‘I know what I don’t know,’ SecDef pick says at confirmation hearing. Pete Hegseth conceded that he lacks the experience of previous defense secretaries but said what he has is enough.
“It’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm,” said Hegseth, seemingly forgetting that his would-be predecessors include Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who received the Silver Star for leading troops under fire, and retired Marine Gen. James Mattis. He said he’d be a “change agent, someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives.” No one asked Hegseth what organizational changes he had previously brought about, though several Democrats noted reports of financial mismanagement at the two small advocacy organizations he has run.
Hegseth, 44, spoke often about warfighting, reforming the acquisition process, and prioritizing the deterrence of China in the Indo-Pacific, all echoes of rhetoric from both the Biden administration and the first Trump administration. He also invoked Jesus, Silicon Valley, the Defense Production Act, off-the-shelf technologies, and other talking points from the past decade, but offered no specific policies or actions he would take that would be different from his predecessors. Defense One’s Meghann Myers has more on the hearing, here.
- ICYMI: C-SPAN has video and a transcript (“compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning”) here, or read Hegseth’s written opening statement.
Second opinion: “It appears we’re on track to have a secretary of Defense whose real views are a mystery” because Hegseth “easily parried” questions from Democratic senators “while Republicans asked little of substance,” the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote in a short response after Tuesday’s hearing.
Former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols agreed, writing Tuesday in The Atlantic, “Few Republicans, aside from [Deb Fischer of Nebraska asking about nuclear weapons] and a rather businesslike Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa [inquiring about sexual-assault prevention], asked Hegseth anything meaningful about policy.” Meantime, Hegseth’s “evasions were not particularly clever, but they didn’t need to be. He was clear that his two priorities as secretary will be to lead a culture war within the Pentagon, and to do whatever Trump tells him to do,” said Nichols.
Related reading:
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1991, the UN’s deadline for the withdrawal of Iraq’s invasion forces from occupied Kuwait expired, setting the stage for Operation Desert Storm.
From Capitol Hill
Live now: Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe, is currently testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Ratcliffe had previously served as Trump’s director of national intelligence.)
He placed the Chinese Communist Party atop his list of concerns for lawmakers, according to his opening statement (PDF). “Transnational criminal organizations are flooding American communities with violence and deadly narcotics,” he added, before also noting Russia’s Ukraine invasion raises the risk of a nuclear confrontation in the months to come; and Iran and North Korea also pose significant threats to the U.S. in 2025, Ratcliffe said.
Tune in: Catch what’s left of that hearing, here.
Also live: prospective Secretary of State Sen. Marco Rubio takes questions at his own confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Watch that on C-SPAN, here.
Tulsi Gabbard is not great with details, leaving some Senate Republicans “with reservations about the qualifications of the person President-elect Donald Trump chose to oversee the U.S. intelligence community,” the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening.
About those details: Gabbard “couldn’t clearly articulate what the role of director of national intelligence entails,” and “seemed confused about a key U.S. national-security surveillance power,” Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—conflating it with “Title I of FISA, which typically targets individual suspects living within the U.S. who are suspected of being spies,” two Senate GOP aides told the Journal.
But will it matter to the GOP? Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate, and a majority is all that’s needed to advance Gabbard’s nomination. What’s more, Elon Musk has already thrown his support behind launching primary challenges against Republican senators who oppose Trump’s nominations.
Additional reading: “Sen. Barrasso says ‘a paperwork problem’ is holding up Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing,” CBS News reported Monday.
Service news
Navy looking for ways to arm, power new destroyer. The service wants to buy its first next-generation guided missile destroyer by 2032, but many details remain unresolved in the bid to replace the trusty Arleigh Burke-class ships the service has fielded since the early 1990s—and plans to keep in the water “likely into the 2070s,” the director of surface warfare said Tuesday as the Surface Navy Association’s annual convention got underway in Crystal City, Va. Defense One’s Meghann Myers has more, here.
