throughout much of the country, which has a constitution drafted by invaders and half of the us senate armed services committee is even admitted that the enemy of baghdad was fictional, lost in all marks, the beginning of an arc of instability that continues to stretch from a rock to libya once the most prosperous country in africa, libya is now economically crippled, plagues by lawlessness and a center of international terrorist activity. 13 years after the brutal us backed over throw of new market dollar fee and the libyan people have another sugar coated set of lies from washington to thank for their country's quotes. the military mission of the united states is designed to implement the security council resolution. no more and no less, i mean, protecting civilians against attacks from good off his forces and delivering humanitarian aid. president obama has been equally firm that our military operation has a narrowly defined mission that does not include regime change. regime changes a very complicated business. it sometimes takes a long time, sometimes it can happen very fast, but it was never part of the

throughout much of the country, which has a constitution drafted by invaders and half of the us senate armed services committee is even admitted that the enemy of baghdad was fictional, lost in all marks, the beginning of an arc of instability that continues to stretch from a rock to libya once the most prosperous country in africa, libya is now economically crippled, plagues by lawlessness and a center of international terrorist activity. 13 years after the brutal us back over throw of new market dollar fee and the libyan people have another sugar coated set of lies from washington to thank for their country's quotes. the military mission of the united states is designed to implement the security council resolution. no more and no less, i mean, protecting civilians against attacks from good off his forces and delivering humanitarian aid. president obama has been equally firm that our military operation has a narrowly defined mission that does not include regime change. regime changes a very complicated business. it sometimes takes a long time, sometimes it can happen very fast, but it was never part of the mi

armed services committee. thank you very much for joining us. the senatee has the duty of the confirmation process but you have jurisdiction over that same department. you will be hearing testimony from the next secretary of defense repeatedly. what are the issues that you see in the confirmation. >> he lacks credibility for the job based on all of these reports. his mother wrote that email in 2018 six years ago. it's not like he was a college student. a clear pattern of behavior have been developed. certainly drinking too much and treating women horribly. it just undercuts credibility to run the pentagon as a starting point. he refuses to address the issues. we have to hear from him. you have all of these accusations against you, what was happening? he needs to address that. i don't know how he could but he can't simply ignore it. also he has never run in anything remotely close to the size of the pentagon and never worked at the pentagon. is he qualified to run the world's largest bureaucracy. and number three, that is who trump is appointing not just at

senator deb fisher kind enough to join us, the senate armed services committee, very key player.lad you are standing in one place so i don't have to chase you but let me get your take, you have two rich guys looking at the government books the president-elect wants them to do that but they are not a us congressman. does that part of you bother you? it is a tall task and they will site because they are good at this where repetitive expenses and the like but they are doing it, they are doing it. >> it is important to work with the administration, work with people close to donald trump, republicans and democrats to deliver better results for the american people, that ties in with how to quit wasting taxpayer dollars and find programs that work, find programs that don't work and work to eliminate those. i was happy to see senator fetterman, bernie sanders, not folks i usually work with but to come together with what we should all be interested in, being able to prioritize taxpayer dollars on things that first of all our a duty of the federal government and have a true benefit to the

and he came he was also on the us senate armed services committee. so it was really wearing two hats over there. and he came back, went to the white house. there's a picture of him with general westmoreland and with johnson telling him what saw in vietnam. and he supported the president. lbj was committed to the war my father is a gung ho marine. we've got to give our boys over there everything that they need or else bring them home. but if we're going to have them there and the johnson administration made that decision, he said we have to give them what they. so he did support the vietnam war too long. and when his career was over and he had the opportunity reflect back on the entirety his life and his entire political career. he said unequivocally the greatest mistake that he ever made in his entire political life was supporting the vietnam. he said, we had no business over there. he said he wished he'd asked probing questions. he did. when the gulf of tonkin resolution came, which authorized the the use of massive armies and troops from the us. my

armed services committee. thank you very much for joining us tonight. the senateervices committee, of course, has the duty of the confirmation process, but you have jurisdiction over that very same department. you will be hearing testimony from the next secretary of defense repeatedly. what are the issues that you see in this confirmation? >> number one, completely he lacks credibility for the job right now based on all of these reports. i mean his mother wrote that email 2018. it wasn't like he was a 19-year- old college student. a clear pattern of behavior had been developed and we've seen the stories throughout that certainly drinking too much, treating women horribly, that just undercuts your credibility to run the pentagon as a starting point, so that's a big one, and he refuses to address these issues. we have to hear from him what was going on. you have all of these credible accusations against you. what was happening? he needs to address that. i don know how he could, but he can't simply ignore it. also he's never run anything remotely close to the size of

armed services committee. thank you very much for joining us. the house committee has exactly the same jurisdiction as the senate armed services committee except they do the confirmation process, but whoever is the next defense secretary will have to come to your committee, will need credibility with your committee, presumably in many different situations. can you imagine a secretary hegseth on the state of the evidence we know now actually testifying to your committee about any matters? >> not with any credibility. >> yeah. >> that's a key point. there's also the matter of does he have experience at the pentagon or even running an organization similarly? can he handle that level of bureaucracy, the day in and day out of running it? but his credibility now is nowhere. you've mentioned some of the drinking, the sexual assault allegations, but he was in a prominent position in two separate veterans organizations that he ran both of them into the ground. that's where a ton of the allegations come from, from people who worked with him. i forget the name of the second organization, the one funded by the koch brothers he ran. that's where all the allegat

all sorts of questions for the united states. >> joining us now to discuss, senator markwayne mullin. he's a member of the armed services committee and represents the great state of oklahoma in the u.s. senate. senator, thanks for joining us. so as the assad regime collapsed president-elect trump posted on truth social. quote, this is not our fight and arguing the u.s. should not get involved. i certainly understand the sentiment and the desire to not have u.s. troops involved, but what happens if extremists who are part of the rebel groups get their hands on assad's chemical weapons and plan to use them against the 900 american troops in southern syria, or against israel? what happens if we see a resurgence of isis or al qaeda in the region because of this? is there is there no role at all ever for the u.s. here well, when it becomes a national security interest and a threat to the united states, then we would get involved. but i agree with the president that we shouldn't be involved in this this isn't our fight. but make no mistake about this. >> this wasn't an accident. >> the rebels didn't just suddenly find an opportunity to

democratic senator jackie of nevada, a member of the senate armed services committee and the homeland security committee. senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight. if pete hegseth or someone else makes it to a confirmation hearing for secretary of defense, you will be there in that committee with questions. what do you make of the hegseth candidacy for that job so far? >> well, what i can tell you this is some of these nominees, they are not serious candidates, and pete hegseth is definitely not a serious candidate. the scope, scale, and responsibility that the secretary of defense has or that we have in so many of our cabinet positions, it takes a person, a qualified person to do this job. a person who can go through our normal vetting process, an fbi check, come before our senate committee, talk about who they are, what -- how they're going to approach that job, and be willing to answer our questions. that is our job as a senate to the american -- it's a responsibility to the american people to be sure that we vet these candidates properly and when we vote we can show people why we vote for them or why we vote against them. there are

senator bill hagerty. joining us now is republican senator rick scott. he's a navy veteran who serves on the senate armed services committeenting the great state of florida. senator scott, you were among a group of republican senators who met with hegseth on monday. this morning you posted on twitter or x, quote, i support president trump's pick and i look forward to his swift confirmation. so you don't even want to wait for that fbi background check. you don't want to hear from members of the veterans group alleging alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct. i mean, i know hegseth denies any wrongdoing, but don't you want to get some more vetting done? well, first off, number one, donald trump won the election. number two, this is his nominee, right? we know we have to make changes. number three, pete is a great candidate. >> here's how. i respect people that put on the uniform and led troops at war. >> he went to iraq. he went to afghanistan. he knows people that died. he knows people that were injured. he got out. he's fought for veterans since he got out. these are anonymous accusations. if these people if these people are cred

to expect question of south dakota senate mike rounds serves on two of the most significant committees and all the scent of the armed services at intel and joi enjoins usome senator. thank you for being with us. what is the difference between the private meetings that we don't have a window into and the public hearings that are yet to come? what are senators likely to want to get from these private meetings with nominees? >> thanks. there's really a difference between them to begin with on the republican side, we will sit down with them. we'll get to know them but will explain to them a little bit about what's going happen in open hearings. we will also share with them some of the questions they may very well get some from republicans but along with that some of these tougher questions they're going to face from our democrats. in a way were trying to give them a heads up to the issues they are going to have to face. the challenges that they will have, the way that's going to be approachapproaching the open hes and if they have got questions about particular areas, offer to assist them with it. but more along the lines of opening up, providing informati

senators who have been critical of the president elect in the past. there they are right there. joining us now to talk about this democratic senator, richard blumenthal of connecticut. he's on the armed services and veterans affairs committees. senator, what are your concerns hearing in the reporting about pete hegseth, and that is that trump world is putting a lot of pressure on some of these republican senators to get to. yes, on hegseth. are you hearing any of that? >> there's no question that donald trump is heightening the heat, turning up the screws, and to some extent, turning the tide for hegseth. part of the threat is that they will encounter primaries in their states. their fear is not democratic opposition in these red states. it's the threat of a primary against them. inspired and supported by donald trump. but they remain deeply concerned and troubled. i think that's an understatement. by his clear lack of qualifications and the serious allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual impropriety. you know, he's never managed. a organization of larger than 50 or so employees with minuscule budgets compared to the $900 billion budget, and three. million military men and women that he'd be responsible for as secretary of

armed services committee and a former helicopter pilot in the united states navy. thank you very much for joining us tonight. the house does not have the role in senate confirmation, obviously, but your house committee has exactly the same jurisdiction as the senate armed services committee, which means the next secretary of defense will be reporting to you in that committee. you will have oversight. you will have opportunities to question that secretary of defense. we've never seen this before, but if there's an unsatisfactory confirmation process and you see someone confirmed in the senate who you believe failed what would be your confirmation test, would that secretary of defense be presented with questions and an appearance in the house armed services committee that could re-open those kinds of confirmation issues? >> well, i certainly think that there would be a lot of questions should he fail in his duty. but i'm really hoping, lawrence, that it doesn't get to that point because he's wholly unqualified both in word and in deed. i'd say that as somebody who graduated from the naval academy with the first class of women to have access to jobs on

i have the honor of introducing our esteemed panel brassica senator who serves on the armed services committee. also with us alex cart the cofounder and ceo. former spokesperson for the u.s. state department and reserve member of the u.s. navy. and congressman adam smith the ranking member of the house armed services committee. i want to also remind you all in the audience that we will be taking questions. if you go to your app for today's conference, you can submit questions through the app , i will receive them here and we will take them at the end so please do not be shy. you can begin including your questions at any weight during our panel. to start us off, senator fisher, i want to start with i think the biggest picture question of the survey which is what direction does the american people want for the united states as engagement abroad? we find this year that there is something of a high watermark. 57% of americans say they want the united states to be more engaged and to lead in this, what seems to be increasingly chaotic world. what do you make of that, senator? >> first of all, i think the america

armed services committee, congressman don bacon. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. democratic senator richard blumenthal today called pete hegseth nomination in his word. doomed, doomed. do you agree? >> i think pete has an uphill climb to get confirmed. he'll have an opportunity, though, to make his case to the senate and in the hearings. >> but i do think it's an uphill climb. i think there's two areas of concern. >> one is he prepared to run an organization of 2 million people and he's going to have to make that case to the senators. but two, all these allegations, i think are worthy of being looked at because in the military, if you have an affair, you get kicked out. i've known many people who've been fired and removed out of the military for having affairs. so i think it's a relevant issue that he's going to have to convince the senators that that's that that's all in the past. he's a changed man. and that's the challenge he's going to have. >> you're a retired brigadier general in the u.s. air force. so you speak with a lot of authority when it comes to the military. what is th

senator elizabeth warren. the democrat for massachusetts and member of the armed services and committee. governor warren, thank you for joining us tonight. what a strange chapter of american history we find ourselves living through. first let me get you to the outreach, elsewhere he seems very focused on women. his mom seems very focused on female senators. do you think any of it is working? >> let's look at his problems with women. we've seen the allegations of sexual assault. but there's also the question of what he has said about women serving in the military. remember, he's been nominated to be the secretary of defense. which means, the person over all of our military. 18% of active duty military right now are women. and without those women, we don't meet our recruiting targets. we don't have the ability to field an army, a navy, an air force, marines. what has he said. those women should not be allowed, no women should be allowed to be in combat. and that's like saying, you know, here we are. we're going to run the military and for men, it is a great deal. come on in. do every job you've got here. tell us what you like. we'

i think many of us in the senate are disappointed that house republicans didn't agree to the $25 billion plus-up that we passed out of the arms services committeeizing the world's on fire, american leadership is in high demand and we can do more with more. having said that, i think we will pass it because we can't leave them in limbo any longer. the thing that's most disappointing is that rather than passing the appropriations bill to go with it, we're going to kick the can down the road with another cr for three months. i'm disappointed the house republicans don't see the value of clearing the deck this year, starting the new year with a new president and republican majority in both chambers with a clean slate. seems like it's counter productive to me. i'm optimistic but i don't think before december 20th we can make that happen. maria: that's exactly what former house speaker kevin mccarthy told me on sunday. that you're pushing this into president trump's term which is just complicating things for trump but this bill approved more than $17 billion for military construction projects. it forces the department of defense to provide annual updat

used for cancer scans arred at its destination pty d damaged. senatotommy tubeilleama member of the senate armed service, vote ra verans affairsd health committees one. typical biden administration, no counation, trying to scare it'surned into a fad now.ath. there's a lot of private drones out there and it starts in new jersey and people art seeing it on tv and let's fly our drone around. there's obviously somethinto it. speculating that it uld be china. but at the end of the day president trump said we know where they're coming from, w know whe they're going, somebody needs to tell the american people what's gng on. again, no communication to us or the citizens of the country and th's wrong. ri how big of a threat it to have 100 drones that require investigation which is what biden just said? okay, sure, he said there were 000 sightings but only 100 require investigation. 100 is a big number. you needed 19 terrorists ttake down the trade center. how worrd should we be that there are 100 drones that require investigation that we're nodoing? >> exactly. it could be a test for some people as you said, some terrorists trying to find out our defense

uses, a lot of them date back to the cold war. they're very old. we heard from top leaders on the senate armed services committee saying the u.s. military doesn't have a good track record for tracking drones and certainly shooting them down. a lot of the systems aren't on bases so could this be commercial entity? i spoke to a president from a drone company in te tennessee ws the future is drones delivering ac units on the top of buildings, you won't need a crane. that's where the industry is going right now. a spoke to a senator yesterday who said he would be highly suspicious that china or another adversary isn't get a feed from some of the drones. it's a mystery. people are wanting answers especially people in new jersey where these are flying over their homes,. maria: lucas, thank you. let's get into this. the more we don't have answers from the pentagon from alejandro mayorkas who is supposed to be the steward of homeland security, the more people are going to speculate, tiana. >> yeah, i'm sorry, just saying representative van drew is wrong is not enough. maria: that's right. >> also saying the defense department says, the

let's discuss with the current chair of the senate armed services committee, democrat jack reed of rhode island. mr. chairman, thank you so much for being with us. i'm sure you've been in some of those scrums before, but it seems to be more on the other side of the aisle these days. how is pete hegseth nomination looking at this point? do you think there will be any opposition coming from republican senators? >> well, first we have to go through and do a thorough review of his record, not just sit down and talk to him, but look at the look at the record that's being compiled now by the fbi. it was sent to us, and we have to hear him out. but there are so many, uh issues, his treatment of women, his long time declaration that they should not serve in combat, which would be, i think, a weakening of readiness, not strengthening it. his drinking habits, all these things, together with the fact that he simply doesn't have a great deal of experience running large organizations, the two small groups he ran essentially financially failed. so there are lots of questions to be asked. but the process must involve asking these questions, listening to the a

senator wicker said i think there will be fbi background checks. that's pretty definitive. believes the chairman of the armed services committee and that's the hegseth committee. bring us into the how would that work? it's an area where democrats and republicans can agree on the rate -- break -- break acquirement. if we don't have an fbi an we won't let the nomination forward? >> when we worked in the committee we did move nominations forward until the fbi review was complete and in our hands to evaluate. let's be clear. it's not the fbi that's deciding whether or not somebody should be confirmed. it is the senate. we're talking other vetting process the president elect's team might engage the private contractors. that's beside the point. the ultimate review is by the senate and what the fbi does and knows how to do is get the senate information. they give hundreds of pages on each nominee. the senate makes its judgment. the fbi, their processes worked in its current form for 40, 50 years in both republicans and democrats are familiar with it and relied on it and it's the appropriate way to go forward. >> people say there isn't hours agreement between democrats and rep

armed services committee, under mr. rogers, previously under me, before that under mack thornberry. this has been a priority for us in the house and senateor some time. we are making progress. we are not ignoring the problem. it's not a pass-fail, it's a matter of improvement. we're optimist take in two or three years we'll get to that happy day when the entire pentagon can pass that audit. we had a big hole to dig out of and we're making progress digging out of said hole, i want to make sure people realize t that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from alabama is recognized. mr. rogers: at this time i'd like to yield one and a half minutes to ms. mcclain of michigan. ms. mcclain: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you, chairman rodgers. the world is on fire and now more than ever we must ensure we have the premier fighting force in the world. with our enemies encroaching, we cannot afford unnecessary diversions. this bill builds on house republicans' progress to return our military to lethal fighting force and away from woke ideologies that seek to divide and distract. to confront the 21st century battlefield, we must invest in operatio

using. it's a huge concern for me personally, for members of the intelligence committee and members of the armed services committee. i created an office with senator rounds and other senators. senator rubio, to find these unidentified aerial phenomenon, whether it's drones, whether it's spy balloons, whether it's any other kind of aircraft, and assess what are they, whose are they, what technology is being used. and that work has been reviewing hundreds of sightings over the last several years. and they figure out about half of them, half of them they can figure out are aircraft or helicopters or drones or balloons. but there's half that. they don't have enough data. they don't have enough information, or it just isn't something they can figure out. so it is a concern we should be treating it like a national security issue, especially when it's over critical infrastructure like bases or nuclear sites. >> do you think the biden administration is doing enough? >> i want to do much more. i'm very concerned that the faa and the doj and homeland security aren't doing enough to assess whose drones these are and whether they are adversarial in any way. i

senator, joni ernst. republican on the armed services committee who met with hegseth on wednesday. >> would you support the hegseth nomination? >> it was a conversation -- >> thank you. >> and joining us capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent, garrett haake. reuters correspondent, jeff mason, and former republican congressman from florida, msnbc political analyst, david jolly. so, garrett, you caught up with hegseth on capitol hill today as he's meeting the senators and we should point out as kelly o'donnell noted, he's accompanied on these calls with senators on the committee. with his wife. this is very unusual. that is not usually taking place. it certainly could inhibit their questioning him about some of the sexual misconduct allegations. any case, talk to me about his response and some of the comments today. >> reporter: that's an unusual step and within the last 24 hours, we've seen a shift in how he's conducting himself through this process. he's decided to lean in much more in terms of defending himself. this is the first time he's answered any of my questions about this process and note his answer here when i asked him about what,

armed services committee. tim parlatore, thank you very much for your time tonight all right. >> thank you. >> of course, on this note, i should note responsibility of us senators for any pick by a president is to be a check and balance on their appointments. it is in the constitution. we did hear from one republican senator today though, who had a very different take on that one of his democratic colleagues, senator richard blumenthal, will join me live this holiday season, find the perfect gift at cnn underscored from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the best beauty finds discover it all at underscore dot com your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel nothing beats it. >> i recommend pronamel active shield because it actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. it really works. >> the topper is one of the most classic and elegant desserts. what could possibly improve it? me wolfgang puck only at truffles com featuring classic and unique flavors made by me. get the perfect holiday gift only at truffles.com. >> are they really going to spend all

arms control and disarmament agency. he was detailed to the us air force and department of the treasury and consulted for the central agency and senate foreign relations committee, even outside his service to, eight presidential administrations. it's remained vital in framing and influencing debates about u.s. nuclear. you also write that it's a crafted, a new type of career national security professional. unlike his mentors and your peers, he never returned to his pre-world war two occupation as an investment banker. by the way, the wall street chapter is fantastic. i mean, this man had an ten year career on wall street. and reading that, it was like reading biography of steve schwarzman or something. it's quite a lot packed into one life. the early days of the cold war demanded generalists with competence in multiple areas economics, military strategy, intelligence, diplomacy, the know how to achieve results, whether the private sector, academia or government bureaucracies. knutson met the demand. so in a way, you're talking about someone who was right for this moment. and that's what i want to get into now, because the moment where everything was falling apart by his own account, tha

armed services committee. tim parlatore thank you very much for your time tonight all right. >> thank you. >> of course, on this note, i should note responsibility of us senators any pick by the president is to be a check and balance on their appointments. it is in the constitution. we did hear from one republican senator today, though who had a very different take on that one of his democratic colleagues, senator richard blumenthal, will join me live this holiday season, find the perfect gift at cnn underscored from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the best beauty finds discover it all at underscore com from dress the bird to deck the halls so many ways to save life ready? >> wallet. happy. that's 365 by whole foods market. >> when did i call the filter? when i saw my gutters overflowing onto my porch. >> the filter is a permanent gutter solution. >> so you never have to worry about costly damage from clogged gutters again. >> schedule your free gutter inspection now and save up to 35% with leaf filters. black friday deals. >> your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel. nothing beats it. i recommend pronamel active shield bec

senate, a democrat-controlled armed services committee. i do want to do a shout out to senator jack reed, the chairman as well. senator wicker's leadership got usroops need, their families need. and this final bill just leaves that on the cutting room floor. hey, it's one of the reasons i was thinking about voting against the bill, but there's a lot of good things in the bill. so we don't want to be at this level, mr. president. but we all got to come together here, democrats and republicans, recognizing the dangerous world in which we are now living. now, some of the good things in the ndaa, i do want to do a shout out to the work that was done, particularly as it relates to pay raises for our junior -- our most junior-enlisted servicemembers. these are the pay grades e-1 to e-4. and they're going to get a 14.5% pay increase. that's very significant. as a matter of fact, i've been doing this for almost ten years now. that's the biggest pay raise i've seen ever, mr. president, and they needed it. our troops need that money. their families need that money. inflation has been really, really undermining their ability to live on bases in alaska or

armed services committee, under mr. rogers, previously under me, before that under mack thornberry. this has been a priority for us in the house and senate for some time. we are making progress. we are not ignoring the problem. it's not a pass-fail, it's a matter of improvement. we're optimist take in two or three years we'll get to that happy day when the entire pentagon can pass that audit. we had a big hole to dig out of and we're making progress digging out of said hole, i want to make sure people realize t that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from alabama is recognized. mr. rogers: at this time i'd like to yield one and a half minutes to ms. mcclain of michigan. ms. mcclain: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you, chairman rodgers. the world is on fire and now more than ever we must ensure we have the premier fighting force in the world. with our enemies encroaching, we cannot afford unnecessary diversions. this bill builds on house republicans' progress to return our military to lethal fighting force and away from woke ideologies that seek to divide and distract. to confront the 21st century battlefield, we must invest in operat