Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: Sen. Shaheen asks Hegseth why women in the military would trust him
Posted
January 14, 2025
Views
175,651
Likes
2,444
Engagement
1.39%
January 14, 2025
175,651
2,444
1.39%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
7:54Now PlayingSen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., questioned defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth about his stance on women in the military and suggested he had changed his position on the subject because he was facing scrutiny ahead of his Tuesday confirmation hearing.
“As recently as Nov. 7 of 2024, on the Shawn Ryan Show, you said, “I'm straight up saying that we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective,'" Shaheen said.
Hegseth responded that he appreciated the service of women but said "it’s not about the capabilities of men or women, it's about standards." He added that women "make amazing contributions across all aspects of our battlefield."
Shaheen said this contradicted Hegseth’s earlier statements.
“Why should women in our military, if you were the secretary of defense, believe that they would have a fair shot and an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks. If, on the one hand, you say that women are not competent, they make our military less effective, and on the other hand, you say, 'Oh no, now that I've been nominated to be the secretary of defense, I've changed my view on women in the military.'"
Hegseth is a military veteran and conservative media personality. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary has faced allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking, and been criticized as a nominee for his controversial views on diversity and religion in the military.
Newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow usTikTok
X (formerly know as Twitter)
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
