three years ago and this will be a test. i don't think we'll go to the soap opera things anymore. the audience on the other side of that camera is done with it. >> america is done with it? i hope that's true. i don't know what to expect from senator warren or blumenthal. i have high hopes. >> steve: i have a feeling they won't make it easy for him. >> ainsley: they aren't. he will be the one they'll target the most. this will be the first hearing. more people will be watching this one than all the others. i think they'll put on a show. >> maybe he is confirmed. >> brian: congratulations, will. >> i will lean on you guys. we'll go through the process but have fun. >> lawrence: you made texas proud. >> steve: we'll be watching. >> ainsley: where there is a will there is a way. >> bill: good morning. three big stories we're watching. senate armed services committee

about to hold a confirmation hearing for pete hegseth. the first of a parade of hearings in minutes. d.o.j. releasing volume one of special counsel jack smith's report on president-elect trump. a lot in it. andy mccarthy will tell us what to know. dangerous winds threatening to ignite new fires in southern california. a new one overnight. good morning, i'm bill hemmer and we'll get it to live here in new york city. >> dana: that's a mouthful. we have a lot going on. a lot for you. i'm dana perino and this is "america's newsroom." excited to be with you this morning. wind and fire warnings are stretching up and down the california coast as crews struggle to contain the fires that have killed at least 24 people and burned more than 60 square miles. jonathan hunt is reporting live from pacific palisades the site of the largest fire. what do you see this morning, jonathan? >> good morning, dana. there is anxiety and fear here in the pacific palisades and across a huge swath of los

angeles county and neighboring ventura county with the national weather service warning the santa ana winds and extreme fire danger are back in effect now. that warning came into effect about two hours ago. it is the precise and same warning we had exactly one week ago when we all know now the damage that this combination of winds and flames wrought a week ago here and in other parts of l.a. everybody remembers all too well the flames that were ripping through house after house after house and there is a great fear that more fires might be sparked by these winds today, which could be gusting up to 70 miles-per-hour. it is almost impossible for firefighters stretched thin already to fight those kind of winds and flames combination. now, there is also a question -- growing questions how this fire in the pacific palisades that

was so destructive started. we have interesting video from our colleague anita vogel. this video was shot at 1:00 a.m. new year's day. a fire in the palisades highlands where last week's fire started. it was sparked by fireworks being set off at midnight new year's eve. now that fire was in almost the exact same spot where the devastating one started one week later. a lot of experts are saying it may well be that embers from that new year's day fire actually resparked with those santa ana winds and turned what is paradise on earth into hell on earth. dana and bill. >> dana: thank you so much. >> bill: let's get the forecast what's going on with meteorologist janice dean. >> 24 to 38 hours we have for firefighters to brace themselves. people are on edge. dealing with santa ana winds almost hurricane force. 100 miles-per-hour winds last

week this time. 70 miles-per-hour will hinder efforts and we already have another fire burn you mentioned that in the ventura county area. the pal is aids fire 35% contained and eaton not all contained. the winds ramp up in the next couple of hours the potential for more explosive fire danger not only igniting fires possible but spreading the fires. high wind warnings up, wind gusts up to 70 miles-per-hour. a terrible situation. they are calling it a particularly dangerous situation, the same warning that they had this time last week. we didn't have any fires on the map this time last week and now we're dealing with explosive fire potential not only today but wednesday. i will tell you as we get into friday, onshore winds begin and brings up the humidity and winds will die down.

we need to get through the next 24 hours. >> bill: thanks, j.d. >> dana: back to the other top story. less than 30 minutes from now the senate armed services committee will hold a confirmation hearing for pete hegseth. it fueled controversy and heading into a potentially explosive hearing. no doubt he is prepared. pete will call himself a change agent in his prepared opening remarks. democrats are expected to go after his personal life and whether he is fit to lead the u.s. military. joining us now is one of the senators questioning pete, alaska republican dan sullivan. senator, a lot of these nominations were announced right away after president trump won the election. it has been a little bit of hurry up and wait but now the hearing will begin. what is the tone and tenor you expect pete hegseth to bring to his opening remarks? >> i think he will have a really strong opening statement and it will be focused on what we need right now in america, in our military, at the pentagon. that's a focus on the warrior

culture, lethality, reviving our defense industrial base and winning wars. and these are all things, by the way, neglected by four years of joe biden's pentagon where they focused on woke issues. bill, you and i talked about how the department of defense, the department of navy can't build ships anymore. they are focused more on climate change than ship building. that is the change agent that we need. i think his opening statement will be really strong and i'm looking forward to this hearing. it will be important. >> bill: democrats will put up a fight. chuck schumer describing how that might go. >> there are a lot of very, very troubling questions about the hegseth nomination and at the hearings our democratic side is going to question just about all of these troubling aspects. he is a nominee that comes with a lot of baggage.

>> bill: senator, does he have the votes for confirmation? >> i think he has the votes. republicans are united on peace through strength, rebuilding our military. remember, bill, term, obama cut defense spending by 25%. crushed military readiness and president trump came in working with republican senators and we rebuilt the military. joe biden has done the same thing, four years in a row despite a very dangerous world joe biden has put forward inflation adjusted defense department cuts and president trump ran on peace through strength. that's what we are going to do with him and pete hegseth. i think that's what the american people want. it is a dangerous world. we don't need a woke military, we need a lethal and stronger military. >> dana: president biden gave a

speech yesterday he is leaving president trump a really good situation on the world stage. watch him here. >> president biden: kamala and i took office our nation had become stronger at home, stronger in the world and now america is more capable and i would argue better prepared than we've been in a long, long time. over the next administration that is what we're handing it to. even so it's clear, my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play. >> dana: a short amount of time but get your reaction to that before we head into pete hegseth's hearing. >> with all due respect joe biden is delusional. his weakness inspired the attacks on israel, the attacks on ukraine, china's aggression in the south china sea and taiwan strait. biden ex cueded weakness from day one and the disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan. the world is a much more

dangerous place after four years of biden. every american knows that and one of the reasons that president trump won resoundingly. >> bill: senator, thank you for your time. that hearing begins in about 22 minutes. we'll be watching. thank you. >> thank you. another story breaking overnight. chinese officials are in talks about selling tiktok to elon musk. tiktok has five days left to sell u.s. operations or possibly face the possibility of being banned here in the u.s. bloomberg news citing sources. there is an option. musk social platform x would take over. tiktok says the chinese government has no bearing on global operations, tiktok calls this report pure fiction. >> dana: it's one of those things as a former spokesperson i look at that and say it's pure fiction until it's reality.

it sounds like a plausible situation. i don't know for sure. that's what i think. >> bill: ruling from the supreme court coming at some point, too, okay. we'll watch that and we're watching this. jack smith at 1:00 a.m. east coast time special counsel says he is standing up for the rule of law. his final report on donald trump and the actions of january 6th are out. the overnight drop in andy mccarthy's evaluation of that next.

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>> dana: moments after the clock struck midnight the justice department releases volume one of former special counsel jack smith east report in president trump's election case. david spunt is live with the details. >> we've covered special

counsel, former special counsel jack smith for more than two years. the report released after midnight was his last act in that role. he officially resigned last friday from the justice department two days after submitting this nearly 150 page report volume one of a two volume report to attorney general merrick garland. the soonest garland could release it midnight because of a hold put on the release of volume one by judge cannon, a trump appointed federal judge in florida. she denied a last minute attempt about trump's legal team and we have this report. smith goes on to write he considered charging donald trump with insurrection but decided against it a attention the charge was not as well tested in court saying the office would first have had to approve the violence at the capitol on january 6, 2021, constituted an insurrection against the united states or prove that trump assisted in the insurrection or gave aid or comfort there. while he never got to take donald trump to trial the

election interference case in d.c. had it gone before a jury would have resulted in a guilty verdict. but for his -- the evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial. volume one of a two volume report. volume two deals with the classified document case. merrick garland on a job a handful of more days he will not release it. two of trump's co-defendant are facing prosecution and said it would be unfair and tip the scales of justice. >> bill: andy mccarthy, former assistant u.s. attorney fox news contributor, good morning. trump a bit earlier. to show you how desperate jack smith is he released his fake findings at 1:00 in the morning. your headline national review as midnight strike. garland releases smith's january 6th report on trump. the hold was lifted at midnight and explain why it happened in

the middle of the night. why not indict the other six co-conspirators and also why no proof of an insurrection? explain why both are important, andy. >> in describing how strong he thought his case was, smith goes into elaborate detail about these different schemes. the pressure on the state election officials and legislators. the pressure on members of congress, the pressure on mike pence, the vice president then and so on. in each of those schemes, bill, there are people who are -- we now know they are lawyers because the justice department rules they are not named in the indictment but we know who they are. they are closely scheming with trump and doing most of the leg work in each of these schemes as smith describes them. yet it is not -- he goes on to

say we couldn't charge because trump became president and we have these rules that you can't indict or prosecute a sitting president. none of those other people are government officials. none of them had immunity. if he really thought that he had a strong case, he would have seen them indicted. >> bill: he argued he could have gotten a conviction. prosecutors will always argue that. should this have been made public, yes or no? >> i think, bill, the custom has become that they are made public by the regulation they are supposed to be confidential reports. it really doesn't matter. three weeks before the election he did a 2,000 page talk about his report. there is nothing in the report that was different from that. >> bill: david weiss final report on hunter biden. other presidents have pardoned family members but none taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants of the d.o.j. based solely on false

october sayingss to which biden's attorney says the investigation that hunter biden is a cautionary tale of abuse of prosecutorial power that reflects the letter of president biden when he said it was selective, unfair, raw politics. weiss is feeding into, well -- he is feeding into what weiss concluded as it relates to hunter biden. how do you see it? >> weiss was in on the problem until he got religion at the end. the problem here wasn't selective prosecution, it was selective favorable treatment that weiss was the chief person who gave to hunter biden for years in this investigation to the point of sitting on his hands while the statute of limitations ate a lot of his cases. when the sweetheart plea blew up and he was humiliated, then he turned around and prosecuted the president's son but that case should have been brought years before. >> bill: andy, thank you.

maybe this wraps up both. we'll see. thank you, nice to see, andy, for your analysis. back to dana. >> dana: l.a. the devastation from the fires ravaging la county is unfolding before our eyes. 24 people killed, more than 40,000 acres have burned and strong winds are threatening to fuel more flames. our next guest is the owner of the historic ran much in altadena. he watched in disbelief as the flames swallowed everything in sight and erased his artist father's life work. i'm very sorry for what you went through. whats the scope and scale of your loss from your point of view? >> we have probably lost about 80% of our -- of the structures my father had built out of recycled materials and also in a conventional manner. maybe 70 to 80% have been burned

and we still have two houses, the main house and another house are remaining. so we have something to work from. >> dana: tell me a little bit about what you did at the t ranch and why it was something much more special than just a private ranch. >> well, my father came there in 1946 and he was a survivor of the armenian genocide. he was a muralist in the 30s, an artist but he didn't want to be limited to just paintings and he built a number of structures out of recycled materials because he felt that artists should also not limit themselves to just being artists. so he was interested in architecture and building and all kinds of construction and he would get materials that people were discarding and use them in an interesting way to build many

different structures on the property. it's hard to describe. >> dana: we have this other breaking news on the other side i have to get to. i did read were you able to get most of the animals to safety that were on the ranch? >> absolutely we were, yes. >> dana: there was a bridge that was burned out and i read that there were some animals on the other side. do you need help getting food to those animals? >> we were able to get the animals -- we had help from an animal control to get those animals out and they are now safe, yes. they have food. >> dana: well, so you have your lives and those of the beating hearts that you took care of, those animals. a lot of these things cannot be replaced but i can see that the mission of what your father started will continue through you and your loved ones. thank you so much for being with us. we'll get to breaking news.

stay in touch. >> we have a gofundme. thank you. >> dana: thank you. we'll put that up on the screen. thank you so much. >> bill: our best to you and your family. to the other end of the country, pete hegseth arrived with his wife jen walking down the hallway heading into a hearing that will begin in seven minutes' time. when it does begin you'll hear from roger wicker the chairman from mississippi. jack reed is the ranking democrat out of rhode island. opening statements from michael waltz and norm coleman and from pete hegseth which republican senator dan sullivan said is a striking statement and we will want to hear that as we listen together. elizabeth warren says she has 100 questions for pete hegseth. see how many she gets in when the hearing begins in six minutes. for 44 years and i'm from flowery branch, georgia.

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>> dana: president-elect trump's nominee for defense secretary pete hegseth arriving in the hearing room to applause and cheers. his confirmation hearing about to get underway any moment. a big grassroots push to get support for pete. you saw that in a big way as he walked in when we were in a commercial break coming back. jennifer griffin is on capitol hill. what can we expect to see? jennifer. >> dana, dozens of vets for pete have flooded into the room. those are people you just heard shouting usa and cheering for pete. this is likely to be one of the most contentious confirmation hearings of the trump administration and why they are starting first. the fireworks are likely to start right off the bat. pete hegseth will talk about returning the warrior ethos to the u.s. military but also know some other opening statements will get heated. tough questions about hegseth's qualifications. democrats are likely to focus on

his abuse of alcohol in the past. treatment of women which led to him paying a financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault at a republican women's conference in 2017. no charges were brought and she agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. hegseth will be asked about past comments about women in combat roles. he doesn't think women should be in combat roles and that has riled 225,000 women currently serving. back to you, dana. >> dana: thank you so much. >> bill: roger wicker's statement begins. martha maccallum is riding shotgun. what we watched is there is energy in this room. >> 100%. we heard people cheering as pete was walking in. a lot of veterans gathered there. his opening statement is very strong, very personal, and very focused on what kind of secretary of defense he would like to be. >> bill: let's drop in. the first of many hearings our viewers are about to watch over the next several weeks.

>> amen. thank you. i also want to take this opportunity to thank my good friend, ranking member jack reed. this is my first opportunity to chair this committee and this congress. i want to thank senator reid. under his chairmanship he proved time after time he cares deeply about national security and about the united states of america. particularly the men and women who wear the uniform and stand watch both here and around the world to protect the united states. senator reid, i want to thank you for the many courtesies that you have extended to me in the past and look forward to working with you again in a bipartisan fashion this congress. it's also appropriate to recognize and welcome three

senators attending their very first senate armed service committee hearing as members. senator banks of indiana, senator sheehy of montana and senator slotkin of michigan. we're excited to have you as committee colleagues and look forward to many important contributions from each of you. and senator slotkin, as i look down at the end of the dias it seems like a week or two ago i was sitting in that chair recognized by the chairman of the committee, the senator from michigan. so time flies. now, let me say this. we had a very appropriate expression of approval by the members of the audience as our

nominee and his family walked in. the distinguished ranking member and i sincerely hope that that is the last signal of approval or disapproval in today's hearing. people of the public are here and they are welcome to observe today's hearing and senator reid and i agree, though, that no disruptions will be allowed. audience members may not verbally or physically distract from the hearing to include shouting, standing, or raising signage or gestures that block the view of the audience. and we are very serious about this, aren't we, mr. reid? >> absolutely, sir. >> those who do so will be immediately escorted from the room.

so again, welcome to the witnesses to his friends and to interested members of the public. if confirmed, mr. pete hegseth would assume the role in a moment of consequence. the united states faces the most dangerous security environment since world war ii. we're witnessing the explosive growth and reach of china's hard power. we're also observing the emergence of an axis of aggressors. that coalition is broadening and deepening military cooperations among the dictatorship, china, russia, north korea. terrorism remains a threat as israel wages war against hamas and hezbollah and as the assad regime collapses in syria.

america has entered a window of maximum danger and the department needs energetic and focused civilian leadership. those values begin at the top with the secretary of defense. many of my distinguished colleagues have served in a significant tenure on this committee and our meetings are fairly long. we should reflect over previous secretaries of defense and their hearings and ask ourselves a simple question. has the civilian leadership of the pentagon under the administration of both parties proven up to the challenge? often the answer has been no. the civilian leadership has not built the department of defense to meet the moment and this is our moment to correct that. a few examples illustrate how leaders in the past have fallen short. most of the department signature programs runs years behind schedule and billions of dollars over cost. vital initiatives have suffered

such as the f-35, new sentinel icbm and navy shipping program. the department of defense desperately needs civilian leaders who listen to the advice of combatant commanders, many of whom who benefit from new systems. the risk averse actual cur has kept new technology on the side of the valley of death. that tenuous period between experimental prototypes and production contracts, defense companies backed by venture capital receive less than 1% of defense contracts. as we all know, the pentagon still cannot even pass an audit. the department must streamline its bureaucracies. organizations are top heavy, civilian leaders have promised to slim down the bureaucracy and

perhaps hoped to. every day men and women in uniform make tremendous contributions to u.s. security. they and the american people deserve a pentagon that does the same. today's department of defense is no longer prepared for great power competition. it is not a national defense institution ready to achieve and sustain technological supremacy across the range of operations. admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. the nominee is unconventional. just like that new york developer who rode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president. that may be what makes there hegseth an excellent choice to improve this unacceptable status quo that i just described. he is a decorated post 9/11

combat veteran. he will inject a new warrior ethos into the pentagon, a spirit that can cascade from the top down. mr. hegseth will bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the bureaucracy. he will focus relentlessly on the warfighter and the military's core missions deterring wars and winning the ones we must fight. he will bring a swift end to corrosive distraction such as d.e.i. many acknowledge and live with the systemic problems i have mentioned earlier. in acquisition, accountability, technology transition and organizational civil service reform. mr. hegseth will actually move to fix these issues decisively. in short, i'm confident that mr. hegseth supported by a team of experienced top officials will get the job done. the secretary of defense is a very important position but the

secretary's span of control is limited. the pentagon is vast with 3 million plus personnel. unformed, civilian and contractor. a successful secretary understands that steering the ship means focusing his attention on strategic level priorities. secretary must be supportive with exceptional subordinates who will run the day-to-day affairs of the office of the secretary of defense. the military services and other d.o.d. components. i'm also confident as an infantryman mr. hegseth understands the military principle of commanders intent. communicate the clear objective and empower subordinates to use initiative and judgment and hold everybody accountable. we must not underestimate the importance of having a top shelf communicator as secretary of def defense. other than the president, no official plays a larger role in telling the men and women in uniform rick congress and public

about the threats we face and the need for a peace through strength defense policy. i have no doubt mr. hegseth will excel in the skill in which many of his predecessors have fallen short. much has been made of both mr. hegseth's personal life and some of his policy pronouncements. regarding his personal conduct, mr. hegseth has admitted to falling short as we all do from time to time. it is noteworthy that the vast majority of the accusations leveled at mr. hegseth have come from anonymous sources. contrast these anonymous accusations with the many public letters of support and commendation. we have seen letters from people who served with mr. hegseth. these individuals have worked with him professionally. they really know him and his character. these patriotic americans have been willing to put their names and reputations on the line to support mr. hegseth. i look forward to sharing these

testimonials with the american people. let me mention one right now coming from david bellavia who earned the medal of honor for heroic actions in iraq. david writes the following. pete is fearless, unflappable and confronts conflicts head on. he is a leader to the core. when pete is confirmed as the next secretary of defense of the united states of america this country will finally know the privilege of having a true ambassador able to speak on behalf of this generation and its two decade global war on terror. washington doesn't build men like pete. combat builds men like pete. as i said, there are more letters expressing the same endorsement. today we'll hear from the nominee directly. i want to thank mr. hegseth, as well as his loved ones for being here today. i look forward to discussing his

nomination and i look forward to hearing from mr. hegseth about the ways he hopes to rebuild the american strength that secures the peace. and so now i turn to my friend and colleague ranking member reid for his opening remarks. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i would like to first congratulations you on your chairmanship. i look forward to continuing our committee's strong tradition of bipartisanship and collaboration and thank you for your thoughtful and conscious service to the committee over the years. like to take a moment to join in welcoming our new members, slotkin and others, we look forward to working with you. mr. hegseth, i welcome you and your family to today's hearing. i am also glad to recognize any former colleague norm coleman and congressman mike waltz. thank you. i want to begin by saying that i respect and appreciate your

military service in the army national guard. i know from experience that there is no greater privilege than to lead american soldiers and i thank you for answering the call. you have been nominated to be the secretary of defense. the secretary is responsible for leading a department of 3 1/2 million service members and civilians, annual budget of nearly $9 hundred billion and hundreds of thousands of aircrafts, ships, submarines, combat vehicles and nuclear arsenal . the secretary plays a powerful role with our allies, partners and adversaries abroad. as we speak china is seeking to undermine our interests and challenge our standing in the world. russia's campaign against ukraine threatens not only europe by the entire global order. ongoing violence in the middle east has teat erred on the edge of all-out war and the ideologies and actions of violent extremists endanger our citizens even on our own soil,

as the recent tragedy in new orleans reminds us. these are perilous times. secretary of defense demands a leader of experience, wisdom and above all else, character. the secretary is expected to be a fair, nonpartisan and responsible leader as well as a trustworthy advocate for the men and women that he leads. mr. hegseth, i do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job. we must acknowledge the concern public reports against you. variety of sources, including your own writings, implicate you with disregarding the laws of war, financial mismanagement, racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and other troubling issues. i have reviewed many of these allegations and find them extremely alarming.

indeed the totality of your own writings and alleged conduct with discal fee any service member from holding any leadership position in the military much less being confirmed as the secretary of defense. nonetheless, i understand that you reject many of these reports as they involve whistleblowers, non-disclosure agreements and anonymous and numerous sources including those who faced political intimidation for sharing their experiences. i hope you will address each of these allegations thoroughly and truthfully during your testimony just as importantly i hope you will pledge to prevent any repercussions for whistleblowers both to civilians and military if confirmed. i said if confirmed your top priority would be restoring a warrior culture to the department of defense because you believe the u.s. military has been weakened by political correctness. over the years, you have made clear your opinion of the

military's diversity initiatives as you have said quote, diversity is not our strength, unity is. our recent podcast you said quote, i'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. when i joined the army as a young officer in 1970 the u.s. military with ripe with racial tension. women were prohibited from serving in most roles. gay service members were banned and relied on the draft to fill our ranks. soldiers i served with were proud to do so but not the nation's most capable military by any standards. we've made great progress since then. today the department of defense is full eye integrated. women serve in all combat roles and leadership positions. sexual orientation is irrelevant to service and the all volunteer force reflects the nation it protects. military is more diverse than it has ever been but more importantly it is more lethal

than it has ever been. not a coincidence. i hope you explain why you believe such diversity is making the military weak and how you propose to undo that without undermining military leadership and harming readiness, recruitment and retention. mr. hegseth, another reason i'm deeply concerned about your nomination is your disregard for the law of armed conflict and your support for service members who have been convicted of war crimes. you have championed the pardoning of military members turned in by fellow soldiers and seals. let me emphasize that. they weren't discovered by reporters, they were turned in by fellow soldiers and fellow seals and also pardoning of military contractors convicted of killing 14 iraqi citizens without cause. you also advocated for the restitution of interrogation methods like water boarding defined astor tour and you have

be littleed -- in your book the war on warriors you write, quote, should we follow the geneva convention? if our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so international tribe yoon always feel better about themselves aren't we better off in winning our wars according to our own rules? mr. hegseth i would ask you plan how if confirmed would maintain good order and discipline within our forces and the support of our allies and partners by rejecting international law and the law of war. i'm also concerned about your abilities as a competent manager of the organizations far less complex than the department of defense. from 2008 to 2010 you led the organization veterans for freedom that had an annual budget of less than $10 million. in each year you were in charge expenses are exceeded revenues until the organization tetered

on bankruptcy and had to be merged with another group. in fact, according to the public reporting, an independent forensic accountant reviewed the organization's finances and discovered evidence of gross financial mismanagement. i would note this report has not been made available to any government agencies. which is, i think, alarming. republican advisor to you during your tenure at the organization who read the report stated and i quote, i watched him run an organization very poorly, lose the confidence of donors, the organization ultimately folded and was forced to merge with another organization who individuals felt could run and manage funds on behalf of donors more responsibly than he could. i don't know how he will run an organization with an $857 billion budget and 3 million individuals. that is the only comment we've had. the only access we've had to the

forensic report. a similar thing happened with the concerned veterans for america. second veterans group you led from 2011 to 2016. during those five years tax records show the organization spent more than it raised. just as troubling are reports that a significant amount of debt was incurred from social events and parties filled with excessive drinking and questionable personal behavior. mr. hegseth i hope you will explain what actions the take to be a better steward of defense department's large budget. while i appreciate our meeting last week it is unacceptable you did not meet with any other democratic members of this committee before this hearing has has been our bipartisan tradition. i have voted for and worked closely with secretaries of defense appointed by republican presidents. while we may disagree politically there was always an understanding that rank partisanship should have no place when it comes to providing for the men and women who serve

in uniform. mr. hegseth i'm troubled by the many comments you have made both as a commentator and in your published writings. for example in your book american crusade you wrote, quote, modern leftists who represent the soul of the modern democratic party literally hate the foundational ideas of america. you also wrote the other side, the left, is not our friend. we are not esteemed colleagues nor mere political opponents. we're foes. either we win or they win. we agree on nothing else. if confirmed as secretary of defense you would lead an organization that, like the country it represents, is composed of democrats and republicans. yet your language suggests that you regard many of these men and women as foes and i would ask you to explain why service members and civilians who don't share your political opinions

can trust they will not be targeted during your tenure? the challenge of the secretary of defense is to remove partisan politics from the military. you propose to inject it. this would be an insult to the men and women who have sworn to up hold their own eye political duty to the institution. you are the ninth nominee for secretary of defense i've had the honor to consider as a member of the armed services committee. i voted in favor of all your predecessors including those in the first trump administration. unfortunately you lack the character and composure and competence to hold the position of secretary of defense. thank you. >> thank you, senator reid, now it is my privilege and honor and pleasure to recognize two witnesses who have come forward to introduce our nominee. first i recognize my former

colleague and former senator norm coleman of minnesota for the purpose of an introduction. norm, we're glad to see you and glad to have you back and you are recognized for an introduction. >> thank you, mr. chairman, members of the committee, my former colleagues. i'm honored to introduce a son of minnesota to you, pete hegseth. as a senator from minnesota i spent many hours with this young man as he walked the halls of congress advocating on behalf of america's veterans. and he is young in the best sense of the word. strong, focus,ed, intelligent. a great listener and supernaturally energetic. what we need in a secretary of defense in times of massive change. he is the real deal. the problem with america is there are no second acts. he was wrong. pete was a brave soldier, an able communicator and i believe

is about to begin a great second act as our secretary of defense. he has struggled and overcome great personal challenges. please don't give in to the cynical notion that people can't change. we need the ones who can change to lead us, to be beacons of hope and to remind us that grace can lead us home. four years ago president biden's nominee lloyd austin, a good and honorable man, received 97 votes on the floor of the senate and we went through the debacle of the afghanistan withdrawal, putin invaded ukraine, the houthis endangered shipping lanes and israeli miracles against america's enemies in the middle east where the united states was more of an impediment than a help. our recruitment numbers have sunk dramatically and the southern border has suffered a slow but dangerous invasion. yes, pete hegseth is an out of the box nominee and i say it's

high time to get out of the box. the country longs for a government of less division. my hope is that this hearing provides what they are asking for. disagree, strongly if necessary, yes, but come together to support the nominee, this nominee, pete hegseth, of the one president we have at a time laying aside partisan politics for the essential mission of national security upon which everything else depends. mr. chairman, i yield. >> thank you, norm. i do appreciate that and appreciate your presence today. i now have the honor and pleasure of introducing congressman waltz. i understand, congressman, you are still a member of the house for another day or two. >> another day or two. >> and i now recognize congressman waltz for whatever

opening statement and introduction he might make. >> thank you, chairman wicker. chairman has a nice ring to it. congratulations, ranking member reid, distinguished, members of de committee, it is a privilege to appear for you today and urge the members of this committee to confirm pete hegseth as our next secretary of defense. i'm not here today just to advocate on be laugh of a future colleague. but to speak on behalf of someone i consider a dear friend for over a decade now. like pete, i served in the u.s. army. like pete, i'm a veteran. we deployed to afghanistan and all over the world at the height of the war on terror. which is the war of our generation. like thousands of other war fighters, we've witnessed the hardships of war. we've experienced the loss of friends in combat.

we've endured too much time away from family and friends and no one -- i can promise you this -- no one hates war more than those who have had to go fight it. no one does. pete's story isn't that much different from the millions of other veterans and they know it and they appreciate him for the experiences that he has gone through. after our country was brutally attacked on 9/11, pete hegseth answered the call of duty like so many others. he put the interests of this country ahead of his own. and i can tell you firsthand, as can the heroes sitting in this audience behind me, pete's character of country, his selflessness, his duty, these are the key ten either that have shaped him into the leader that he is today. these are the traits that president trump recognized when making the decision to nominate pete for this critical role.

he will bring the perspective of being the first secretary of defense to have served as a junior officer on the front lines, not in the headquarters, on the front lines in the war on terror and recognizes the human costs, the financial costs, and the policy drift that was discussed often in this very room that led us to decades and decades of war. not only does he understand the threats he faces but as the chairman mentioned, he is brilliant in my mind at communicating those to the american people in a way that is often not communicated in washington, d.c. to reach out to the american people so that they understand why the military needs to do what it needs to do. and i have no doubt that he is going to get the pentagon back to its primary mission, lethal readiness. that warrior ethos is what our

enemies will respect, that warrior ethos is what our enemies will fear and it is that warrior ethos that will keep the peace. and ladies and gentlemen, in my humble opinion, our military deserves better than it's getting. our country faces a devastating recruitment crisis, men and women are not volunteering to serve at the levels required. our readiness is down. our costs are up. and it seems like nearly every major weapons system again often discussed in this very room, is costing too much, delivering too little and taking way too long. the bottom line is the status quo is unacceptable. it's not working. and the members of this committee, you all know it. you know it's not working. and the members of the house armed services know it's not working. and we have hearing after hearing year after yea