Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats are fuming as Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Pentagon, is set to head back to Capitol Hill Tuesday for his confirmation hearing before the panel.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has met with numerous Republican senators in the weeks since Trump on Nov. 12 first announced his intended pick to lead the more than 2 million troops and 800,000 civilian workers that make up the U.S. military apparatus.
But Democrats say Hegseth has refused to make himself available to them in the same way, and has failed to provide key vetting information as they look into a series of scandals and scathing media reports on the Army veteran.
The New York Times reported Saturday that the top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — were briefed by transition officials late Friday afternoon for over an hour on the FBI’s findings on Hegseth from its background check.
But several Democrats on the Armed Services panel said they remained concerned that they don’t have the most sufficient information to question Hegseth come Tuesday, including Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.).
Hegseth has frequented the Capitol while seeking to secure his nomination, meeting with key senators including a handful in the GOP who have expressed some skepticism or concern over his past behavior and controversial remarks.
Most recently, Hegseth was spotted at the Capitol Wednesday leaving the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and again on Thursday morning, appearing to make his last rounds with lawmakers ahead of the confirmation hearing.
Hegseth can only afford three GOP defections to still be confirmed, should every Democrat and Independent senator vote against him. CBS News last week reporting that Thune privately told the incoming president that he believes Hegseth has the GOP vote cinched.
But even some of Hegseth’s supporters have warned the process will be unpleasant, given Hegseth’s alleged history of womanizing, heavy drinking and financial mismanagement.
Reed is the lone Democrat on the panel to meet with the former Fox & Friends personality as of Monday, a Congressional aide confirmed to The Hill.
Reed, who met with Hegseth on Wednesday, said “it did not relieve my concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and raised more questions than answers.”
And Blumenthal said he was “deeply concerned” that the panel is considering Hegseth for such a critically significant position “without full information regarding his capacity and experience to lead our military and steward a budget of nearly $850 billion.”
Referring to allegations that Hegseth mismanaged funds while leading two conservative veterans’ nonprofit groups — Concerned Veterans of America and the Veterans for Freedom — Blumenthal argues that members need more information and documentation from him for proper consideration, “including credit card transactions and other uses of resources,” according to a Wednesday letter he sent to Wicker.
“I do not see how this committee can, in good conscience, consider Mr. Hegseth’s nomination without a full review of his conduct while leading these organizations – the only civilian management experience of his career,” he writes.
Blumenthal further claimed Hegseth “refuses to make himself available to meet with me and my Democratic colleagues in advance of his nomination hearing.”
Hegseth’s camp has hit back on that allegation, claiming that he has reached out to all Senate Democrats starting well before the Christmas holiday — and in some cases before Thanksgiving — but that many did not respond or declined to meet with him until the 11th hour.
“This is partisan blustering designed to slow down the confirmation process at a time when it’s incredibly critical that President Trump has his national security team in place on day one,” an aide to Hegseth told The Hill. “It is simply untrue to say Mr. Hegseth has refused to meet with any Senators, Democrat or Republican.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), met with Hegseth in December, but that was seen as inconsequential given that he does not sit on the Armed Services panel.
There’s also worry that the FBI’s background check into Hegseth may not have been thorough, and that it took far too long to get to the committee.
NBC News reported that officials began calling and interviewing witnesses to Hegseth’s behavior last month, but it’s unknown how many the FBI talked to. One person who previously worked with the nominee and another who Congress reached out to about Hegseth told NBC News they are concerned the FBI had not contacted them.
Other Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have expressed misgivings over accusations of past sexual misconduct and heavy drinking by the potential Pentagon chief.
Shortly after Hegseth was named the next intended Defense secretary, a scathing, 22-page police report emerged in which an unidentified woman accused him of sexual assault in a Monterey, Calif., hotel room in 2017.
Hegseth has claimed the encounter was consensual and noted that he was not charged with a crime. Through his lawyer, he acknowledged he paid the accuser an undisclosed sum as part of a confidential financial settlement in 2023, fearing the woman would sue him and cost him his job as a Fox News host.
In addition, NBC reported in December that 10 former and current Fox News employees said Hegseth drank in ways that concerned them. Two individuals said they smelled alcohol on Hegseth before he went on-air on more than a dozen occasions during his time as a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Hegseth has publicly pledged that if he became Defense secretary he would not drink alcohol.
But those responses have not been enough to satisfy Warren, who in a Monday letter to Hegseth suggested that he is not fit for the office.
The 33-page letter requests answers to more than 70 questions for Hegseth and his team about the reported statements and incidents, including the claims of heavy drinking, sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement and his on-the-record remarks that female service members should not have combat roles.
She also raised his past support for the use of waterboarding and his efforts to push Trump to give pardons to several troops accused of war crimes in Trump’s first term.
“I am deeply concerned by the many ways in which your behavior and rhetoric indicates that you are unfit to lead the Department of Defense,” Warren wrote. “Your confirmation as Secretary of Defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of service members who are willing to sacrifice for our country.”
Hegseth’s hearing will come six days before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 — the earliest day the Senate could take up the vote to confirm him. Thune has not said when the full Senate might vote on Hegseth’s nomination.
