Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: 'You're not qualified,' Duckworth tells Hegseth in confirmation questioning
Posted
January 14, 2025
Views
508,611
Likes
12,829
Engagement
2.52%
January 14, 2025
508,611
12,829
2.52%
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.
7:04Now PlayingSen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told Trump defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth during his Tuesday confirmation hearing that she did not believe he was qualified to do the job.
"This hearing now seems to be a hearing about whether or not women are qualified to serve in combat. And not about whether or not you are qualified to be secretary of defense. And let me just say that the American people need a secretary of defense who's ready to lead on day one. You are not that person," she said.
Duckworth asked Hegseth about whether he'd led an audit or international security negotiations. She suggested he was asking the committee to lower their standards for defense secretary because he was "buddies" with President-elect Donald Trump.
Responding to Hegseth's past comments questioning women in the military and in combat roles, she said "there is no U.S. military as we know it" without them.
While women have earned their place in their units, "You have not earned your place as secretary of defense," Duckworth added.
"You say you care about keeping the armed forces strong ... then let's not lower the standards for you," she said.
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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.
