Democrats are planning to ask tough questions of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, when he appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. The hearing will put a spotlight on allegations against Hegseth, as well as on long-standing issues around sexual assault and gender equity in the armed forces.

It will also highlight the gender disparity between parties on the influential committee. At the hearing, most of the women questioning Hegseth will be Democrats. The gender balance on the Democratic side of the Armed Services Committee is about evenly split, while on the Republican side, just two of the 14 members — Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Joni Ernst of Iowa, a closely watched vote who has been outspoken about the issue of sexual assault in the armed forces — are women. 

All the Democratic women senators on the committee told The 19th  how they’re preparing to question Hegseth. They all identified different areas of concern for Hegseth they plan to press him on. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts delivered her opening salvo in a 33-page letter to Hegseth, first reported by The Washington Post, in which she relayed her “serious concerns” with Hegseth’s qualifications and asked him to respond to over 70 detailed questions about his background, qualifications and past controversies — including his statements that women should not serve in combat roles.

“Pete Hegseth is the least qualified nominee for Secretary of Defense we’ve ever had,” Warren said in a statement to The 19th. “How can we let a guy with a track record of being drunk at work events and harassing his female employees be in charge of the military? We’re also going to make him answer to the thousands of highly qualified women in our military who he believes should be barred from combat – that belief alone should disqualify him from the job.”

Hegseth, who served in the Army National Guard, has been the subject of a number of allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement. Credible allegations of impropriety have been cause for Cabinet nomination withdrawals or disqualifications in the past — though it’s very rare for the Senate to reject a president’s Cabinet nominee once they get to the hearing. The last time the Senate voted down a Cabinet nominee was in 1989 when Sen. John Tower, then President George H.W. Bush’s nominee for defense secretary, was rejected because of his heavy drinking. 

Hegseth and his representatives have strenuously denied all the allegations of impropriety and misconduct. He has said he wouldn’t drink alcohol as defense secretary.  

“The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown,” Hegseth wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “They provide no evidence, no names, and they ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about.”

The secretary of defense is tasked with overseeing a more than $850 billion budget and 3.4 million employees, including service members and civilians. Hegseth, who was until recently a co-host of “Fox & Friends” weekends, lacks the traditional experience and background of most past secretaries of defense. During Trump’s first term, Hegseth successfully lobbied Trump to grant pardons to ex-service members accused of war crimes. 

Trump has also come to Hegseth’s defense, writing on Truth Social in early December: “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

The FBI has interviewed people from Hegseth’s past as part of its background check into him, ABC News reported. The committee’s chair, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and its ranking member, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, have received the report, according to NBC News.  A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately return a request for comment. 

In addition to undergoing a background check, Cabinet nominees also fill out questionnaires and a financial disclosure to relevant committee members ahead of their hearings. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a first-term Democrat from Michigan, said Thursday she was planning on spending her weekend leading up to Tuesday’s hearing reading over Hegseth’s questionnaire responses to the committee and reviewing his books.

“I’m just trying to understand how he’s going to lead,” Slotkin said in a brief interview at the Capitol. “As someone who worked in the Pentagon and as a CIA officer, I care deeply about making sure that the military is always apolitical and that it’s never seen as a tool of any one party.” 

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he had more than enough information about Hegseth’s background to fill seven minutes of questions, the amount he expects senators to get for the first round of questioning, and would similarly spend the weekend “mastering” the material he plans to question Hegseth on.

Democrats on the committee, he said, are endeavoring to “make sure we don’t double up and leave other questions unasked.” 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq as a helicopter pilot, said putting “someone as dangerously unqualified” as Hegseth in charge of the Defense Department — the largest government agency which employs nearly 3 million military and civilian people — “should scare all of us.” 

“I feel like he’s more worried about culture wars than he is about the national security of the United States of America.” Duckworth said in a press call Friday. 

Hegseth has publicly said that women should not serve in combat roles and disparaged diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the military in his most recent book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of Men Who Keep Us Free.” When asked about Hegseth’s view that women should not be in combat roles, Duckworth — who served in a combat role and lost both legs and some mobility in her right arm in 2004 when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents — responded that she questions Hegseth’s “strategic vision.”

“My question is: Does he plan on keeping women out of combat?” Duckworth said during the press call. “Because that’s 20 percent of the force, so what would his plan be? Does that mean that female service members will not be able to be deployed into a combat zone? And if that’s the case, does that mean that he’s going to have the men in our military deploy more often?”

Duckworth said she asked for, but was ultimately denied, a meeting with Hegseth before his hearing because she had more questions to ask than could fit in the seven minutes she will be allotted. She said she hoped to hear about his plans to improve the country’s national defense strategy and his vision for the Indo-Pacific region.

“On Tuesday, I look forward to exposing how unqualified he really is for this position,” Duckworth said in the press call. “Our troops and our country deserve better.” 

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada said that Hegseth will need to answer for his record in front of the American people. 

“Pete Hegseth lacks the experience and qualifications needed to run the Department of Defense,” Rosen said in a statement. “His history of sexual assault allegations, financial mismanagement and extreme and demeaning statements made against women in the military prove how unfit he is to be entrusted with the security of our nation.” 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire intends “to confront Hegseth on his lack of qualifications” and will focus her questioning on the potential impact of Hegseth’s beliefs on women in the armed services and efforts to recruit more women to serve, according to a source familiar with her plans. Shaheen also plans to press Hegseth about his commitment to upholding the Women, Peace and Security Act, a bill Shaheen sponsored to improve the representation of women in peacekeeping and conflict resolution roles that Trump signed into law in 2017. 

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said she is primarily focused on interrogating Hegseth’s fitness to serve, his experience and his qualifications to do the job. And one fundamental obstacle to his fitness to serve, she added, is the fact that he faces allegations of sexual harassment and assault. 

“I look forward to what he has to say under oath,” Hirono said

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who has worked to champion victims of military sexual assault and pushed to reform the military justice system for more than a decade, said she is “seriously concerned about a nominee who has never led anything larger than a small nonprofit” or “held a senior national security or foreign affairs position.” 

Gillibrand said she plans on questioning Hegseth about his qualifications and views on national security, women in combat and the military code of justice.

“Over the past few years, we passed historic reforms to take these decisions out of the chain of command to ensure justice for victims of sexual assault and to put them into the hands of trained military prosecutors,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “The office is still developing, and it will be critical to ensure it can remain independent and that cases will be handled professionally.” 

Hirono said she also wants to better understand his competency for the position and value system he’ll follow when leading the nation’s fighting force.

“I have questions about whether or not this person comes to the table with an ability to run the biggest department in the entire country,” Hirono said. “And there are comments he’s made about women, LGBTQ+ people that make you wonder whether he really understands the depth and the complexity of this department — not to mention the relationship with our allies and national security issues.”