'You degrade them': Gillibrand rips Trump defense nominee over 'harmful' comments on women in military

On Tuesday morning, January 14, confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth — President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick for defense secretary — got underway. And some of the most aggressive questioning came from Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-New York).

Although Gillibrand politely thanked Hegseth "for your service" in the military, she made it clear that she had "many concerns about [his] record" and the former Fox News host's past statements about women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Gillibrand told Hegseth, "They are so hurtful to the men and women who are currently serving in the U.S. military, harmful to morale, harmful to good order and discipline. If you are saying that women shouldn't be serving in the military — and I'm going to read you your quotes because the quotes themselves are terrible — you will have to change how you see women to do this job well. And I don't know if you are capable of that."

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The senator noted specific comments from Hegseth that "denigrated active-duty service members."

"We have hundreds, hundreds of women who are currently in the infantry — lethal members of our military serving in the infantry," Gillibrand told Hegseth. "But you degrade them. You say: We need moms, but not in the military, especially in combat units so specific to Senator [Tom] Cotton's (R-AR) question."

The senator stressed that the training for women entering the military is, in fact, quite rigorous.

Hegseth maintained that he has "never disparaged women serving in the military" and is only opposed to having "standards lowered." But Gillibrand hammered away at him relentlessly over past comments saying that women should not serve in combat roles.

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