Tammy Duckworth: Pete Hegseth Only Chosen For Defense Secretary Because Trump Thinks He Looks Good On TV

Pete Hegseth, a U.S. Army veteran and former Fox News personality, has become a lightning rod for controversy. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated him to run the Defense Department, but Hegseth is facing allegations around rape and alcohol problems and has been lambasted for and comments in which he says opposes women serving in combat roles. Hegseth has hit Capitol Hill in recent days, courting Republican Senators as he seeks to keep his nomination alive.

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Il.), a military veteran who lost both her legs during service in Iraq, took particular ire at Hegseth’s comments about women.

“Whether you go with his comments in November, which was very much sweeping, saying that women don't belong in combat – well, you know what? Our military could not do its job without the 225,000 women who are currently serving in uniform,” Duckworth told ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath. “We would not be combat ready and we could not truly defend this nation and take the fight to the enemies of America if we did not have the female service members.”

Hegseth has recently attempted to reverse his stance on women serving in combat, calling his past comments “misconstrued.” Duckworth was unimpressed with those comments.

“He is saying that, no, no, he only meant women and special forces, special operators like Green Berets and Navy SEALs and the like,” she said. “Well, that shows that he's still completely out of touch because he says that it's because the women meet lower standards than the men, when in fact, the women who are graduating from SEAL school or who are graduating from Ranger School are actually meeting the exact same standards as the men.”

Duckworth, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also described Hegseth’s service as a U.S. Army Captain as lacking in sufficient experience to run the Pentagon, and posited that he was only chosen because he’s someone “that Donald Trump thinks looks good on TV.”

“He was a platoon leader – that's a 40-man unit,” Duckworth said. “And now he wants to be in charge of a 3 million personnel organization with a budget of over $9.25 billion. We wouldn't give that job to anybody else that had such few qualifications.”

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