that mistake because the only reason why I'm here and not in prison is because my wife loved me too I have changed but I'm not perfect but I found somebody that thought I was perfect and for whatever reason you love Pete and I don't know why but just like our Lord and savior forgave me my wife's had to forgive me more than once too and

I'm sure you've had to forgive him too and so thank you so before I go down this Rabbit Hole again tell me something about your wife that you love um she's the smartest most capable loving humble honest person I've ever met in in addition to being incredibly beautiful don't forget about your kids I'm supposed to talk about my kids no no well she's also the mother oh an amazing mother of our blended family of seven kids I'm pulling you as long I'm trying to help you here you know um do you believe that you're going

to be running the secretary or the Department of Defense by yourself Senator absolutely not um just as president Trump is assembling his cabinet I look forward and already am in the process of building one of the best possible teams you can imagine with decades and decades of experience outside of the Pentagon driving Innovation uh and excellence and also inside the building knowing how to make it happen yes sir so um in your organizations that you did have the privilege of running did you have a board that you in both organizations we had a board yes

okay and and what what did you do with that board what kind of decisions did you make with him U those boards provided oversight and insight into decision- making they all have special unique sets that maybe filled gaps that you're not the expertise in yes sir so do do you believe you're capable of surrounding yourself with capable individuals that you're going to be able to run those same ideas by and surround yourself with people that are smarter and better equipped and maybe areas that you don't you don't necessarily carry those expertise with Senator the only

reason I've had success in life to include my wonderful wife is because of people more capable around me and having the self-confidence to empower them and say hey run with the ball run with the football take it down the field we'll we'll do this together I don't care who gets the credit and in this case uh that's how the Pentagon will be run let me let end with this Mr chairman about the qualifications you got a man who has literally put his butt on the line who served 20 years in service multiple deployments has heard

the bullets crack over the top top of his head has been willing to go into combat been willing to see friends die for this country he's willing to still put himself through this his wife is willing to still stand beside him knowing he wasn't perfect knowing that all this was going to be brought up and he's still willing to serve the country what other qualifications does he need that y back thank you Senator Mull Senator Duckworth and and again we we really are going to strictly enforce the the rule about uh no no demonstrations or

noise the uh distinguished ranking member just a point of personal privilege to make a correction the reason that General Austin required a waiver was not because of his participation in a corporate Enterprise it was because he did not have seven years of uh Interruption between his service and his appointment second point is that if any of us were appointed as secretary defense we would be subject to the same types of questions and the case in point is Senator John to was nominated for secretary defense uh it was discovered uh by his colleagues that his behavior

was not commenor with the responsibilities despite his service and he was voted down thank you thank you Mr chairman Senator Duckworth you are recognized thank you Mr chairman and also secretary Mattis had to have this waiver as well um Mr hex said this hearing is about whether you are qualified to be Secretary of Defense and one of the qualifications to answer my colleague's question is to actually win the votes of every member of this committee and to be confirmed by the United States Senate and you need to convince us that you're worthy of that vote

because the people of the state of Illinois voted for me to be their Senator so that I could cast that vote when it comes to picking who is going to be the next secretary of defense this hearing now seems to be a hearing about whether or not women are qualified to serve in combat and not about whether or not you are qualified to be Secretary of Defense and let me just say that the American people need a sect def who's ready to lead on day one you are not that person our adversaries watch closely during

times of transition and any sense that the Department of Defense that keeps us safe is being steered by someone who's wholly unprepared for the job puts America at risk and I am not willing to do that with that in mind Mr hex I want you to try to explain to the American people this committee who have to vote for you and to our troops are deployed around the world why you are qualified to lead the Department of Defense we already know that you've only LED as the largest a 200 person organization we already know that

you so badly mangled a budget that after you left they had to bring in a forensic accountant to figure out what went wrong and then the largest budget you ever managed was was about $18 billion you know that is about 51,56512 168 times smaller than the defense budget please describe to me Mr hex that you talk about DOD passing an audit please describe to me a time or an organization when you that you led underw an audit because you say you're going to hire smarter people than you to run this audit I'm not asking you

to be an accountant I want you to be able to tell me what kind of guidance will be given to those employees what will happen if whether or not you pass that audit have you led an audit of any organization yes or no I don't want a long answer yes or no have you led an audit of any organization of which you were in charge senator in both of the organizations I ran we were always completely fiscally responsible you did you lead an AIT yes or no what are you afraid of you can't answer this

question yes or no did you lead an audit do you not know this answer Senator every part of my leadership of these organizations has misrepresented I take that as a no what were the findings so there were no finding because you've never LED an audit what guidance did you give the Auditors none because you've never LED an audit nobody expects you to be an accountant Mr hexa what we expect is for you to understand the complexity of this Pentagon budget process that is absolutely necessary to outfit our war Fighters look the secretary of defense is

required to make quick decisions every single day that well with high level information that's being provided for them a secretary defense has to have bread and depth of knowledge right now I am concerned that you have neither Mr hex what is the highest level of international negotiations that you have engaged in that you have led in because the Secretary of Defense does lead International Security negotiations there are three main ones that the Secretary of Defense leads and signs can you name at least one of them could you uh repeat the question Senator sure what is

the highest level of International Security agreement that you have led and can you name some that the Secretary of Defense would lead there are three main ones do I have not been involved in International Security Arrangements because I have not been in government other than serving in the military so my job has been to the can you name one of the three main ones that the talking about defense Arrangements I mean NATO might be one of one that you're referring to status of forces agreement would be one of them stat of for status of forces

agreement I've been a part of teaching about status of forces agreement but you don't remember to mention it you're not qualified Mr hex said you're not qualified you talk about repairing our defense industrial complex you're not qualified to that you could do acquisition and cross servicing agreements which essentially are security agreements you can't even mention that you've done none of those you talked about the Indo Pacific a little bit and I'm glad that you mention it up mention it can you can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in the Assan

uh in Assan and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those Nations and how many nations are in aan by the way I couldn't tell you the exact amount of nations in that but I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan and in Aus with Australia trying to work on submarines with them none of those countries are none of those three countries that you've mentioned are in aian I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of uh uh negotiations listen Mr hexa this is we

ask our troops to go into Harm's Way all the time we ask them to go into Harm's Way and this behind me is a copy of the solders Creed a copy that usually hangs over my desk here in the Senate and you should be familiar with it it's the same copy that hung over my desk at Walter Reed every single day that I woke up and fought my way back because I wanted to go back and serve next to my buddies who' saved my life these same the same copy these words are repeated over and

over and over again and let me read out two things to you two sentences I will always place the mission first and I am disciplined physically and mentally tough trained and proficient and my warrior task Mr hex our troops follow these words every single day and they man up and they pack their Rock sacks and they go to war and they deserve a leader who can lead them not a leader who wants to lower the standards for himself of raising the standards for other people and by the way our troops already meet the standards we

ask troops to man that ship fight that Fire Fly that helicopter until their very last breath and they do that every single day they cannot by be led by someone who's not competent to do the job how can we ask these Warriors to train and perform the absolute highest standards when you are asking us to lower the standards to make you the Secretary of Defense simply because you are buddies with our president-elect and by the way he has filed for bankruptcy six times I'm not quite sure he's the kind of CEO you want to refer

to as a successful businessman let me make it clear you can't seem to grasp that there is no US military as we know it without the incredible women that we serve women who've earned their place in their units you have not earned your place as Secretary of Defense you say you care about keeping our armed forces strong and that you like that our Armed Forces meritocracy then let's not lower the standards for you you sir are a nogo at this station thank you um Senator Duckworth I would like to submit for the record u a

letter submitted by Mr Brian Marriott that says anyone who would claim that Pete mismanaged funds at vets of freedom is ignorant of the facts without objection it will be admitted to the record Senator Bud thank you chairman wicker and congrats on your chairmanship of this committee I want to thank you for your leadership and your handling of this today I think you're doing a great job so I want to also submit uh for the record a letter submitted by Mr Daniel Catlin the former operations manager Vets For Freedom Mr catlin's letter states that Mr heg

Seth and Mr Catlin conducted weekly meetings to meticulously review every dollar that the organization spent Pete's Hands-On approach and dedication to financial responsibility ensured that Vets For Freedom operated within its budget Mr catlin's letters also states that Pete treated his staff with the utmost respect regardless of race or gender so I ask unanimous consent to enter this into the record Mr chairman without objection so ordered thank you Mr hex congratulations on your nomination thanks for appearing before the committee today I enjoyed meeting we in my office before Christmas and I've enjoyed our friendship before that

you know you stated in your Advanced policy questions that the American people need to be informed engaged and inspired to join our military I wholeheartedly agree with that we also have a problem though with obesity and falling academic standards it's very concerning and we've talked about that before so if confirmed how would you approach increasing the number of Americans eligible to serve in the military but without lowering standards well Senator I think there are already to the credit of I believe the Army and and other services have now caught up to that which have piloted

programs that have had some success that have allowed Young Americans who want to serve in the military but can't necessarily pass the asab or pass the APFT to get into basic training an opportunity to get caught up a preparatory class um unfortunately yes we do have a problem of obesity in our country not necessarily something that the if I'm confirmed secretary of defense is able to address but I do think leading from the front matters I do think having a secretary of defense that will go out and do pt with the troops matters uh that

has been out there and done that before and hopefully that's a motivating factor for young people but it the reality of obesity and criminal backgrounds and medical problems have long been an issue of recruitment in America unfortunately what changed is the perception of military service because of the condition of the services and frankly because of in some ways the way our schools don't teach young people to love country anymore and if you don't love the country why do you want to serve that country that's a deeper problem uh but all of those things need to

be addressed to revive recruiting uh and obesity is certainly a part of it thank you for that so I've had multiple conversations Young Folks back in North Carolina young men young women and we get to meet a lot of them but you know I hear from some of these folks uh who I encourage to join the military they they say that they're concerned that it's become politicized and if confirmed would you commit to working with my office to address the military recruiting crisis and ensuring the military is focused on war fighting Senator absolutely a number

one from day one with a mandate from the commander-in-chief um who received that mandate when Americans spoke out loudly and said we want peace through strength we want America First foreign policy and we don't want political ideology driving decisions inside our defense department that was clear it's an it's an infection that the American people are acutely aware of which the men and women in this room have lived firsthand I've lived it firsthand uh and that's why it will be a priority and I I truly believe and I'm humbled by this the response we've already seen

from young men and women who've decided to join the military when they had said I wasn't going to but seeing a commander-in-chief Donald Trump reassured them seeing the possibility if confirmed of a secretary of defense that would have their back reassured them and so in the first couple of months under after president Trump's election we have already seen the numbers are there a recruiting surge in all the services that I would welcome the opportunity to continue uh and it's humbling to think that families across this country would have confidence in us to deliver for their

young men and women there's no no more important task thank you for that so shifting gears a bit I want to hear some of your thoughts on the growing fighter aircraft capacity Gap with China and what this means for a potential fight in the Endo Pacific so if confirmed what policy recommendations will you make to the president on procurement and maintenance of fourth and fifth generation Fighters while we continue to research and develop sixth generation in collaborative combat aircraft Senator that's a very important conversation uh one that I've been looking at a great deal a

lot of it just to be clear involves classifications and understanding precisely cost and capabilities including capabilities of enemy uh systems both not just fourth and fifth but potential sixth generation which we've already seen a prototype released from the Chinese that's a dangerous development considering at least the publicly understood condition of Eng Gad which I look forward to the opportunity looking underneath the hood on that but ensuring fourth and fifth are capable uh and and upgraded as necessary will be a part of our contingency but when you look at what's happening in the Indo Pacific say

operability range is going to matter because it's such a large battle space that would all will all factor in decisions that are made and that's where I I feel frankly a little bit liberated that I didn't work at locked or any number of pick a defense contractor I didn't mean to point one out in particular pick any I haven't I don't have a special interest in any particular system or any particular company or any particular narrative I want to know what works I want to know what defeats our enemies what keeps us safe what deters

them what keeps our enemies up at night whatever that is I want more of it and I want to invest in it and I know that's the view that President Trump has as well thank you you know some have commented recently about the need to eliminate immediately a man manned aircraft so I'd say maybe one day but that day is not now and certainly not for 2027 especially in the indopacific so if confirmed will you commit to work with my office in this committee to ensure the proper mix of Fighters manned and unmanned I look

forward to working with you on that Senator because unmanned will be a very important part of the way uh future Wars are fought um just just the idea of survivability for a human being drives cost and time in ways that unman systems do not but I I look forward to that conversation Senator thank you Senator bud I now re recognized Senator Reed for a unanimous consent request mrman I would ask unanimous consent that two letters be submitted for the record the one letter signed by numerous organizations including the government accountability project the other signed by

several organizations including the Truman ntional security Project without objection so ordered now Senator Kelly um cator Rosen got here after the gabble went down do you really want to go ahead I am going to defer to my good friend and colleague Senator Rosen great state of Nevada really good decision Senator Rosen you are recognized and thank you Senator Kelly I owe you one thank you chairman wicker ranking member Reed for holding this hearing um and Mr hegseth I appreciate your service and your willingness to serve again however I am deeply disappointed that you would not

agree to meet with me as other members have said on this committee prior to this hearing as is the president for this committee and others so let me tell you a little bit about what I would have talked about had you made yourself available prior to the hearing Nevada is home to the premier Aviation training ranges for both the Air Force and the Navy the largest Ammunition Depot in the world and the only place in the country where we are able to verify the reliability of our nuclear stockpile without the need for explosive testing the

Nevada National Guard is one of the few only few units across the country with the mission of fighting wildfires it's for another hearing and currently activated to fight the devastating fires around Los Angeles in support of our neighbors we therefore play a critical role in our national security and the person who holds the position of secretary defense matters greatly to Nevada service members and our military equities but every single person who serves in the military we've talked about my colleagues esteemed colleagues have' talked about Recruitment and and retention one day they will become a veteran

so my veterans and the folks who are do serving active duty now are concerned about what you think DOD does not have jurisdiction over Nevada's 200,000 plus veterans but I am interested in your views about the service members once they've transitioned out of the military given the influence you would have while they're in service if confirmed in 2019 on a segment of fox and friends you said that veteran service organizations vsos I'm going to quote encourage veterans to apply for every government benefit they can ever get after they leave the service you stated you don't

want to quote be dependent on government assistance from the VA based on injuries or illnesses that might have Arisen from your military service so I'm just going to ask you a few yes or no questions about veterans understanding you don't have jurisdiction but this is important to our morale it's important to our Recruitment and is important to our retention and is important to how we respect others in this country so yes or no please do you believe that vsos are wrong to support veterans in obtaining the benefits that they have rightfully earned and deserved when

they sign that line like you did for your service Senator veterans deserve the benefits they've earned I have been in many battles with traditional veteran service organizations over differences of opinion about how to deliver those services in veter you Vos are wrong which is a Vos is a very broad term we were a vsso also ma'am but some of those Services TR should they be able to help the the veterans obtain the benefits that they have earned yes or no should anyone be able to help every veteran should have rapid access to All Veterans should

be ashamed for having sought and obtained the benefits that they have earned do you think veterans should be ashamed to seek out benefits Senator I think we should be ashamed as a nation of the amount of veterans that commit suicide because they hit a brick wall they hit they commit suicide because they h a brick wall the takeform are not how about veterans who suffer lasting injuries or illnesses due to their military service do you do you think they deserve our support and assistance I mean your your qu your answers to these they're too broad

people want to know are you willing to support our veterans organizations that will help our veterans get every damn thing that they deserve because they signed on the dotted line to keep us safe just like you did I respect that will you you Senator with all due humility I don't know that there's anyone in this room over the last 20 years that have worked harder to ensure that our veterans are taken care of it has been a passion of my life alongside with so many on this day to make sure that veterans receive and it

is a recruiting crisis you said veterans are dependent on the government you said veterans are dependent on the government do you believe that veterans getting these benefits are dependent on the government or do you believe it's a benefit they've earned and deserved through their service earned up to are words then so you have again changed your position where you believe the veterans are dependent now you believe they've earned and deserved it um I just think it's disrespectful to change that position these are these are benefits that people may need throughout their life and may not

know when they need them or how they're going to need them and they need to be there when they do thank you I'm move on to my next question um America's role in the world uh our alliances the threats America's facing they're serious they're wide ranging from China to Russia terranean back terrorism so do you agree with the national defense strategy that the US cannot compete with China Russia and their Partners alone and certainly cannot win a war that way and this is a quote from the national defense strategy as your interpretation that American first

foreign policy is America alone does that include abandoning our allies and Partners such as NATO Taiwan Israel and others and if we can't win alone and we don't strengthen our strategic Partnerships I would say that position your position places on a strategic path to lose to our adversaries so maybe you're okay with choosing that path for America I want to know how you square that position with the positions you articulated in your book where you wrote that NATO is at Relic at best a distraction and should be scrapped and remade are you okay was sending

us down a path where we can't win Senator the world has had our friends in the world have had no better Ally our allies and partners have had no better friend than president Donald Trump who's reinvigorated a NATO alliance behind is in every way in ways this Administration has not he has ensured that the NATO alliance has become far more robust he worked Donald Trump going to stand behind UK Pacific as well is Donald Trump going to stand behind Ukraine are you going to stand behind Ukraine you say he's the strongest president president Trump said

he will end the war in Ukraine before he takes office okay it's a less than a week before he's inaugurated to the best of your knowledge do you have knowledge of a plan that he's going to use to rapidly end the war with Ukraine do you believe it's feasible that does not make unacceptable concessions to Vladimir Putin who is a brutal dictator and are you going to give president-elect Trump the military advice that you have given others to achieve the objective um of us winning the war in Ukraine how do you think a rapid end

of the war that Vladimir Putin started will affect the United States standing across the world Senate I will always give clear guidance my clear guidance best guidance to the president of the United States on matters like that do you think that if we concede to Vladimir Putin that that will hurt our credibility with uh our allies and partners and do you not believe that our adversaries are watching perhaps um you can take that for the record Mr heith um senator Schmidt uh thank you Mr chairman I'd like to submit for the record a letter submitted

by Mr Christopher an the former director of operations for Vets For Freedom Mr an uh his letter states that the suggestion quote the suggestion that funds were misused for personal gain lavish parties or other improper purposes is categorically false throughout my time working with Pete he Heth he consistently demonstrated exceptional Integrity in leadership I asked unanimous consent to enter this letter into the record without objection so ordered cator Schmidt thank you Mr chairman Mr hex good to see you here today thank you for your service thank you and your willingness to serve uh I also

want to thank you for your Clarity in articulating the vision you have for the Department of Defense in restoring an ethos um a warrior ethos uh which is in stark contrast to the ethos we've seen the last four years which is of weakness and wokeness and I want to drill down on a few things specifically and exactly how we've gotten to where we've gotten with recruiting and morale Dei there's been a little bit of discussion about this but for those watching at home Dei is not about giving everybody opportunity it is rooted in cultural Marxism

the idea that you pit the room any room with oppressor versus oppressed it's race essentialism and it is poison it has no business whatsoever in our military I think the American people have have spoken loudly and clearly about this they're tired of this they're tired of woke ideology and to my Democrat colleagues on the other side if you haven't picked up on that you missed the plot because that's what November 5th partially was about and so let's talk specifically about some of these Dei programs that have been funded in our Academy specifically the Air Force

Academy it was advised as disfavored language to refer to your mom and dad as Mom and Dad okay dear Mom and Dad I'm writing home don't say that that's insane um we're all just people you can't say that either and in an effort to police this in a 1984 orwellian novel there was actually an eyes and ears program to rat on your fellow students who might say Mom and Dad or just say in a tough situation you know what we're all just people can't say that this wasn't limited by the way to ourmes um the

secretary of the Air Force our current Secretary of the Air Force in a memo from August of 2022 thought we had too many white officers advocated for quotas and if you crunch the numbers that meant that 5,800 white officers who've worked really hard should be fired in the United States of America I don't know how we got here and by the way the Air Force isn't alone here the Navy sort of touted a drag queen influencer um this stuff is insane and people wonder why recruiting has dropped off and let me just go through a

few numbers then I want to get your comments on how we fixed this because it's gone completely off the rails in 2022 the Army missed their recruiting goal of 60,000 Soldiers by over 15,000 in 2023 the Navy missed their recruiting goals by over 7,000 in 20122 the Air Force couldn't only couldn't meet their standards their numbers even though they lowered their standards they've lowered their standards to meet numbers they still can't get to Mr hex we got to fix this I think what you've demonstrated today is that you have the talent in the ability and

the desire to fix it how are you going to fix it well Senator thank you for the question um first and foremost upfront you have to tear out Dei and CRT initiatives root and Branch out of Institutions 100% And then you have to put in Army Navy and Air Force secretaries and others civilian positions at the helm who are committed to the same priorities that the president of the United States is and if confirmed the secretary of defense will be send a clear message message that this is not a time for Equity Equity is a

very different word than equality equality is the Bedrock of our military men and women Duty positions in uniform black white doesn't matter we treat you equally based on who you are in the image of God as an individual and we all get the same bad haircuts we you're not an individual you're part of a group Equity prescribes some sort of an outcome based on differing attributes that we have that divide us what skin color are you what what gender are you and then Infuse that into institutions which manifest in things like quotas formal or informal

which does what to morale sends it in the tubes and it makes people feel like they're being judged by something other than how good they are at their job which is poisonous inside institutions so on top of this recruiting crisis um that wasn't enough for this Administration during the covid hysteria and in their attempt to fire 100,000 people who worked for bigger companies because they didn't get the CO shot or to mask 5-year-olds they decided also to make this a central plank in their policy at the Pentagon 8,000 well Tred so we got a recruiting

crisis 8,000 well-trained men and women were fired were fired will you commit today Mr hexa Heth to recruit these folks back to give them back pay and give them an apology from the United States government for how they were disrespected Senator I will commit to this because the commander and chief has committed to this that not only will they be reinstated They will receive an apology back pay and rank that they lost because they were forced out due to an experimental vaccine thank you and I I'm a limited time but I just want to say

for all the talk of experience and not coming from the same cocktail parties that permanent Washington is used to you are a breath of fresh air and again if you weren't paying attention to what this election was all about it was about the disruptors versus The Establishment and the American people have had enough of business as usual for the same people that we line up for these same jobs who give us the same results we need somebody who's going to go in there and fight for Innovation fight for change I think you're that person and

I appreciate your willingness to sit here and listen to some of these undignified attacks it's ridiculous thank you Captain Mark Kelly your recognized thank you Mr chairman uh congratulations on your chairmanship um I want to make a request to the committee that we have a second round of questions pursuant to the bipartisan staff agreement that we reached uh late last year um this will be one round uh of seven minute questions thank you thank you Mr chairman I'll be happy to recognize my colleague Mr Reed uh I think it's important to note for the record

that when uh secretary Hegel was here we had three rounds of questioning when secretary Carter was here we had two rounds of questioning and um I cannot recall any time where I have denied as a chairman a member to ask for a second round and receive the second round so we are I think violating the the principles of the committee and I just want to and um your your comment is noted thank Mr hegf thank you for being here today thank you for your service to this country thank you Senator few nominees come into this

room with all the necessary experience to do this job to be Secretary of Defense we get that it's a reflection on just how big of a job this is what I want to understand is whether or not you bring any of the necessary experience that this job requires and here's where I'm concerned Senator Coleman in introducing you and this is a quote he said he has struggled and overcome great personal challenges unquote you walk in here saying that you've had personal and character issues in your past including heavy drinking which you wrote about and you

said and this is a quote from you that you said I sit before you as an open book yet you haven't actually said what personal challenges it is that you've overcome when you've been asked about them so I'm going to give you an opportunity here to be as forthright as you say you want to be so while leading Concerned Veterans of America there were very specific cases cited by individuals about your conduct I'm going to go through a few of them and I just want you to tell me if these are true or false very

simple on Memorial Day 2014 at a CVA event in Virginia you needed to be carried out of the event for being intoxicated Senator Anon smears just true or false very simple summer of 2014 in Cleveland drunk in public with the CVA team Anonymous smears I'm just sure or false answers an event in North Carolina drunk in front of three young female staff members after you had instituted a no alcohol policy and then reversed it true or false Anonymous smears December of 2014 at the CVA Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt at Washington DC you were

noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room is that true or false Anonymous smears another time a CVA staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus is that true or false Anonymous smears in 2014 while in Louisiana on official business for CVA did you take your staff including young female staff members to a strip club absolutely not Anonymous smears so is it accurate that the organization reached a financial settlement with a female staffer who claimed to be at a strip club with you and there was a colleague

who attempted to sexually assault her was there a financial set settlement Senator I was not involved in that I don't know the nature of how that played out but you understand there was a financial set settlement for a young female staffer who a accused another member of the organization not you of sexual assault in a strip club we have multiple statements on the record referring to that um but you claim you were not there when that occurred absolutely not now the behavior I cited if true do you think that this behavior of intoxication going into

these type of establishments women on your staff being so uncomfortable that they have to file these sort of harassment claims do you think this is appropriate behavior for a leader Senator well Senator the overwhelming majority of anyone who's worked for me including the on the record statements that have been submitted to this with their name on it on the record men and women who worked with me every day are the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that testify to my leadership and professionalism in leading vet for freedom and Concerned Veterans for America my leadership has been completely

impune on these veterans organizations that did fantastic work I'm I'm man our financial books with Integrity across the board how many people everybody who runs campaign I I have limited time I'm not going to get into the accusations that come from Fox News know you have some of your Fox News colleagues here there are multiple instances of accusations against you about drinking all Anonymous all false all refuted by my colleagues who I worked with for 10 years at 6: a.m. to 9:00 p.m and everything the challenge here for me Mr only seen is when there

is discussion about personal challenges and you admittedly had issues with heavy drinking it's hard to kind of square this to square the circle here it's it's it's it's kind of a difficult thing to do let me ask you if um I have about a 90 seconds left here if if you had to answer these questions about sexual assault against you and your drinking and your personal conduct would it have been different if this if you were under oath Senator all I'm pointing out is the false claims against me okay take it you do not want

to answer that question I walk walked into into this hearing this morning concern that you haven't demonstrated adequate leadership in your civilian roles and this is a dangerous World we're living in here and America cannot afford a secretary of defense who is unprepared for that mission I'm going to leave with concerns about your transparency you say you've had personal issues in your past yet when asked about those very issues you blame an anonymous smear campaign even when many of these claims are not Anonymous which is it have you overcome personal issues or are you the

target of a smear campaign it can't be both it's clear to me to me that you're not being honest with us or the American people because you know the truth would disqualify you from getting the job and just as concerning as each of these specific disqualifying accusations are what concerns me just as much is the idea of having a secretary of defense who is not transparent thank you Mr chairman I yield back my two seconds thank you senator Kelly I I would uh at this point ask unanimous consent to introduce into the record uh Letters

by Tina Kingston Louisiana state director of Concerned Veterans for America and Holly tally Louisiana local director of Concerned Veterans for America attesting to the appropriateness of Mr hex's conduct with regard to female staffers with objection that is added to the record and Senator Banks you are now recognized thank you Mr chairman welcome Mr heg you've conducted yourself very well today in fact so well that uh I believe it's incumbent upon this committee to confirm you ASAP to get you on the job to clean up the mess that we have at the Pentagon ongoing at this

moment because of the leadership there over the last four years that's failed Us in President Biden's first year in office the Department of Defense spent over 5 million man hours on quote unquote counter extremism and diversity training what you and I might call woke training or Dei the Administration has refused to provide us any more recent data than that first year but we know that it's exponentially more manour wasted on Dei over the last four years and I wonder what do you make of that that what what could those 5 million man hours in that

first year of secretary Austin and President Biden's Administration what could those five hour five million man hours have been used for Senator that's a lot of service members um sitting in a lot of briefs hearing about a lot of threats or uh political perspectives that might be dangerous that comport do not comport to threats that actually exist inside the force or ideas that introduce critical race Theory or Dei or climate change initiatives that they and their commands have to conform to and every time one of those happens it gets pushed down the chain of command

that also includes new layers of leadership that have been created under this Administration committed to enforcing those types of Dei and CRT um initiatives so we hear five million man-hours and that sounds like a lot the more troubling aspect is how many training hours that take away from a company Commander or Battalion Commander or a wing Commander who's out there trying to maintain their Force which is already constrained because of what the Biden Administration has done to the defense budget and defense capabilities so they're having to choose between the political prerogatives of the civilians who

are demanding more Dei and CRT and gender quotas and the Readiness of their forces and I believe this pentagon is prepared because of our commander and chief for a secretary of defense should I be confirmed that focuses laser focus is on these issues and they're ready to respond they want to pack their Ruck sacks and go train because they understand we live in a dangerous world I think that's an important point a key point because months later while the priority of the Biden Austin Le Pentagon was on Dei and woke training one of the biggest

embarrassments in American history happened when we lost 13 of our heroes in the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan secretary Austin testified before the house armed services committee a couple of years ago and responding to a question from me said he had quote no regrets about what happened in Afghanistan I wonder what what do you make of that Senator is shameful um they still tout it as the most successful airlift in American history when what the rest of us all saw was true laid before our eyes utter failure a destruction of a of a of military Legacy

there ADV of our allies death of American troops detriment to our reputation and then no answers and no accountability on the other side and then what was Unleashed because of what happened in Afghanistan the October 7th attacks an invasion into Ukraine the world recognized weakness for what it was and Who Bore the brunt for it the troops on the front lines at abig gate doing an impossible job whose external security was the Taliban because there was no actual plan for this under the Biden administ ministration and yet not a single person the only person held

accountable in those moments was a Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel who had the courage to stand up and say someone should be held accountable for that his name is Stu sheller no one else involved has ever taken accountability for it and when that microcosm becomes the reality of the perception of the American Military or America's commitment to Victory and success and positive outcomes the world responds to that President Trump is going to restore real deterrence by bringing a real Warrior culture back rebuilding our military and ending Wars properly and if we have to fight them winning

them decisively I served in Afghanistan you served in Afghanistan 7 75% of our nation's veterans disagree with how the withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled the embarrassment of it what that's done I believe has directly impacted our historic recruitment crisis in this country without a doubt and you've already talked about that but H how do we fix it how do we bring Pride back to wearing the uniform for the Next Generation to inspire them to do what you and I did to raise our right hand and take that oath and serve this great country I really

do think it it comes back to strong clear leadership patriotic pro-american leadership uh that says we're not going to focus on all the other political prerogatives that's why uh we we all have political perspectives I I said this before and I'll say it again in uniform none of that matters you wear green you wear blue you bleed red that's it who you vote for doesn't matter but when the perception of that changes then you don't want people deciding whether to serve based on a political party and power that's a dangerous thing for continuity inside your

military and it's fragile right now president Trump and if I'm confirmed with my leadership we're going to restore the continuity of an apolitical military that acts decisively and only based on Merit I I you and I they sound basic but they're fundamental you and I agree that wokeness is weakness Mr Heth do you support racial quotas in recruitment or promotions in the United States military Senator I do not uh support any form of racial quot do you support affirmative action in our nation's military acmy Senator I only support hiring and promoting and uh admitting the

best and brightest whatever their background is I think that's that's very important uh Mr hex said Lloyd atin the secretary later went awall he disappeared for days and never told the president didn't even inform the President's chief of staff that he was going into the hospital would that ever occur on your watch uh no Senator I know in any one of my jobs if I had decided to go awall uh for even a day or two in in uniform or around that um that would have been a concern I I believe accountability matters no one

to this day has ever as you've said been held accountable for what happened in Afghanistan it was embarrassing to this country it's impacted this country greatly and I applaud you and president Trump for bringing accountability back to our pentagon with that I yield back um chair recognizes the distinguished ranking member for unanimous consent request uh Mr uh chairman I would like to submit an article uh discussing some of the issues of the Readiness and Dei uh a there's been a comment that 5.9 million manh hours have been used for Dei uh General M clarified that

that is an estimate out of more than two billion man hours that the Department of Defense uh invested during the time period where is this published sir this is published by Megan Myers and I will get the that military.com I'm sorry without objection it will be admitted to the record Mr and uh Senator slotkin welcome to the committee and your record thank you Senator and thank you for referencing the great Carl Levan um as you introduced me um we miss him in Michigan um uh for those who I haven't met in my one week that

I've been sworn into the Senate I'm a CIA officer recruited after 911 I did three tours armed in Iraq alongside the military um and uh uh have worked for four different secretaries of defense both Democrat and Republican proudly um and watch them make decisions that literally determine the life and death of Americans um in the dark of night I'm also a Democrat representing a state that Trump won right we both won on the same ballot so I understand that President Trump has the the right to nominate his people we are going to have policies that

we disagree with all of that to me comes very standard what I think I'm most concerned with is that no president has the right to use the uniform military in a way that violates the US Constitution and further taints the military as that apolitical institution that we all want right um and our Founders designed the system so that um you know we had posy kadas that we weren't going to use active duty military inside the United States and make American citizens potentially scared of their own military we went through our own experience with that with

the British as the Secretary of Defense you will be the one man standing in the breach should president Trump give an a legal order right I'm not saying he will but if he does you are going to be the guy that he calls to implement this order um do you agree that there are some orders that can be given by the commander-in-chief that would violate the US Constitution Senator thank you for your service um but I reject the premise that President Trump is going to be giving illegal orders no I'm not saying he will but

if do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order that Joe Biden or any other president president Donald Trump could give is there anything that a commanderin-chief could ask you to do with the uniform military that would be in violation of the US Constitution sen anybody of any party could give an order that is against the Constitution or against the law right okay so and are you so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an a legal order I start by saying I

reject the premise that President Trump gival orders at all my my this isn't a hypothetical okay your predecessor in a trump Administration secretary esper was asked and did use uniform military to clear on armed protesters he was given the order to potentially shoot at them hilos flew low in Washington DC as crowd control he later apologized publicly for those actions was he right or wrong to apologize Senator I was there on the ground and I saw I saw understand and I respect that Secretary of Defense inolved in that moment I also legality and the Constitution

was he right or wrong to apologize I'm not going to put words in the mouth of secretary esper or anybody else he said him himself you don't have to what are you scared of did he do the right thing by apologizing I'm not scared of anything Senator the laws and the constitution in any particular Donald Trump asked for the active duty 82nd Airborne to be deployed during that same time secretary esper has written that he convinced him against that decision if Donald Trump asked you to use the 82nd Airborne in law enforcement roles in Washington

DC would you also convince him otherwise I'm not going to get ahead of conversations I would have with the president however there are laws and processes inside our Constitution that would be follow followed president Trump said in November that he is willing to consider using the active duty military against the quote Enemy Within have you been person Ally involved in discussions of using the US military active duty inside the United States Senator I'm F I'm glad we finally got to the topic of border security equaling National Security because it's been abdicated and ignored for the

last four years it wasn't my question I'm just asking have you been involved you're about to be the Secretary of Defense potentially have you been involved in discussions about using the active duty military inside the United States Senator I am not yet the Secretary of Defense confirmed I would be party to any number of any of not reveal uh what I have discussed with the president of United States have you been in conversations you're again you're going to be in charge of three million people the active duty that I know you care about I believe

you care about so have you been in conversations about using the active duty in any way whether it's setting up in detention camps policing dangerous cities have you been involved in any of those conversations certainly I have been inv involved in conversations relating to doing things this Administration has not which is secure the southern border and not allow floods of illegals to our country through an invasion that threatens the American people and there are ways in which the military is already playing a role in that to include 5,000 National Guards from Indiana and Texas who're

at the border right now allowing for border security so there is plenty military staff detention C our US military is not trained in law enforcement rol I think you know that right we've seen how that mission is difficult for them in places like Iraq and Afghanistan because that's not the training a uniform military comes with do you support the use of active duty military in supporting detention camps Senator everything we will do would be lawful and under the Constitution but I recognize that this Administration has advocated its responsibility president Trump is going to restore order

at the border pres our enemies froming and yes he has said sir I get your fering I get it the spirit of preserving the institution that I think we both care about legitimately the uniform code of military Justice I've heard a couple of different things one you said you will not change the uniform code of military Justice which is what governs justice system in the military yes or no you said that earlier those are laws Senator set by Congress okay so you will not go to to change it you not attempt to change it you

also said that JAG officers are potentially people who put their own interests in their own medals and promotion ahead of the troops Senator Lindsey Graham was a Jag officer for most of his life is that what you believe about those who Implement our justice system in the US military Senator I was speaking about particular JAG officers I've had to deal with in my military exp not about member of the United States senat are you as Secretary of Defense going to get involved in the implementation of the US military code of justice Senator ultimately it will

be a big part of my job to evaluate decisions VV uniform code of milit have you seen the is CQ Brown on your list in the Warrior boards to be removed from his position Senator uh every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy standards lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given thank you Senator slotkin I now recognized Senator Shaheen for a unanimous consent request uh thank you Mr chairman I have um a request from a former General who served 35 years Dennis lch who um most recently was commander of the

94th Regional Readiness command at Fort devans Mass who has asked that his letter um opposing Mr Heath's nomination be entered into the record is there objection without objection it will be entered um also I I present a um a host of letters and iads from former co-workers at Vets For Freedom and concerned Vets For America as as well as Fox News Channel um I also have letters and up heads from many uh veterans and ir rockis and afghanis um who were helped by Mr heith um I ask unanimous consent to introduce uh these letters and

op-eds without objection is so ordered Senator sheii you've been very patient thank you Mr chairman entering a support letter in for Mr heg Seth submitted by nearly 90 former soldiers who served with Pete and combat I would like to submit a statement from 86 of them who support his nomination although they come from different units and ranks the signatories commend Mr heg for his selfless leadership love of his soldiers and commitment to our country two items sorry one item I ask unanimous consent enter this without objection it will be entered thank you Mr chairman Pete

I'm xxi gonna ask you questions because I want to hear your answer how many genders are there tough one uh sen there are two genders I know that well I'm a sheii so I'm I'm on [Laughter] board what is the diameter of the rifle round fired out of an M4 A1 rifle uh that's a 5.56 how many push-ups can you do I did five sets of 47 this morning what do you think what do you think our most important strategic base is in the Pacific uh in the Pacific Guam is pretty strategically significant how many

rounds of 5.56 can you fit into the magazine of an M4 rifle depends on the magazine but standard issue is 30 and what size round is the M9 beta standard issue sidearm for the military fire uh a 9 millimeter senator what kind of batteries do you put in your night vision goggle [Laughter] Duracell so right there you're representing qualifications that show you understand what the war fighter deals with every single day on the battlefield you understand what happens on the front line where our troops will be and what happens unfortunately in this country is decisions

made in rooms like this bad decisions end up in dead 17 18 19y old Americans and those those Americans rarely come from families that sit in rooms like this they come from lower middle- inome families who sometimes the military is their only way out and they join because maybe they want to go to college maybe they had no the choice maybe they love this country but for whatever reason they joined and they s in the dotted line and when people like us screw up they don't come home and that's the one thing that I care

about as you remember when I shut the door when you came with your entourage Senator Coleman I've known for a long time and you and I sat together asked you one question you remember what that question was are you going to have the backs of the war Fighters exactly what is going to be your number one priority and I don't care frankly what all these letters and articles say I've been part of a smear campaign too I get it I care that you're going to have one thing in mind when you sit in that chair

on that five-sided building and you told me what that was so with that you have my support I'm sorry you have to go through a process like this but it is one of the most important jobs in the world uh we got to make sure you're ready for it I thank you for your answers I got one final question that's very important to me this is more of a of a technical question but I think it's to fix the Army in this country is a one or twoe problem we can make bullets we can make

rifles fix the air force might be a fiveyear problem to fix our Navy is a decades long Pursuit how are you going to fix our national you don't have all the power we're not we're not China unfortunately can't snap your fingers but how are you going to lead an initiative when DOD to reinvigorate our national ship building industry so we were able to compete with China because freedom of navigation is critical to our economy and the global economy is going to be a very important task for you to complete it's a critical question uh Senator

and that's why I'm grateful that President Trump has said definitively uh to me and publicly that ship building will be one of his absolute top priorities of this Administration so a lot of it does go into pulling things up into the os's office secretary defense's office to shine a spotlight on it to make make sure the bureau bureaucracy doesn't strangle important initiatives that need to happen you need to we need to uh reinvigorate our defense industrial base in this country to include our ship building capacity uh some of it is on the East some of

it's on the west some of it's on the Great Lakes uh the invest the workforce problems that our shipyards are facing are significant and there's been a big investment from this committee I know in a lot of those places because of the shortfalls work uh Manpower issues everything else we also see adversaries that have been able to innovate themselves in ways that their ship building capacity is I won't reveal it at this hearing multitudes and multitudes beyond our capabilities uh so it needs to be a rapid investment a rapid Fielding uh and then we need

to incentivize outside entities to fill the Gap um we've talk a lot about uavs uavs are very important but there's also a future of uuvs uh unmanned underwater vehicles that will be a part of uh amplifying the impact of our Navy because our this Administration has allowed our number of ships to drop below 300 it sets a projection of 340 or 350 we talk a lot about uavs uavs are very important but there's also a future of uuvs uh unmanned underwater vehicles that will be a part of uh amplifying the impact of our Navy because

our this Administration has allowed our number of ships to drop below 300 it sets a projection of 340 or 350 but but doesn't create the capacity to actually address it and so if we're going to defend our interests our allies and put America First we're going to have to be able to project power that means ship building it means historic investments in our defense industrial base there and then also driving Innovation and cost savings uh in ways that only Business Leaders inside the Pentagon can do when I'd add uh I don't think any board in

the world would have hired Steve Jobs or Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerburg when when they found a companies either so um this country was founded by by young people who had a great vision thank you for Willing being willing to serve your country again and uh thanks for coming here today I yield back chairman thank you Senator sheii you yield back the balance of your time um Mr ranking member can we a agree that you and I will um um notify members of a specific time uh until which the rec will remain open for submission

of questions for the record yes Mr chairman that that will be a day or two um this concludes today's hearing I want to thank the witnesses for um and their families and this hearing is adjourned you thank you [Applause] there's there's a ton out there yeah some of that fire danger otherwise the percentage of showers going down to about 10% or so as we get to Friday and Saturday and Sunday there is a small chance that by next week Monday night Tuesday we could get another round of offshore winds I don't think it'll be nearly

as strong of may not even require any wind warnings however just to give you a heads up of how that North easterly flow will still give us drier conditions and of course increase fire danger in the meantime today and tomorrow Gusty winds at smoke Alert in place so very unhealthy air quality watch what you're doing outside and I try to limit your exposure to the outdoors as much as you can until those fires are completely contained up B the mountains 35 degrees today in Big Bear 52 in the high desert to that 65 in Palm

Springs I'll send it back to you all right Maria thank you so as people prepare for