Right-wing commentator Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, previously argued against allowing women to serve in combat roles because, he suggested, their presence might “exacerbate” the crisis of sexual assault in the military.
In 2015, under the administration of then-President Barack Obama, the Defense Department opened up all combat roles to women. One of the vocal critics of the rule change in the media was Hegseth, who has since continued to criticize women being in combat roles.
While Hegseth has cited several reasons for his opposition, he has repeatedly named the well-documented issue of rampant sexual assault in the military as a reason against opening up combat roles to women.
During an April 2016 speech, Hegseth listed multiple reasons why he believes women should not serve in combat roles, including that it could “exacerbate” the problem of sexual assault in the military.
Hegseth said: “Another example is military sexual assault, which is a problem. We shouldn't be having military sexual assault. Everybody understands that. We need to be taking care of it. You think you bring women into infantry, different units, you might exacerbate that a little bit? I'm not saying that's anybody's fault, but that's an unintended consequence of that priority also.”
PETE HEGSETH: So social justice infiltrating. Another example is military sexual assault, which is a problem. We shouldn't be having military sexual assault. Everybody understands that. We need to be taking care of it. You think you bring women into infantry, different units, you might exacerbate that a little bit? I'm not saying that's anybody's fault, but that's an unintended consequence of that priority also.
But how do they address it? And the problem is a lot of addressing it has to do with misunderstanding command climates in the military. There are some commanders that don't handle things like that well. Totally get it. We've seen them. But when you start to say we're going to handle that problem by stripping out the authority of commanders, which was the solution, to say that we're going to take it out of the chain of command — that means you don't understand the military. Means you don't understand the importance of having a commander who can make that call, who can make that decision, who can control that climate, who can maintain a standard. That is how you ensure that a group of men and/or women are willing to put their lives on the line together for a country in a moment against incredible odds — is when you have a commander who can make those tough calls. And when you start to erode that, you start to erode a lot of what the military is all about. So, again, a good cause undercut by the way they go about trying to do it.
Hegseth made similar remarks during a Fox News appearance in January 2013 when he argued against allowing women in combat roles by noting that the military hadn’t resolved the issue of sexual assault. He said: “The military has a not-so-secret problem in some ways with sexual assault and some of the things that have happened with women in the military. This is an open secret that has not been figured out. So before we go about addressing that and figuring that out, why are we opening up something that we don't know how to control or implement?”
MEGYN KELLY: How would the dynamic change? I mean, maybe this is just something that they'll experience because it's just now starting and 30 years from now, that'll be under control. It'll be, just be like, yeah, of course women are going to be out here.
PETE HEGSETH: Well, Megyn, as we saw yesterday in a hearing about Lackland Air Force Base, the military has a not-so-secret problem in some ways with sexual assault and some of the things that have happened with women in the military. This is an open secret that has not been figured out. So before we go about addressing that and figuring that out, why are we opening up something that we don't know how to control or implement?
KELLY: Well, you know the answer to that, Pete, you know the answer to that: You keep women back from advancing in the military and moving on to positions they want because some bad apples are sexually assaulting them.
HEGSETH: Sure. But you also shouldn't be doing them just under some moniker of equality, because equality is the end state. The end state of the military is not equality. It is the ability to fight and win wars. And I question the reason this is being advanced, like many things this administration has advanced.
CNN recently reported that female veterans have criticized Hegseth’s stance on women in combat roles. The outlet interviewed a “female veteran, who identifies as a military sexual assault survivor and asked not to share her name out of fear of retaliation,” and she said “she worries how Hegseth’s rhetoric as the leader of the military, if confirmed, would influence the culture in the armed services, which is already grappling with issues of sexual harassment and assault.”
