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

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) mentioned 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 subsequent protection secretary by President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump’s transition crew is actively courting lawmakers to assist verify Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, amid a rising scandal over previous allegations towards him of sexual assault. The media lately obtained particulars from a 2017 police report, wherein an unidentified lady accused Hegseth of assaulting her at a political convention in California. Hegseth has insisted the encounter was consensual, noting no fees had been filed towards him. The lady was paid an undisclosed sum as a part of a settlement in 2023.

Duckworth mentioned, nonetheless, 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 instructed 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.”

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.”

“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.”