Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President Trump’s Erratic And Unqualified Nominee For Secretary Of Defense, Pete Hegseth
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump’s extremely erratic and highly unqualified nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Yesterday, 51 Republican Senators voted to advance one of the most erratic, unqualified, and unfit Cabinet nominees we have ever seen in modern times.
Pete Hegseth is, possibly, just a few hours away from becoming the next Secretary of Defense, overseeing the greatest military in the world. He has neither the character, the experience, or the judgement required by the job.
If there is one word that should never describe a Secretary of Defense, in this important position, it is “erratic.” But that is the one word that describes Mr. Hegseth best.
Before we vote today I hope my Republican colleagues think carefully, one last time, about the risks – to the American people, and particularly the men and women in our armed forces – of confirming somebody like Mr. Hegseth.
I hope my Republican colleagues understand the danger of entrusting our military to someone whose background has not been fully vetted. We know much of his past remains uninvestigated. We know Mr. Hegseth refused to meet with Democrats on the Armed Services Committee, save for the Ranking Member.
And how can that be? This is such an important job, and he's afraid to meet with Democrats on the committee? He's going to have much tougher adversaries than that, in places like China and Russia and Iran and North Korea. How could he avoid that?
We know that new allegations keep coming up, as recently as last night, compounding the word erratic when it describes his behavior. This is not the way to vet a nominee in such an important position as Secretary of Defense.
When you’re the one responsible for leading our armed forces, erratic behavior isn’t just a character flaw – it could mean the difference between entering or avoiding a military conflict, between life and death for our troops.
We all want what is best for our troops. We all know that voting for Secretary of Defense is one of the most important votes we are going to take all year.
It mystifies me that, of all people President Trump could have nominated as Secretary of Defense, he picked someone as flawed, as deeply flawed, as Mr. Hegseth.
Is Pete Hegseth really the best we have to lead the greatest military in the world?
Is this man, with a history of excessive drinking, really the guy you want on the other end of the phone at 2:00 a.m. in a crisis, in control of the nuclear codes?
Is this man, with a mile-long list of allegations of abusing, degrading, and harassing women, the one we want leading our men and women into battle?
Is this man, who failed to manage the finances of veterans’ nonprofit groups, who drove his organizations into debt to the point where he could not even pay creditors, the person we want in charge of the Pentagon’s budget?
I want this last point to sink in. DOD is a colossal organization. It has a workforce of three million people and an annual budget of over $850 billion. Is Pete Hegseth, really the person we want overseeing an organization as complex as DOD, a man who couldn’t even manage the finances of a small nonprofit?
And yet, they pick him! It's unbelievable. He was pressured to resign from these small nonprofits, and now he's supposed to run the Department of Defense, with millions of people under his jurisdiction and billions and billions of dollars? The odds are not low that he'd mismanage the Pentagon's budget, if he mismanaged small organizations.
Worst of all, his erratic behavior could rear its ugly head. Because we know when people who have a history of erratic behavior go into high pressure situations, it makes them more, not less, erratic.
I refuse to believe that Pete Hegseth is the best that Republicans can come up with for Secretary of Defense. There are surely other individuals – plenty of others – the president could nominate that would be conservative voices. We would disagree with their views, but at least we'd have to admit they're qualified. I can think of some Republican Senators who would certainly make a stronger candidate than Mr. Hegseth!
I hope my Republican colleagues think carefully, today, about the consequences of this vote. I hope they do the right thing, and recognize there are much, much, much better choices for Secretary of Defense than Mr. Hegseth.
The credibility of the Senate – I think the credibility of the Republican majority – is on the line with today’s vote.
The wellbeing of our troops stationed around the world is on the line with today’s vote.
In short, we should not, cannot, must not elevate someone as erratic as Pete Hegseth to Secretary of Defense. We can and must – must – do better. I urge my colleagues to vote no.
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