‘The Great Warriors’: Hegseth slams ‘misconstrued’ narrative against women in the military

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the pentagonpraised women in the military as some of the “greatest warriors” after critics took issue with comments she made about women being unfit to serve in combat roles.

“I also want an opportunity here to clear up comments that have been misconstrued, that somehow I don’t support women in the military, some of our best warriors, our best warriors out there are women,” she told Sean Fox News’ Hannity. monday

Female service members “love our nation, they want to defend this flag and they do it every day around the world. I’m not assuming anything,” she added.

“But then President Trump he asked me to be his secretary of defense, if I have the opportunity to do so, I hope to be secretary of all our warriors, men and women, for the incredible contributions they make to our military.”

Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth joins Fox News’ Sean Hannity. (Fox News)

Hegseth will spend this week meeting with senators capitol hill to judge the 50 votes he needs to secure the cabinet-level position.

AFTER SECOND MEETING WITH HEGSETH, ERNST ASSIGNS WHETHER OR NOT TO GIVE CONFIRMATION

On a Nov. 7 episode of Shawn Ryan’s podcast, which aired just days before Hegseth, a former Fox News employee, was tapped to serve as secretary of defense, the nominee said, “I’m saying straight up that we shouldn’t have women in combat roles.”

Hegseth stated that women serving in combat roles “has not made us more effective, it has not made us more lethal” and “it has made the fight more complicated”.

Hegseth noted that he was not necessarily advocating for making the change right now, commenting; “Imagine the demagoguery in Washington, DC, if you were actually advocating, you know, ‘we should reduce women in combat.’

Hegseth attends meetings on Capitol Hill with senators whose vote needs to be confirmed (Anna Moneymaker)

“As a disclaimer for everybody,” he added, “we’ve all served with women and they’re great, it’s just that our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where…throughout human history, men are more capable.”

TRUMP RUNS BEHIND HEGSETH BUT INVITES DEFENDANTS TO ARMY-NAVY GAME

She said: “I love the women in the service who make such an incredible contribution”, but claimed that “the whole fact that women serve together makes it more complicated and the complication in combat makes the casualties worse “.

He also criticized higher levels of military leadership for changing standards and prioritizing filling the diversity quotas over combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 study by the Marine Corps that found integrated male-female units did “drastically worse” in terms of combat effectiveness than all-male units.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, left, along with his wife Jennifer Hegseth, attend a meeting with Sen. Mike Rounds, RSD, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (AP)

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“Between bone density and lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are different,” he said. “So I’m all for if you keep the standards where they are for everyone, and if there’s a, you know, strong woman who meets that standard, great, great, join the infantry battalion . But that’s not what has happened, the standards have gone down.”