Oppose Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense

Fox News host and TV personality Pete Hegseth has been nominated by Trump to lead the US Department of Defense (DoD). The Secretary of Defense is responsible for overseeing all functions of the U.S. military and national defense, which includes the work of 3.4 million service members and civilian employees and an annual budget of over $840B, making it America’s largest government agency.

As with many of Trump’s choices for high-ranking government positions, Pete Hegseth has a deeply troubling history that demonstrates he does not have the moral character and background needed to lead an expansive and sophisticated agency. Some key examples:

• He lacks the experience needed for the job. Senior Pentagon officials are sounding the alarm that our national security will be in danger if he is confirmed.

• He has creditably been accused of raping an attendee at a 2017 Republican women’s event, to whom he later paid an undisclosed sum to keep the assault secret.

• He has documented ties to the Christian Nationalism movement, with known association with Christian-nationalist minister Doug Willson and has at least two large tattoos that are symbols of the movement;

• In 2016 he was terminated from a non-profit organization he led after an internal investigation found him guilty of “financial mismanagement, sexual misconduct, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job”.

• Several of Hegseth’s colleagues at Fox News claim he smelled of alcohol dozens of times while at work, some instances as recently as just a month ago.

• He holds outdated beliefs about women in the military, saying in an interview in November “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles”.

• In a scathing 2018 email from his mother, she called him “​​an abuser of women” and told him to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself”.

Clearly, Hegseth does not have the judgement, steadiness, or the needed experience to lead one of the largest bureaucracies in the world. Demand your Senator vote against his confirmation for Secretary of Defense.