Pete Hegseth Secretary Of Defense Hearing: Sen. Mullin Calls Out Senate's 'Double Standards'

At the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin used his allotted seven minutes, primarily, to go after Democrats who were trying to make the argument that Hegseth is not qualified for the job because of a lack of experience and concerning issues in his past.

Those include allegations of heavy drinking, womanizing, and financial mismanagement.

After the hearing concluded, Sen. Mullin elaborated on his comments in an interview with Griffin Media’s Alex Cameron.

On Hegseth’s past disqualifying him from being SecDef:

“Well, we all have a past. And for them to say that his past disqualifies him and then say that he's not qualified to be Secretary of Defense, I wanted to point out, one, what is the qualification to be Secretary of Defense? It's being a United States citizen. That's it. Full stop.”

On specific allegations of disqualifying behavior:

“I wanted to show the hypocrisy that the other side is exposing because they're saying that you can't do this because it disqualifies you. And if you do this while you're in as Secretary of Defense, you should immediately resign. I wanted to point out that everything that they're accusing Pete of doing, our colleagues have also done. Saying that he showed up drunk to work — which he adamantly denies — but we all know senators who have showed up drunk to vote. That has happened. And we all know that he's had issues in his past marriages, and in saying that that should disqualify him because he's been divorced and he said some issues there in those marriages, and yet they didn't call on their own colleagues when they went through the same issue themselves with their marriages. And so I was just pointing out the hypocrisy behind it.”

“It was just it was so ridiculous that here Jennifer, his wife, is sitting behind him and they're dragging him through the mud, trying to show themselves as a higher moral standard and trying to show that they have a higher moral center than he does."

On what makes Hegseth qualified to be SecDef:

“Pete is a 20-year combat veteran. He has served in multiple deployments. He's been in battle. He's had to bury friends. He's had to pull friends off the battlefield before, he's heard the bullet crack over his head. That doesn't qualify you to be the Secretary of Defense. I think that more than qualifies you. That's way above just being a citizen. That's a guy who defended 100 percent of our freedom, that only represents 1% of the population.”

“Pete has been very successful through every aspect of his career, and he's been able to surround himself with great people. He didn't get there just by accident. so I think it's the same thing with me. You know, my wife and I, have been involved in multiple different things throughout our life. It started with plumbing, ranching, HVAC, electrical, and banking into real estate, restaurants and politics. And why we've been successful is because I know my failure points and I'm able to surround myself with people a lot better than I am at home. And Pete has that same quality.”

On the outpouring of support, Mullin got after his comments at the hearing:

“I've heard from the president, I've heard from a lot of people, thanking me for going to bat for Pete. We understand Pete isn't a perfect individual, but we understand he's also a guy who admits to his failures, so he doesn't hide from those. He knew that going into this, understood what he was going to go through, but he was still willing to serve. Anybody that understands that is someone I can stand with.”

On Trump’s wisdom in picking Hegseth:

“I have complete faith in the president and his ability to surround himself with people that will achieve the results the president wants. The President of the United States is a very successful businessman, he's able to recruit people and put them in positions to succeed. He's done it through his whole life. He did that with his first administration. He's going to do that with this administration, and he has full and complete faith in Pete Hegseth. So do I.”