WASHINGTON — Ahead of his confirmation hearing next week, Democrats have taken aim at Pete Hegseth’s nomination for secretary of defense, complaining they have not received the results of an FBI background check and other materials they say are needed to vet the candidate.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, wrote the GOP chair of the panel, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., this week demanding information about Hegseth.
“I am deeply concerned that the Senate Armed Services Committee is considering the nomination of Pete Hegseth for this critically significant position without full information regarding his capacity and experience to lead our military and steward a budget of nearly $850 billion,” Blumenthal wrote.
Hegseth, a Minnesota native, National Guard veteran and former Fox News host, faces allegations of sexual misconduct, including the assault of a woman at a convention for California GOP women, and heavy drinking. He denies these and other allegations.
Yet his confirmation hearing is likely to focus most on his conduct as leader of two conservative veteran organizations, the Concerned Veterans of America and the Veterans for Freedom. Hegseth has been accused of financial mismanagement — including using the organization’s funds for personal use.
Blumenthal has been seeking information from those veteran organizations regarding what he called Hegseth’s “self-dealing.”
“I remain particularly disturbed about well-documented allegations of Mr. Hegseth’s serious financial abuse and gross misconduct as the Executive Director of V.F.F. from 2007 to 2011 and again as the Executive Director of CVA from 2013 to 2016,” Blumenthal wrote. “I do not see how this committee can, in good conscience, consider Mr. Hegseth’s nomination without a full review of his conduct while leading these organizations — the only civilian management experience of his career.”
A Senate aide said the Armed Services Committee has received from Hegseth a completed candidate questionnaire and his financial disclosure report. While Democrats and Republicans on the committee have had access to these documents, the aide said they will not be made public until after Tuesday’s hearing.
The Senate aide confirmed the committee had not as of Thursday received a report from the FBI on Hegseth’s background check.
Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, outlined 10 areas of concern in a letter to Hegseth this week that posed more than 70 questions.
Besides expressing concern over the allegations of drinking and sexual misconduct, Warren’s letter raised questions about Hegseth’s suggestions that women in the military play a more limited role and the nominee’s past skepticism about the need for U.S. troops to comply with laws of war.
She also said she wanted answers about the accusations of financial mismanagement of the veterans organizations he once led.
“Under your leadership at VFF, the organization ‘soon ran up enormous debt, and financial records indicate that, by the end of 2008, it was unable to pay its creditors,’” Warren wrote, citing a media report. “The primary donors of the VFF even became concerned that their money was being wasted on inappropriate expenses; there were rumors of parties that ‘could politely be called trysts.’”
Hegseth has spent weeks on Capitol Hill, meeting almost exclusively with Republican senators to lock down support for his nomination, and made another round of visits this week. CBS News has reported that new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has privately told Trump that Hegseth has the votes to be confirmed to head the Pentagon.
Hegseth has emerged as one of president-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks. But there will be other contentious hearings next week.
Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will also have a hearing to examine his nomination for Secretary of the Interior on Tuesday.
And former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s confirmation hearing to become the next head of the Department of Homeland Security is scheduled for Wednesday.
Twin Metals goes to court
A federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday will hear Twin Metals’ appeal of a lower court’s dismissal of a complaint that sought the renewal of two mining leases in a watershed for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The leases were renewed by the previous Trump administration and cancelled in January 2022 under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Twin Metals and subsidiary Franconia Metals sued the Interior Department over the revocation of its leases. Meanwhile, Friends of the Boundary Waters, the Wilderness Society and other environmental groups and Iron Range businesses involved in tourism sided with the U.S. government.
Before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., attorneys for the federal government are expected to argue that the Interior Department had the authority to cancel the leases. Twin Metals is expected to argue that the cancellation of the leases was “specious” and the decision should be reversed.
Twin Metals said it could not comment on the case “as the litigation is ongoing.”
Becky Rom, chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, said it’s difficult to successfully sue the U.S. government but that Twin Metals has an “aggressive case.”
“I can’t tell you what the court’s decision will be,” Rom said.
Saying farewell to Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral Thursday showed a rare display of presidential unity, with President-elect Donald Trump and presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George Bush all seated, most of them with their spouses, together in the front pews.
The somber event was also distinguished by eulogies, including one written by Carter’s former vice president, the late Walter Mondale, who penned the tribute about 10 years ago when Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer. Since Mondale died in 2021, son Ted Mondale did the honor.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Carter was a man of his word. I remember when we talked about his concept of the vice presidency. I told him that I would like to do it and I had only two requests. I wanted to make a real contribution and didn’t want to be embarrassed or humiliated as many of my predecessors had been in that office. He agreed, welcomed my full participation, directed his staff to treat me as they would him and, during our four years in the White House, he was very careful to protect me from the frustration, and too often humiliation, that had cursed the lives of many vice presidents. These were good years for Joan and me.”
ICYMI:
- There are a lot of questions about how the consent decree between the Justice Department and the Minneapolis Police Department would be implemented, but reporter Winter Keefer had a story about similar agreements in other cities.
- State government reporter Peter Callaghan wrote about the dysfunction in the Minnesota state House, a result of last year’s election and other things. The 2025 session starts next week.
- Also, Greater Minnesota reporter Ava Kian has a piece on the increasing reliance of Minnesota nursing homes on nurses and other care workers born in other countries.
- Finally, we looked at concerns in Minnesota, which is hoping to establish a pot industry, about President-elect Trump’s promises to implement pro-marijuana policies at the federal level.
Your questions and comments
One reader responded forcefully to a report that Bob Kroll, a former Minnesota police officer and former president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, is lobbying the Trump transition team for the job of U.S. Marshal.
“People must be made aware of the fact that Bob Kroll has been the cause of and the reason for the problems in the Minneapolis Police Department for decades,” the reader wrote.
Another reader lauded the swearing in last week of Minnesota’s newest member of Congress, Rep. Kelly Morrison, D-3rd District.
“Dr. Morrison represented her constituents cordially in the Legislature and that carried over in her U.S. House campaign. But she stands her ground firmly on issues and will use facts, language, details, policy and opportunity, I think, more often than deals,” the reader said.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
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