Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Sunday that she believes former Fox News host Pete Hegseth is “extremely unfit” to lead the Pentagon after being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next Defense Secretary. the country.
Trump’s transition team does actively courting legislators to help confirm Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, amid a growing scandal over previous sexual assault allegations against him. The media recently Data obtained from a 2017 police reportin which an unidentified woman accused Hegseth of assaulting her at a political conference in California. Hegseth has maintained that the encounter was consensual, noting that no charges have been filed against him. The woman an unknown amount was paid as part of a 2023 settlement.
However, Duckworth said she was upset about the nomination.
“Remember, we just went through more than a decade of fighting … and fundamentally overhauled the military and the treatment of military sexual trauma,” Duckworth told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “It is frankly insulting and deeply disturbing that Mr. Trump would nominate someone who has admitted to paying off a victim who has come forward with rape allegations against him.”
“This is not the kind of person you want running the Department of Defense.”
Duckworth is a veteran of the Iraq War. She lost her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was attacked in 2004 and later received a Purple Heart for her service. In Congress, she has served as a fierce advocate for veterans’ rights.
The senator continued with lambing Hegseth’s recent comments in which he said the US military should not allow women to serve in combat roles.
“It hasn’t made us more effective,” Hegseth said during a podcast earlier this month. “It hasn’t made us deadlier. Made fighting more complicated.”
Duckworth noted that Hegseth had not held senior military positions and his comments showed “his lack of understanding of where our military is” and how “wildly unqualified” he was to lead the Pentagon.
“Our military couldn’t go to war without the more than 220,000 women who serve in uniform,” Duckworth said. “He has said that women are not as strong… those who fill these roles have met the same standards as the men and have passed the very strict tests.”
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“And so he’s completely wrong,” she continued. “Our military couldn’t go to war without the women who wear this uniform. And, frankly, America’s daughters are just as capable of defending freedom as her sons.”