January 07, 2025

Warren Lays Out Detailed List of Concerns, Questions in Advance of Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Defense Secretary-Nominee Pete Hegseth

Warren’s 33 Page Letter Contains 72 Questions; Senator Will Seek Answers at January 14 Hearing

“Your confirmation as Secretary of Defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of servicemembers who are willing to sacrifice for our country.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent Defense Secretary-Nominee Pete Hegseth a 33-page letter detailing her concerns with his nomination. She asked Hegseth 72 questions ahead of his Armed Services Committee nomination hearing, requesting a response by no later than January 10, 2025, and asked that he come prepared to answer her questions at his January 14 hearing before the Committee.

“I have serious concerns about your qualifications to serve in this role given your past history, including mismanagement of two non-profit organizations you ran, accusations of sexual assault and drinking problems, your blatant disregard for the contributions of female servicemembers, support for war crimes and torture, threats to politicize the military, advocating for ‘war’ against political enemies, threats to undermine DoD readiness and diversity, and contempt for veterans receiving benefits they earned,” wrote Senator Warren.

Senator Warren’s concerns include:

Hegseth’s record of organizational mismanagement, including exhibits of wasteful spending and inappropriate behavior as head of the nonprofits, Vets for Freedom (VFF) and Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).

“Your record of gross mismanagement of organizations you previously led raises alarm about your ability to manage a department with a budget of almost $850 billion, which accounts for over half of discretionary federal spending,” wrote Senator Warren.
Reports of Hegseth’s excessive drinking, including at least 11 separate incidents in which Hegseth has been described as drinking excessively or inappropriately, including at work.

“At any moment the Secretary of Defense can be called upon to provide critical national security advice to the president. But you have been repeatedly accused of exhibiting a pattern of alcohol abuse,” wrote the senator. “While I believe we should support individuals with substance use disorders, we cannot have a Secretary of Defense, charged with making essential and critical national security decisions involving life and death, who is also struggling with alcohol abuse.”
Allegations of sexual assault and harassment by Hegseth. This follows allegations described in a memo the Trump transition team received that Hegseth “raped a then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at a hotel bar” on October 8, 2017, as well as reports that while Hegseth was president of CVA, he and other members of his management team “sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers.”
Hegseth’s stated opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military, despite the fact that women are critical to our national security and comprise nearly 18 percent of active-duty servicemembers.

“Your rhetoric and behavior toward women would set a tone from the top of DoD that women are not welcome in the military, that their valuable contributions will not be recognized, and that sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other mistreatment of women is acceptable,” wrote Senator Warren.
Hegseth’s vocal threats to politicize and undermine the military, including purging senior military leaders for civilian leaders’ policy positions.
Hegseth’s support for war crimes and the use of torture, including recently saying that he “told his platoon they could ignore directives limiting when they can shoot” and arguing against the rules of war. Hegseth even went as far as to defend troops accused of war crimes for executing captives after the shooting had stopped. Additionally, Hegseth has supported the use of torture, including the use of waterboarding, despite evidence proving that torture is not an effective means of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation.
Hegseth’s threat to diversity in the military. In a book Hegseth published last year, he wrote that, when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, he was initially “mostly ambivalent” but that he “now regrets that passive perspective.” Additionally, he has mocked and misgendered transgender servicemembers, and said that “the dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is ‘our diversity is our strength.’”
Hegseth’s advocacy for ‘war’ against political enemies. In Hegseth’s latest book, he called “the American Left…an existential threat to freedom” and later wrote, “Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.” He later called upon his readers to buy a gun and train to use it.

“Your deliberate choice to frame your differences with a political party as a war calls into question whether you would be able to lead this Department in an apolitical manner,” wrote Senator Warren.
Hegseth’s opposition to working with allies, including calling for NATO to be “scrapped” and expressing “skepticism about the idea that supporting Kyiv is needed to keep Russia from moving into NATO territory.” Hegseth went as far as to call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Putin’s “‘give me my s*** back’ war.” It is unclear how Hegseth will be able to work with Muslim leaders and Muslim-majority countries given that he was described as “drunkenly chanting ‘Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!’” while he was on an official tour for Concerned Veterans for America.
Hegseth’s criticism of veterans benefits, including raising complaints that veterans groups “encourage veterans to apply for every government benefit they can ever get after they leave the service,” referring to benefits that veterans have earned.
Hegseth’s threats to the quality of the Defense of Defense Education Activity agency (DoDEA), given his previous comments that “almost no school — public or private — seems safe” and he has urged Americans to “Get your kids out of government school systems right now if you can.” He has also called for an educational insurgency, insisting that “classical Christian education” is the solution to “the Left having a stranglehold over American education.”

“I am deeply concerned by the many ways in which your past behavior and rhetoric indicates that you are unfit to lead the Department of Defense,” concluded the senator. “Your confirmation as Secretary of Defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of servicemembers who are willing to sacrifice for our country.”

On December 17, 2024, Senator Warren led her colleagues from the Senate Armed Services Committee, including Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), in writing to Susan Wiles, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Chief of Staff, about whether Pete Hegseth’s attitudes toward women, including his opposition to women in combat, and allegations of sexual assault and harassment, disqualify him to be the next Secretary of Defense.

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