Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth faced an excruciating hearing by the senate for his confirmation in which several aspects of his life, his past comments were scrutinized. While Hegseth is not new to controversy, a video is going viral now claiming that Hegseth forgot one of his kids’ names as he was introducing his family. “Sorry, it’s a lot of them,” Hegseth said as he fumbled on Rex’s name. But he did not actually forget the name. He just got stuck which he admitted and overcame.
Out of the seven children, four are Hegseth’s biological and three are his stepchildren. He shares one daughter with his current wife Jennifer and shares three other kids with his second wife Samantha Deering. Hegseth is a stepdad to Jennifer’s three children.
Questions on sexual assault, infidelity
Pete Hegseth is one of the most controversial candidates in the incoming Trump cabinet. He was accused of sexually assaulting a woman and then paying her years later. Hegseth said it was a consensual act but he was blackmailed into paying the woman, Though Hegseth was not charged, the accusations surfaced after he was picked by Trump as his defense secretary.
At the hearing too, the allegations came with Dem reps questioning him on that incident.
“I am shocked that you would stand here and say you’re completely cleared,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said.
“Those were false charges, it was fully investigated and I’ve been completely cleared,” Hegseth responded.
“You’ve admitted that you had sex at that hotel in October 2017,” Kaine said. “You have admitted that you had sex while you were married to wife two after you just had fathered a child by wife three. You’ve admitted that,” Kaine emphasized, suggesting that, “if it had been a sexual assault, that would be disqualifying to be secretary of defense.”
“It was a false claim then, it’s a false claim now,” Hegseth said.
On women in combat roles
Sen. Joni Ernst, who is a female veteran of the Iowa National Guard, pressed Hegseth on his prior comments speaking out against women serving in combat roles. “I did serve in Kuwait and missions in Iraq, so it is incredibly important I stress — and I hope that it confirmed you continue to stress — that every man and woman has opportunity to serve their country in uniform and do so at any level, as long as they are meeting the standards that are set forward,” the Iowa Republican said.
“I want to know again — let’s make it very clear for everyone here today — as Secretary of Defense, will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat?”
Hegseth agreed, saying that “women will have access to ground combat roles, given combat standards remain high.”
