00:00:55.440I can't imagine having a more capable partner in my position as National Security Advisor.
00:01:03.000Pete is a man of family, of faith, and he's committed to making our country stronger again.
00:01:08.400And most importantly, brother, I know this in my core.
00:01:13.640He 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.
00:01:22.820So, Senators, I urge you to support this confirmation.
00:01:26.880It is critical that President Trump has his national security team in place.
00:01:52.200Our two guests may stay, or I know they have other engagements and responsibilities also.
00:02:00.220But thank you both for your testimony.
00:02:02.220At this point, Mr. Hexeth, I'm required to ask you as a nominee a series of questions that the committee asks all civilian nominees who appear before it.
00:02:14.300If you would, please simply respond in the affirmative or negative to each question.
00:02:19.200Have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest?
00:02:34.760Exercising 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.
00:02:51.180Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear and testify before this committee when requested?
00:02:56.960Do you agree to provide records, documents, and electronic communications in a timely manner when requested by this committee, its subcommittees, or other appropriate committees of Congress,
00:03:10.680and to consult with the requester regarding the basis for any good faith delay or denial in providing such records?
00:03:20.020Will 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?
00:03:54.600So at this point, Mr. Hexeth, you'll recognize for your opening statement.
00:04:04.200Well, thank you, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Reed, and all the members of this committee for this opportunity today.
00:04:10.020I'm grateful for and have learned a great deal from this advice and consent process.
00:04:16.360Our founders knew what they were doing.
00:04:18.700Should I be confirmed, I look forward to working with this committee, senators from both parties, to secure our nation.
00:04:26.180I want to thank the former senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman, for his mentorship and friendship in this process.
00:04:31.040And the incoming national security advisor, congressman, and more importantly, for our purposes, Colonel, Mike Walz, for his powerful words.
00:05:14.240Thank you to my father, Brian, and mother, Penny, as well as our entire family, including our seven wonderful kids, Gunner, Jackson, Peter Boone, Kensington, Luke, Rex, sorry, it's a lot of them, and Gwendolyn.
00:05:35.120Their future safety and security is in all of our hands.
00:05:38.040And 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.
00:05:50.100Officers, enlisted, black and white, young and old, men and women, all Americans, all warriors.
00:11:02.720We need to make sure every warrior is fully qualified on their assigned weapons system.
00:11:07.200Every pilot's fully qualified and current on the aircraft they are flying.
00:11:12.120And every general or flag officer is selected for leadership or promotion purely based on performance, readiness, and merit.
00:11:21.600Leaders 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.
00:11:33.680This has been my focus ever since I first put on the uniform as a young Army ROTC cadet at Princeton University in 2001.
00:11:43.280I joined the military because 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.
00:12:03.720This includes enlisted soldiers I helped become American citizens and Muslim allies I helped emigrate from Iraq and Afghanistan because when I took off the uniform, my mission never stopped.
00:12:17.640Now, 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 atop the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials, whether they are retired generals, academics, or defense contractor executives.
00:12:41.880He 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.
00:12:55.880My only special interest is the warfighter, deterring wars, and if called upon, winning wars by ensuring our warriors never enter a fair fight.
00:13:08.820We let them win, and we bring them home.
00:13:12.720Like many of my generation, I've been there.
00:13:19.180I've pulled the trigger downrange, heard bullets whiz by,
00:13:22.560flex cuffed insurgents, called in close air support, led medevacs, dodged IEDs, pulled out dead bodies, and knelt before a battlefield cross.
00:13:51.800My success as a leader, and I very much look forward to discussing my organization's successes at Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.
00:14:01.360I'm incredibly proud of the work that we've done.
00:14:04.680But my success as a leader has always been setting a clear vision, hiring people smarter and more capable than me, empowering them to succeed,
00:14:14.180holding everyone accountable, and driving toward clear metrics.
00:14:17.820Build the plan, work the plan, and then work harder than everyone else around you.
00:14:24.560I've sworn an oath to the Constitution before, and if confirmed, I will proudly do it again.
00:14:30.120This time, for the most important deployment of my life.
00:14:34.800I pledge to be a faithful partner to this committee, taking input and respecting oversight.
00:17:59.460And what we knew is that it wasn't about me.
00:18:02.940Most of it was about President Donald Trump, who's had to endure the very same thing for much longer amounts of time.
00:18:09.280And he endured it incredibly strong ways.
00:18:12.240So we, in some ways, knew it was coming.
00:18:14.760We didn't understand the depth of the dishonesty that would come with it.
00:18:18.920So from story after story in the media, left-wing media, we saw anonymous source after anonymous source based on second- or third-hand accounts.
00:18:30.220And time and time again, stories would come out, and people would reach out to me and say,
00:18:34.500you know, I've spoken to this reporter about who you really are, and I was willing to go on the record.
00:19:01.660No one asked about your conduct on the record or off the record.
00:19:07.440Instead, a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign and agenda about me because our left-wing media in America today, sadly, doesn't care about the truth.
00:19:19.360All they were out to do, Mr. Chairman, was to destroy me.
00:19:26.920Because 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 warfighting.
00:19:37.140So I'm willing to endure these attacks.
00:19:39.220But what I will do is stand up for the truth and for my reputation.
00:19:44.420False attacks, anonymous attacks, repeated ad nauseum, printed ad nauseum, as facts, 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, Concerned Vets, Vets for Freedom, you name it.
00:20:04.460From the top of the chain to the bottom, who will say, I treat them with respect, with kindness, with dignity.
00:21:08.660I issued another plan, Freedom's Forge, which you've also had a chance to look at.
00:21:15.400And you have noted correctly that the current trend line of defense spending, falling below 3% of our GDP, is a threat to national security.
00:21:26.280You also said building the strongest and most powerful military in the world must be done responsibly.
00:21:38.520So tell us what you think about particularly about my plan to make the Defense Department less bureaucratic, less top-heavy, cut out some of the bureaucracy and layers, make it more friendly to startups and to new ideas contained in my 20 or so page.
00:22:08.180Senator, I've had a chance to review the Forged Act, that paper.
00:22:11.360Those are precisely the kinds of ideas that need to be pursued.
00:22:14.300And 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 and the tools from getting rapidly from our great defense companies here that should, and those that want to compete, into the hands of warfighters.
00:22:34.980But past his prologue on this, sir, I would just look at what President Trump did after the drawdowns of lead from behind under President Obama.
00:22:49.720And he didn't allow wars to start on his watch.
00:22:52.000We've had the same kind of defense cuts under the Biden administration.
00:22:55.180And so, look, 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.
00:23:07.880Going under 3%, Mr. Chairman, is very dangerous.
00:23:22.240The 2017 National Defense Strategy was the first step in reorienting away 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.
00:23:37.640So that strategy has started and was barely followed through on under the Biden administration.
00:23:41.860So we're going to start by ensuring the institution understands that as far as threats abroad, the CCP is front and center, also, obviously, defending our homeland as well.
00:26:26.060Again, we are there's been much discussion about this.
00:26:32.000And what I intend to do is follow the exact precedent that we've had for the last two hearings with regard to secretaries of defense, not only Secretary Austin, but Secretary Mattis eight years ago.
00:26:48.120It's obvious the unthinkable continues.
00:26:51.340Most Americans know something is very, very wrong.
00:26:55.500The people in charge keep telling you that everything's fine and to stop noticing.
00:27:59.180And that was for the chair and the ranking member to see the report.
00:28:07.840And so that is my intention as chair of this committee.
00:28:13.400Finally, Mr. Chairman, I have several letters that I would include for the record.
00:28:18.740One 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.
00:28:30.100One from an organization for domestic violence.
00:28:34.300One for a Council on American Relations.
00:28:39.020And also, excuse me, and also several letters that raise questions.
00:28:45.940I would ask they be submitted for the record.
00:28:48.740Without objection, they will be submitted.
00:28:52.520And Mr. Reid, your time is now expired.
00:29:06.340Ms. Hegsitt, you've written in this quote,
00:29:09.860Oh, yeah, and fire any general who isn't carried water for Obama and Biden's extra constitution, an agenda-driven transformation for our military.
00:29:21.900It's come to my attention that current serving military personnel have received emails threatening them with being fired for supporting the current DOD policies.
00:29:33.640One mail that was sent to a military officer with the subject line, clean house, reminiscent of your specific comment, states, and I quote,
00:29:43.200With 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.
00:29:56.980We know you support the woke DEI policies and will ensure you never again influence anyone in the future.
00:30:04.980You and redacted spouse's name will be lucky if you're able to collect your military requirement, end quote.
00:30:11.520Now, I want to remind everyone that these policies that are being referred to date back decades, so the 1940s and 50s, with respect to racial discrimination particularly,
00:30:25.240and administrations of both parties, including the Trump administration and their first party, caused those policies to be enforced.
00:30:34.220Mr. Hegsitt, are you aware of these emails being sent to officers?
00:30:37.880Mr. Senator, you mentioned the word accountability, which is something we have not had for the last four years.
00:30:46.020Are you aware of these messages being sent to officers?
00:30:50.500Mr. 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,
00:30:57.560and that's precisely why we're here today, is that leadership has been unwilling to take accountability.
00:31:03.660It's the time to restore that to our most senior ranks.
00:31:06.580You've written publicly that DI policy is a distraction and have military personnel walking on head shells.
00:31:13.760Do you believe that emails like that, that are essentially threatening both a serving officer and a spouse,
00:31:21.280and claiming that they'll lose their pension, will have a distraction and detract from the lethality?
00:31:29.320Senator, you mentioned the 40s and 50s, and you're precisely right.
00:31:32.700The military was a forerunner in courageous racial integration in ways no other institutions were willing to do.
00:31:39.740I served with men and women of all backgrounds because of the courage of people decades and decades ago.
00:31:45.200Do you believe it's incredibly important?
00:31:46.700However, the DEI policies of today are not the same as what happened back then.
00:31:52.580They're dividing troops inside formations, causing commanders to walk on eggshells, not putting meritocracy first.
00:32:00.760That's the indictment that's made by those serving right now and why we're having this conversation.
00:32:06.300All of your public comments don't talk about meritocracy.
00:32:09.580They talk about liberal democratic efforts that are destroying the military, that those people are our enemies.
00:32:17.760That'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,
00:32:31.400which you've outlined extensively, which would be the worst blow to the professionalism of the United States military,
00:32:38.520and would undercut readiness, undercut retention, because I can see officers receiving these emails beginning to wonder very seriously if they should continue.
00:32:51.740Let me change subject for a moment here.
00:32:57.360You've been instrumental in securing pardons for several convicted war criminals.
00:33:01.860In at least two of these cases, the military personnel who served in combat with these convicted service members were not supportive of the pardons.
00:33:12.960They did their duty as soldiers to report war crimes.
00:33:19.900Your definition of lethality seems to embrace those people who do commit war crimes,
00:33:25.680rather than those who stand up and say, this is not right.
00:33:29.360So, what's the response to your service members who personally witnessed these and took courageously reported them to their superiors?
00:33:40.460Senator, as someone who's led men in combat directly and had to make very difficult decisions,
00:33:46.740I've thought very deeply about the balance between legality and lethality,
00:33:50.800ensuring that the men and women on the front lines have the opportunity to destroy with and close the enemy,
00:33:57.440and that lawyers aren't the ones getting in the way.
00:33:59.740I'm not talking about disavowing the laws of war, or the Geneva Conventions, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
00:34:06.860Sir, I'm talking about restrictive rules of engagement that these men and women behind me understand
00:34:12.160they've lived with on the battlefield, which has made it more difficult to defeat our enemies.
00:34:17.440In many of the cases you're talking about in particular, sir, there was evidence withheld,
00:34:22.320there was prosecutorial misconduct, and as someone who looks case by case and defaults to the warfighter,
00:34:29.120to the men and women with dust on their boots, not the second-guessers in air-conditioned offices in Washington, D.C.,
00:34:34.820I look case by case and was proud to work with President Trump to understand those cases
00:34:40.420and ensure that our warriors are always looked out for.
00:34:43.900Those cases that were adjudicated were adjudicated by who?
00:34:47.580People in Washington or fellow non-commissioned officers who had also served, sacrificed,
00:34:52.900and believed in the ethic of the military?
00:39:20.960We're going to try to play clips from that later.
00:39:23.080We're attacking Pete Hexeth's character, his support of, he said, war criminals, of trashing people in the Pentagon.
00:39:34.760Look, Pete Hexeth is an agent of change.
00:39:37.960This is going to be a very intense hearing.
00:39:39.960They've already asked for the Democrats.
00:39:42.020Jack Reed has already asked for two days.
00:39:45.020He's asked for an extension into tomorrow or maybe Thursday that has not been granted.
00:39:51.020For the audience, understand that this is the kickoff to these confirmation hearings, and they are going to come hard for President Trump's nominees.
00:39:58.880They're going to come hard for Pete Hexeth.
00:40:01.000They're going to come hard for Tulsi Gabbard.
00:40:03.880They're going to come hard for Bobby Kennedy.
00:40:05.940They're going to come hard for Cash Patel.
00:40:07.480And, folks, they've already scheduled two days for Pam Bondi.
00:40:11.760Pam Bondi, who is really a compromise from Gates, and obviously we love Pam.
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