Five takeaways from listening to Pete Hegseth

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, cleared his first hurdle on the road to confirmation: a lengthy – and at times tense – hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

For more than four hours on Tuesday, Hegseth faced questions about his ability to lead the Defense Department, including its three million staff and $849bn (£695bn) budget. And there was Democrats grilled him about sexual assault, infidelity and drinking workplace, most Republicans on the committee came out in favor of him.

Democratic opposition in the deeply divided Senate means Hegseth could lose three Republican votes and still be confirmed.

Here are five key takeaways from Hegseth’s testimony.

From the beginning of his testimony, Hegseth, a military veteran, He emphasized what he called a “warrior Pentagon,” vowing to return the Defense Department’s focus to the strength of America’s military.

“Warfighting, mortality, meritocracy, standards and readiness. That’s it. That’s my job,” he said in his opening remarks.

As the hearing continued, Hegseth became highly critical of policies he felt undermined the effectiveness and “deadliness” of the military, namely efforts aimed at racial and gender diversity.

“This is not the time for equity,” he said, adding that he is against quotas, saying they harm morale.

In what turned out to be a partisan hearing, Democrats repeatedly grilled Hegseth about his past statements that women were not fit to serve in the military.

Questions along these lines from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono and Elizabeth Warren provided some of the most heated moments of the morning.

She spoke about Senator Warren from Massachusetts as she tried to point out her comments about female service members over the years.

“Mr. Hegseth, I quote you on a podcast: ‘Women shouldn’t be in combat,'” Warren said.

Hegseth remained calm, responding that his concern was not about women in combat, but about maintaining the “standards” of the military.

Hegseth, who at 44 would be the youngest defense secretary in decades, also addressed questions about his readiness to lead the defense department, a sprawling agency.

The former Fox News anchor described herself as a “change agent,” saying it was “time to hand the helm to someone with dust in their boots.”

Some Republicans saw Hegseth’s lack of experience as a strength.

“For not coming from the same cocktail party that perennial Washington is used to, I mean you’re a breath of fresh air,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri.

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Hegseth served as an infantry platoon leader in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq, and received the Bronze Star. Hegseth, also a former Fox News TV host, also has military experience in Afghanistan.

However, Democrats pressed Hegseth about his qualifications for top military jobs. The U.S. media report found that Hegseth’s tenure was at the helm of two veteran nonprofits the group ended up in financial turmoil.

Combat veteran Tammy Duckworth looked into whether Hegseth had overseen an audit.

“Senator, in both organizations that I led, we were always completely fiscally responsible,” Hegseth began, before Duckworth cut him off.

“Yes or no? Did you run an audit? Don’t know this answer?” said Duckworth.

Some experts told the BBC they were most surprised by how little Hegseth said about how he would handle the military complexities of the job.

Aside from brief mentions of China and the wars in Ukraine and Russia, the senators did not specifically ask Hegseth about current conflicts and other potential military and strategic rivals.

Those fundamental issues were “dismissed” by questions about Hegseth’s character and capabilities, said former assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities Mara Karlin.

“What’s amazing in the hearing is what the secretary of defense is supposed to do, which is protect the nation and make sure you have a military that’s capable of winning conflicts,” Karlin said.

In 2017, an allegation of sexual assault surfaced in Monterey, California, shortly after Trump took up his role at the Pentagon.

According to a police report, an unnamed woman said Hegseth took her phone and locked the door when she tried to leave her hotel room before sexually assaulting her.

Hegseth has denied wrongdoing. His attorney acknowledged that Hegseth paid an undisclosed sum to keep quiet about the incident.

On Tuesday, Hegseth went on the offensive in particular, condemning the “coordinated smear campaign” organized by the left-wing media. “They want to fire me.”

But at other times during the hearing, Hegseth answered questions about his behavior with passionate references to his Christian faith.

“I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” he said.