PeteHegseth_Military

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Trump’s pick for secretary of defense has a history of defending war crimes, torture, and more

Fox host Pete Hegseth has repeatedly complained about "academic rules of engagement which have been tying the hands of our warfighters for too long.”

Written by Jack Winstanley

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Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly defended Americans accused of war crimes, complained that rules of engagement are “tying the hands of our warfighters,” called to target foreign cultural sites, and advocated for waterboarding and torture. 

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  • Trump picked Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense

    • On November 12, Trump announced that he will nominate Fox host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. Prior to joining Fox, Hegseth served in the Army National Guard and served three tours abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [The Associated Press, 11/13/24; CBS News, 11/14/24]
    • On Fox News, Hegseth frequently espoused hawkish views on U.S. military policy, including advocating for attacks on Iranian infrastructure and cultural sites and for a “preemptive strike” against North Korea. In one appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, Hegseth complained that American soldiers deployed overseas are supposedly not allowed to conduct “aggressive offensive operations” and “take out bad guys.” [Media Matters, 11/14/24]
    • While president, Trump pardoned several U.S. service members charged or convicted of war crimes after Hegseth repeatedly defended them on-air. Trump ultimately pardoned Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder; Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who was set to stand trial for summarily executing an Afghan prisoner; and Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was acquitted of murdering a wounded ISIS prisoner but was found guilty of posing for a photo with the dead body. [Media Matters, 11/15/19, 11/8/19; Politico, 11/15/19; The Daily Beast, 5/20/19]

  • Hegseth has defended Americans accused of war crimes, including the killing of civilians and prisoners

    • Hegseth praised Trump for pardoning Michael Behenna, a former Army officer convicted of killing an Iraqi prisoner. Hegseth also claimed that Trump’s decision pardoning Behenna was “a wonderful reflection of putting the warfighter first, as opposed to some academic rules of engagement which have been tying the hands of our warfighters for too long.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/7/19; NPR, 5/7/19]
    • Discussing potential pardons on Fox & Friends Weekend, Hegseth said, “They are not war criminals — they are warriors who have now been accused of certain things that are under review.” Hegseth also stated that the possibility of pardons for Gallagher, Golsteyn, and Lorance is “very heartening for guys like me.” He later added that “these are the good guys, these are the war fighters.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 5/19/19]
    • Hegseth reportedly lobbied Trump to pardon Blackwater contractors convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians. In one Fox & Friends Weekend segment, Hegseth defended the killings, saying the contractors were “making tough calls on the battlefield.” [The Daily Beast, 12/23/20; Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 8/11/19]
    • In March 2020, Hegseth attacked the International Criminal Court, claiming that “they want to prosecute Americans who went to Afghanistan as war criminals.” Three months later, Trump issued an executive order that authorized sanctions and visa restrictions against International Criminal Court personnel, which CNN described as an “attempt by the administration to strong-arm the international body out of an investigation into potential war crimes by US military and intelligence officials.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/6/20; CNN, 6/11/20]

  • Hegseth complained that rules of engagement in combat zones are “a huge problem” and were “written for us to lose”

    • Appearing on The Shawn Ryan Show, Hegseth called rules of engagement limiting the military’s use of force “a huge problem.” He added that the laws of war were written “in cloakrooms in Europe after World War I because they thought that they could fight polite wars in the future amongst European nations,” and claimed that modern rules of engagement are “written for us to lose” and “for our guys to be in handcuffs.” [YouTube, The Shawn Ryan Show, 11/10/24]
    • During an interview with Gallagher, Hegseth suggested that troops are being hamstrung by restrictive rules of engagement, asking: “Are we empowering them the way we need to go to defeat our enemies?” Hegseth also thanked Gallagher for his service, adding, “You have stood strong amidst a lot of powerful forces.” The former SEAL was found not guilty of murdering a wounded ISIS prisoner after a witness for the prosecution “altered his story for the first time on the stand and said that although Gallagher stabbed the victim, he caused the victim’s death by suffocating him, not Gallagher.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/3/19; CNN, 7/2/19]

  • Hegseth has argued for seemingly illegal military strikes on cultural sites in Iran

    • Appearing on Fox Business in 2020, Hegseth suggested targeting Iran’s energy production sites and cultural sites. Hegseth asked, “Do they want their economic sites, their military sites, political sites and/or cultural sites targeted? How about their oil and gas?” The 1954 Hague Conventions expressly prohibit attacks against “cultural property” without “imperative military necessity,” and international humanitarian law since World War II “also prohibits the destruction of cultural property as a means of intimidating people under occupation or as a reprisal.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 1/6/20; International Committee of the Red Cross, accessed 11/19/24]
    • Hegseth repeated this call to seemingly violate international law on The Five, saying, “I don't care about Iranian cultural sites.” He added: “If they had the power, they would destroy every single one of our cultural sites and build a mosque on top of it.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/6/20]

  • Hegseth dismissed the CIA’s torture program as “things we did to keep our country safe” and said “we better use” waterboarding against ISIS

    • Hegseth, who served at Guantanamo Bay — a military prison on a U.S. naval base in Cuba that houses suspected terrorists and where detainees were allegedly subjected to torture — claimed it was “about as good of a facility as you could have” and complained that “the gears of Guantanamo Bay were mucked up by leftists and international lawyers a long time ago.” Hegseth has advocated against the prison’s closure, claiming, “We bend over backwards as Americans to provide for the welfare of these radical Islamic terrorists.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 1/12/22; Minot Daily News, 9/25/16; Reuters, 12/13/17]
    • Hegseth stated on Fox that the U.S. “better use enhanced interrogation techniques, to include waterboarding, if we are to have the gut and stomach to see through this fight” against ISIS. Hegseth claimed that ruling out waterboarding makes the U.S. seem “weak,” “unwilling to do what’s necessary,” and lacking “the stomach for the fight.” [Fox News, The Real Story, 6/29/16; CNN, 1/26/17]
    • On Fox & Friends, Hegseth defended the CIA’s use of torture, saying that the 2014 Senate report on the program “isn’t horrifying. It isn’t mortifying. These are things we did to keep our country safe.” He also stated that “anytime you wonder about those techniques, just take a look at someone jumping from the World Trade Center.” The 2014 Senate report found that the agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques “were brutal and far worse” than the CIA admitted, writing that the Detention and Interrogation Program violated “U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 12/22/14; PBS, 12/9/14]