Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a high-profile Democrat and veteran, said that Donald Trump’s secretary of defense pick, Pete Hegseth, won’t meet with her ahead of his confirmation hearing.
“Right now, I’m waiting to meet with him, and he’s not agreed to any time to meet with us until after the hearing,” Duckworth, who served in combat in the Iraq War and had both of her legs amputated after a grenade hit the helicopter she was copiloting, told NOTUS on Wednesday. “I’m somewhat disappointed that he’s not making himself available.”
In a statement to NOTUS, a Hegseth aide said “we reached out to several [Senate Armed Services Committee] Democrats well before Thanksgiving, and those offices did not respond to meet with Mr. Hegseth in December.” The statement went on to say that the only Democratic senator who responded “to initial requests” was Sen. John Fetterman, who met with Hegseth last month. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, also met with Hegseth on Wednesday.
Duckworth is one of two women veterans in the Senate, and sits on the Armed Services Committee, which is set to hold a confirmation hearing on Hegseth’s nomination on Jan. 14.
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Duckworth’s office did not respond to additional questions from NOTUS, but she told NOTUS she’d like to question Hegseth about “a number of things,” including his previous comments on women in combat. Hegseth has said he doesn’t think they should serve in combat roles, though he more recently called women in combat “some of our greatest warriors.”
Other Senate Democrats have also expressed a desire to meet with the embattled former Fox News anchor, who has been scrutinized over his past behavior since Trump announced him as his pick for defense secretary. He faces an allegation of sexual assault that allegedly took place in 2017 (Hegseth denies wrongdoing and was never charged) and of a pattern of excessive drinking (he has denied having a substance abuse problem and promised to stop drinking if confirmed).
His past conduct has put his nomination on a rocky path through the Senate — though he seems to have shored up Republican support — as senators from both sides of the aisle have shown interest in getting answers to their questions.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, also on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters Wednesday that he’s “disappointed” in Hegseth’s lack of meetings with Democratic senators before the confirmation process begins.
“I had a meeting scheduled that he canceled,” Sen. Gary Peters, another Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday of Hegseth. Peters’ office did not respond to additional questions from NOTUS.
“There is always a delicate dance of scheduling 100+ meetings while accommodating the Senate schedule, hearing preparation and now the new day of observance for President Carter,” said the Hegseth aide in the statement. “But any claims that Mr. Hegseth is ‘declining’ meetings with Democrat senators are 100% false. He looks forward to continuing to meet with Senators in the coming days and weeks.”
Fetterman said he’s not ruling out supporting Hegseth. Other Democrats have questioned Hegseth’s fitness for the defense secretary role.
Reed did not comment when NOTUS asked if he planned to question Hegseth about any particular issues during the meeting. After the meeting, Politico reported that Reed said it “did not relieve my concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and raised more questions than answers.”
In addition to looking for prehearing meetings with Hegseth, Democrats have also requested answers from him in other ways on a number of key issues.
In a letter to Hegseth this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, also an Armed Services Committee member, asked that he provide written answers ahead of his Jan. 14 hearing to more than 70 questions, including whether he’s received treatment for substance abuse issues and whether he plans to call for the removal of specific military officers.
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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