Hegseth Denies Saying Women Don't Belong In Combat? Roll Tape

Trump’s pick to be Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, made an appearance on Hannity’s show on Fox this Monday, and was asked about Sen. Joni Ernst, who made some mealymouthed remarks about supporting “Pete through this process,” and for Hegseth to get “a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”

I’m not sure who she thinks are “anonymous sources” since Hegseth is fully aware of who the woman is that signed the NDA with him, but I digress. Ernst previously said she hadn’t made up her mind yet on Hegseth, and saying she supports him having a hearing is not the same as saying she’ll vote for him.

Ernst is a combat veteran, so Hegseth’s remarks about women in combat couldn’t be sitting well with her. Here’s a reminder of what Hegseth said just a month ago on a podcast:

He also declared that female soldiers should not be allowed to fight on the front lines.

“I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

Now he’s trying to backtrack. Here’s the exchange with Hannity.

HANNITY: Talk about, let’s talk about the meeting with Joni Ernst today.

HEGSETH: Absolutely, Sean. It was a great meeting. I mean, people don’t really know this. I’ve known Senator Ernst for over 10 years.

I knew her when she was a state senator running to be the first female combat veteran and we supported her in that effort and have continued to because you get into these meetings and you get to listen to senators is an amazing advise and consent process.

And you hear how thoughtful, serious and substantive they are on these key issues as they pertain to our defense department. And Joni Ernst is front and center on that.

So able to have phone calls and meetings, time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important.

And the fact that she’s willing to support me through this process means a lot. And I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don’t support women in the military.

Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women who serve, raise their right hand to defend this country and love our nation. Want to defend that flag and they do it every single day around the globe. So I’m not presuming anything.

But after President Trump asked me to be his Secretary of Defense, should I get the opportunity to do that, I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women for the amazing contributions they make in our military.

Yeah, good luck with that. You can’t un-ring that bell.

Pete Hegseth 5 days ago: “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.”

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 12, 2024 at 8:50 PM

I look forward to the hearings as well. We get to watch all of Hegseth’s dirty laundry aired in public.