US Senator and military veteran Tammy Duckworth has criticised Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump‘s nominee for defence secretary, for his views on girls serving in fight roles.
Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a fight veteran who misplaced each legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq, appeared on CBS Information’s Face the Nation on Sunday. She argued that Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox Information host, was unqualified for the place attributable to his stance on girls within the navy.
“Mr Hegseth shouldn’t be certified for the place as a result of he doesn’t perceive, apparently, even after having served, that ladies are vitally essential to an efficient navy,” Duckworth mentioned.
She pressured the essential function of girls within the navy, particularly amid present recruitment challenges.
“With the recruiting challenges we’re having proper now, if we have been to tug all these girls out and say you may’t go into fight, we might face a extreme personnel disaster within the navy,” she added.
Duckworth additionally criticised Hegseth’s decrease rank throughout his service, saying, “He was a reasonably low-ranking man within the navy, and he by no means had a command place… He was a platoon chief, I believe, a couple of times, however he by no means even commanded an organization. It is a man who’s inordinately unqualified for the place.”
Duckworth retired as a lieutenant colonel after turning into one of many first girls to fly fight missions throughout the Iraq Conflict. On the hand, Hegseth retired as a serious.
Hegseth beforehand mentioned on a podcast that girls in fight roles don’t profit the navy, claiming, “The whole lot about women and men serving collectively makes the state of affairs extra sophisticated, and complication in fight means casualties are worse. I’m straight up simply saying that we must always not have girls in fight roles — it hasn’t made us simpler, hasn’t made us extra deadly, and has made combating extra sophisticated.”
Hegseth has confronted controversies, together with a previous sexual assault allegation, which he settled in a civil case whereas denying any wrongdoing, and claims of a supremacist tattoo on his bicep.
