{"id":118554,"date":"2025-01-15T17:05:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T15:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=118554"},"modified":"2025-01-15T11:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T09:15:38","slug":"18-05-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=118554","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth: \u2018I support Israel destroying, killing every last member of Hamas\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Hegseth: \u2018I support Israel destroying, killing every last member of Hamas\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Andrew Bernard<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s defense secretary nominee faced tough questions from Democrats in the more than four-hour confirmation hearing.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

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\nPete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to lead the Pentagon faced tough questions from Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday about his drinking, allegations of sexual misconduct and comments about the role of women in the military.<\/span><\/p>\n

A former\u00a0Fox News<\/em>\u00a0host and retired Army major who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pete Hegseth denied the allegations from Democrats on the Senate Committee on Armed Services about his personal conduct and said they were part of a \u201ccoordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m willing to endure these attacks, but what I will do is stand up for the truth and for my reputation\u2014false attacks, anonymous attacks, repeated ad nauseam, printed ad nauseam as facts,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s nomination is expected to be one of the most contentious of Trump\u2019s picks to get through Senate confirmation given his background as a\u00a0Fox News<\/em>\u00a0firebrand, who has been deeply critical of Democrats and \u201cwoke\u201d diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the military, as well as accusations about his personal life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hegseth said at the hearing that he had been \u201ccompletely cleared\u201d of a 2017 sexual assault allegation that resulted in no criminal charges. In 2020, Hegseth paid a legal settlement to the accuser over the encounter at a California hotel, which his lawyer told the\u00a0Associated Press<\/em>\u00a0was consensual.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that Hegseth\u2019s account of the events nonetheless raises questions about his integrity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife,\u201d Kaine said. \u201cI am shocked that you would stand here and say you\u2019re completely cleared. Can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child that had been born two months before, and you tell us you are completely cleared?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hegseth, 44, has been married three times. His fourth child was born to the woman who is now his wife, a\u00a0Fox News<\/em>\u00a0producer, in August 2017. He was still married at the time to his second wife, who filed for divorce in September of that year. The encounter, which Hegseth\u2019s lawyer said was consensual, occurred one month after that, in October 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a 2023\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Nashville Christian Family Magazine<\/em>, Hegseth said he had renewed his Christian faith in 2018 after he and his third wife joined their congregation in New Jersey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hegseth alluded to that faith in his response to Kaine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have failed in things in my life, and thankfully, I\u2019m redeemed by my lord and savior, Jesus Christ,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) accused Democrats on the committee of being hypocritical in asking Hegseth about drinking and marital infidelity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow many senators have shown up drunk to vote at night?\u201d Mullin asked. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you haven\u2019t seen it, because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce for cheating on their wives?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself as this higher standard, and you forget you got a big plank in your eye,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve all made mistakes.\u201d (The New Testament directs adherents to mind the \u201cplank\u201d in their own eyes before worrying about splinters in the eyes of others.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A focus on China<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

The questioning was divided along partisan lines, with Republicans indicating they would support Hegseth\u2019s nomination and Democrats arguing that he is unqualified.<\/span><\/p>\n

The start of the hearing was also repeatedly interrupted by anti-Israel hecklers who accused Hegseth of being a \u201cChristian Zionist\u201d who supports \u201cgenocide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked Hegseth about those claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first one accused you of being a \u2018Christian Zionist\u2019\u2014I\u2019m not really sure why that is a bad thing,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cI\u2019m a Christian. I\u2019m a Zionist. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people deserve a homeland in the ancient Holy Land where they\u2019ve lived since the dawn of history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you consider yourself a Christian Zionist?\u201d Cotton asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Christian, and I robustly support the State of Israel and its existential defense, and the way America comes alongside them as their great ally,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cI support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Israeli media\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s pick for Middle East envoy, pressured Israel to accept the current proposed ceasefire-for-hostages deal, which according to critics, including Israeli lawmakers, doesn\u2019t do enough to eradicate Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n

If confirmed, Hegseth said that he intends to redirect the Pentagon \u201cbehemoth\u201d away from protracted conflicts in the Middle East to focus on the U.S. confrontation with China.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna start by ensuring the institution understands, as far as threats abroad, the Chinese Communist Party is front and center, also obviously defending our homeland as well,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hegseth: \u2018I support Israel destroying, killing every last member of Hamas\u2019 Andrew Bernard President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s defense secretary nominee faced tough questions from Democrats in the more than four-hour confirmation hearing. . Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118554"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118586,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118554\/revisions\/118586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}