A senator told Hegseth: "I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations."

Sen. Blumenthal grilled SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth on his qualifications despite reaffirming current support for the job SecDef Lloyd Austin has done.

Hegseth wants to restore honor to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, the native North Carolinian whose name was replaced at Fort Bragg last year. | Opinion

Pete Hegseth has made it through his confirmation hearing and now appears to be on a glide path for confirmation as secretary of defense. The hearing, which lasted four hours, subjected Hegseth to questioning before the Senate’s Armed Services Committee in an attempt to gauge the Trump nominee’s worldview and qualifications to run a nuclear-armed entity with a nearly one-trillion-dollar budget.

Awkward exchanges about the defense secretary hopeful’s past were plentiful as Democrats went after the first embattled Trump pick to face a confirmation hearing.

When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was — to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense,” Pete Hegseth said in his confirmation

Wicker did not specify what day the vote would take place, but said it could be as late as next Thursday if Senate Democrats do not allow the chamber to speed up the confirmation process.

A telling moment in the supremely depressing Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, the Fox News personality who is Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, came right at the beginning, when the former Republican senator Norm Coleman introduced him.

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, underwent his Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, where senators scrutinized his fitness for the role due to his past as a combat veteran and TV host.

Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon endured fierce Democratic grilling over everything from his inexperience, alleged drinking and his past opposition to women in combat to emerge largely unscathed among Republicans at his confirmation hearing.

Pete Hegseth vowed to foster a "warrior culture" at the Pentagon and be a "change agent." He did not address the allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking, focusing instead on his combat experience.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, said in his Senate confirmation hearing that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel were the direct result of President Biden’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.