Personal Misconduct, Transgressions, and Lack of Qualifying Experience

• In 2016, Hegseth was forced to resign as president of Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-funded veteran advocacy group, amid widespread staff disgruntlement after a whistleblower report accused him of repeat alcohol abuse, financial mismanagement, and sexual impropriety toward female employees. 

• According to one whistleblower, “the disgust for Pete [among staff] was pretty high… [Hegseth had] a history of alcohol abuse” and “treated the organization funds like they were a personal expense account—for partying, drinking, and using CVA events as little more than opportunities to ‘hook up’ with women on the road.” 

• Another whistleblower, whom the New Yorker interviewed after Hegseth’s nomination, stated, “‘I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary… When those of us who worked at C.V.A. heard he was being considered for SecDef, it wasn’t ‘No,’ it was ‘Hell No!’” 

• Apart from intermittent service in the National Guard, Hegseth holds no public sector leadership experience.
  
  

Accusations of Sexual Violence and Sexism

• In 2017, Hegseth allegedly sexually assaulted a conservative group staffer at a hotel in Monterey, California, with whom he later settled in court. A 22-page police report published in November 2024 provided a detailed description of the incident, which took place at a hotel while Hegseth was reportedly intoxicated.

• According to a whistleblower report, while president of Concerned Veterans of America, Hegseth reportedly ignored an attempted sexual assault and issues with sexual harassment by male staff perpetrated against female coworkers, and fostered a culture in which “members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers.” 

• As numerous sources have reported, the U.S. armed forces––which Hegseth is vying to lead as Secretary of Defense––have a long and troubling history of mishandling and underreporting widespread sexual violence perpetrated against female servicemembers.

• Hegseth has stated that he believes women should be barred from serving in active combat roles in the U.S. military, a policy program he may implement if confirmed as Secretary of Defense. 

Unmasked Islamophobia

• According to a whistleblower report filed by staff at Concerned Veterans for America, in 2015, Hegseth reportedly chanted “Kill all Muslims! Kill all Muslims!” while intoxicated at a bar. 

• In his 2020 book “The American Crusade,” Hegseth wrote that “like our fellow Christians 1,000 years ago, we [Americans] must” wage a crusade against Islam. His numerous writings against Islam allege that Muslims are attempting to “conquer” the United States and Europe and heavily invoke crusader symbolism. 

• Hegseth has crusader symbols and phrasing tattooed on his body, including “Deus Vult,” a latin phrase that means “God wills it” and is a known white supremacist symbol. 

Politicization of the Military

• Hegseth has suggested that he would instigate a purge of high-level military officials whose political beliefs he disagrees with, producing widespread worry within the defense community about his apparent willingness to politicize the U.S. military in unprecedented ways. 

• Hegseth has advocated for weaponizing the military against those with different political beliefs in the past, most notably when he called for deploying the military against Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Additionally, Hegseth refused to condemn white supremacists as the culprit behind the 2017 Charlottesville terrorist attack, instead praising then-President Trump for “[condemning] hatred and bigotry on all sides.” 

Dismissal of Serious War Crimes 

• In 2018, Hegseth publicly pressured then-President Donald Trump to pardon or reverse rank punishments served to three armed servicemembers accused of serious war crimes. 

• Notably, Hegseth advocated for reinstating the rank of Edward Gallagher, whose numerous war crimes reportedly included shooting civilians, including a school-age girl, from a sniper’s nest, stabbing a teenage captive to death while the captive was receiving medical treatment, firing weapons indiscriminately into neighborhoods, and threatening to murder personnel under his command if they reported his transgressions. 

• Hegseth has displayed a dangerous attitude toward civilian casualties: “Donald Trump pardoned a bunch of guys I advocated for in his last couple years in office. They killed the right guys in the wrong way, according to somebody. I’m done with that [...] We need to fight total war against our enemies when we do. And yeah, you don’t kill civilians on purpose, but you kill bad guys. All of ’em, you stack bodies, and when it’s over, then you let the dust settle and you figure out who’s ahead.”

Support of Banned Interrogation Methods

• Hegseth has advocated for using waterboarding and other advanced interrogation methods. 

• Hegseth publicly praised the conditions and treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where he was was a guard in 2004 and 2005. Official investigations, including one conducted in 2005 and another as recently as 2023, found that detainees were subjected to “ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.” 

Downplaying Global Threats to Democracy

• In 2018, Hegseth defended then-President Trump’s cozy interactions with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, stating that Kim “probably doesn't love being the guy that has to murder his people all day long, probably wants some normalization” and “a picture with the American President,” adding, "let's give it to him if it makes the world safer."

• Hegseth has criticized U.S. military aid to Ukraine and downplayed the importance of supporting Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia, stating, “if Ukraine can defend themselves, great, but I don’t want American intervention driving deep into Europe and making [Vladimir Putin] feel like he’s so much on his heels.”