Hegseth in opening statement vows to foster a 'warrior culture' at the Pentagon

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00:00On Tuesday, Donald Trump's nominee for defence secretary faced the Senate committee tasked

00:05with validating his appointment.

00:07He was cheered into the room by supporters, but when he sat down, Pete Hegseth took quite

00:12a kicking over his advocacy in favour of practices classed as torture and championing convicted

00:18war criminals, as well as his alleged financial mismanagement and personal misconduct at the

00:24helm of two veterans advocacy groups.

00:27Mr. Hegstead, you are the ninth nominee for secretary of defence that I have had the honour

00:30to consider as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

00:34I have voted in favour of all your predecessors, including those in the first Trump administration.

00:39Unfortunately, you lack the character and composure and competence to hold the position

00:44of secretary of defence.

00:48When called upon to make his case to the committee, the Iraq war veteran and former Fox News presenter

00:53suggested the Pentagon under Joe Biden had fallen into decay.

00:59As I've said to many of you in private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position,

01:03the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department

01:08of Defence.

01:09He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on lethality, meritocracy, war fighting, accountability

01:19and readiness.

01:21His call for meritocracy, a rallying cry against the diversity initiatives he says have weakened

01:27the US military.

01:28He has even gone so far as to say women should not take part in combat and faced allegations

01:33of sexual assault, a record not lost on democratic lawmakers or on hecklers at his hearing.

01:44In recent months, he has also been plagued with news reports that he was regularly drunk

01:48while appearing on Fox & Friends, a Fox News show that Donald Trump regularly phoned into.

01:54The Democrats on their own will be unable to prevent Hegseth's appointment without some

01:58Republican senators breaking ranks to oppose him.

02:02Other contentious nominees to face Senate hearings in the coming weeks include anti-vaxxer Robert

02:06F. Kennedy Jr. for Health Secretary and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for Director of National

02:11Intelligence who will face questions over her 2017 meeting with deposed Syrian dictator

02:17Bashar al-Assad.

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