Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) told ABC News on Sunday morning that Pete Hegseth should be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, citing a conversation with the former Fox News host in which Hegseth shared that several U.S. service members told him his nomination had inspired them to stay in the military. Hagerty argued that this anecdote demonstrated that Hegseth’s leadership would enhance the military’s readiness and dismissed a 2017 sexual assault allegation against the 44-year-old as irrelevant.
On ABC’s This Week, anchor Jonathan Karl questioned the Tennessee Republican about a California sex assault case in which the SECDEF pick was never charged and which he has denied through his attorney. Karl asked, “You know, my understanding is Donald Trump didn’t even know about those allegations until after he named him. Is that your understanding?”
“Jon, all these are, as you said, are allegations. It’s amazing how this comes out. Pete is a very talented individual. I talked with him earlier this week. He told me, Jon, about how many people had written to him and said, look, I was thinking about getting out. You know, we have a huge recruitment problem, a huge retention problem in the military,” Hagarty responded.
“‘I was thinking about getting out. But now that you’ve come to lead us, Pete, I’m going to stay in.’ That’s the type of inspirational leader we need to see. Don’t let these allegations distract us. What we need is real significant change. The Pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than they have lethality in the past four years. We need to get back to business. And I think Pete is just the person to do it,” the Tennessee Republican added.
Meanwhile, the Trump transition team is reportedly compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal, with plans to assess whether they could face court-martial for their roles, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the initiative. Officials within the transition are considering establishing a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal, focusing on who was involved in the decision-making process, how the military executed the operation, and whether the military leaders could be charged with serious offenses, including treason, the sources told NBC News.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” the person with knowledge of the plan said. Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, is helping lead the effort, according to the sources. The initiative is being framed as a comprehensive review of both how the U.S. entered the war in Afghanistan and how the country ultimately executed its withdrawal.
Trump has called the withdrawal a “humiliation” and “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.” However, it remains unclear what legal grounds would justify “treason” charges, given that the military officers involved were following orders from President Joe Biden to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
A 2022 independent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction held both the Trump and Biden administrations accountable for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021. Trump had reached an agreement with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, including approximately 13,000 troops, and to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison. The Biden administration completed the withdrawal but severely misjudged the capability of Afghan government forces to defend themselves against the Taliban.
Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Hegseth, has strongly criticized the withdrawal, stating that the U.S. ultimately lost the war and squandered billions of dollars. In his book “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth wrote, “The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example.”
“These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops, and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily,” he wrote. “And, to this moment, they keep their jobs. Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values — by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas. They are an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.