Tammy Duckworth Says Pete Hegseth ‘Inordinately Unqualified’ To Lead Pentagon

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Sunday she believes former Fox News host Pete Hegseth is “inordinately unqualified” to run the Pentagon after he was nominated to be the nation’s next defense secretary by President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump’s transition team is actively courting lawmakers to help confirm Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, amid a growing scandal over past allegations against him of sexual assault. The media recently obtained details from a 2017 police report, in which an unidentified woman accused Hegseth of assaulting her at a political conference in California. Hegseth has insisted the encounter was consensual, noting no charges were filed against him. The woman was paid an undisclosed sum as part of a settlement in 2023.

Duckworth said, however, she was disconcerted with the nomination.

“Remember that we’ve just fought over a decade of fights … and overhauled the military and its treatment of military sexual trauma,” Duckworth told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “It’s frankly an insult and really troubling that Mr. Trump would nominate someone who has admitted that he’s paid off a victim who has claimed rape allegations against him.”

“This is not the kind of person you want to lead the Department of Defense.”

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\"He’s just flat-out wrong,\" Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a veteran who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says about defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth’s belief that women should not serve in combat roles.

\"Our military could not go to war without the women who wear… pic.twitter.com/BcXQHfgQ9D

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 24, 2024

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“He’s just flat-out wrong,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a veteran who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says about defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth’s belief that women should not serve in combat roles.

“Our military could not go to war without the women who wear… pic.twitter.com/BcXQHfgQ9D

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 24, 2024

Duckworth is a veteran of the Iraq War. She lost her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was attacked in 2004 and she was later awarded a Purple Heart for her service. In Congress, she’s served as a fierce defender of veterans’ rights.

The senator went on to lambast Hegseth’s recent remarks in which he said the U.S. 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. “Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.”

Duckworth noted Hegseth hadn’t served in senior military roles and his remarks demonstrated “his lack of understanding of where our military is” and how “inordinately unqualified” he was to lead the Pentagon.

“Our military could not go to war without the 220,000-plus women who serve in uniform,” Duckworth said. “He’s been out there saying that, you know, women are not as strong … the ones who are in those roles have met the same standards as the men and have passed the very rigorous testing.”

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“And so he’s just flat-out wrong,” she went on. “Our military could not go to war without the women who wear this uniform. And, frankly, America’s daughters are just as capable of defending liberty and freedom as her sons.”