Pete Hegseth affirmation listening to set for in the present day as Trump’s protection decide faces senators

Two Democratic members of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Mark Kelly, penned an op-ed in Army Instances on Tuesday saying Hegseth it’s “extraordinarily unclear” that Hegseth is the particular person to guide the Pentagon.

“One fast look at his resume and considerations over his lack of expertise and {qualifications} grow to be apparent,” they wrote. 

Duckworth and Kelly are each fight veterans, they usually word that “army experiences aren’t necessities for the job, however his civilian management expertise is not only restricted, additionally it is fraught with proof that he’s not an efficient or trusted chief.”

They listed what they take into account among the troubling elements of Hegseth’s biography, together with that he allegedly “financially mismanaged two veterans political organizations” and that his workers there stated he “misused funds, was incessantly drunk in entrance of them and fostered an setting the place sexual harassment was a problem.”

Duckworth and Kelly word that Hegseth “can have the possibility to reply for all of this at his affirmation listening to, together with the chance to share what, if any, views he has on the vital packages and choices that can be awaiting the subsequent particular person to have this job.” However they write that “as of proper now, the one protection insurance policies he has made clear are his beliefs that our army’s range is a weak spot, not a power, and that girls mustn’t serve in fight” — positions they describe as “not simply mistaken, however harmful.”

“The fact is that the world is just too harmful of a spot, and our service members’ lives too treasured, to decrease the bar,” they write.