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Pete Hegseth heads to Capitol Hill for fiery hearing on his record, plans to shake up Pentagon

Pete Hegseth heads to Capitol Hill for fiery hearing on his record, plans to shake up Pentagon

Pete Hegseth is set to take the hot seat before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday in a hearing that is sure to break out into fireworks.  President-elect Donald Trump nominated Hegseth to shake up the Pentagon as his defense secretary, but the former Fox News host has been entangled in controversies that Democrats on the committee can be expected to question him about.  “Democrats certainly aren’t going to make this a walk in the park by any means,” one Republican aide said.  “You’ll see Democrats are pretty organized, they’re thinking strategically to make sure everything is covered, and it’s not a hearing that gets overly repetitive,” one senior Democrat aide told Fox News Digital.  HOW THE SUPREME COURT CONFIRMATION PROCESS WORKS “I don’t think it’s going to be particularly hostile, but I do think it will be very tough. It’s going to focus a lot just on what we should expect of a nominee for this job and where he falls short,” the aide went on. “There are questions about the things he’s done, his character and his leadership.”  Hegseth will be the first of Trump’s controversial change agent picks to face questioning from lawmakers. Republicans can be expected to play defense, framing Hegseth as a decorated combat veteran who will hold the military accountable after years of failed audits and DEI initiatives.  With little hope of winning any Democrat votes, Hegseth will have to woo moderate Republicans who have previously expressed skepticism about his nomination.  Democrats are expected to hammer him over his past conduct and his qualifications to lead the government’s largest agency, which employs 3 million people. HUNDREDS OF VETERANS TO DESCEND ON DC TO MARCH IN SUPPORT OF PETE HEGSETH’S CONFIRMATION The 44-year-old Army National Guard veteran, who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is relatively young and inexperienced compared to defense secretaries past, having retired as a major. But Republicans say they don’t want someone who made it to the top brass, who’s become entrenched in the Pentagon establishment.  Hegseth is sure to face questions about a sexual assault accusation from 2017. He’s acknowledged paying his accuser an undisclosed sum to keep quiet at the time for fear of losing his job, but he denies any non-consensual sex took place. Former employees at veterans’ groups Hegseth used to run have accused him of financial mismanagement and excessive drinking, according to a New Yorker report, and NBC News reported that his drinking “concerned” colleagues at Fox News.  Hegseth denies the accusations and said he would not drink “a drop of alcohol” if confirmed to lead the Defense Department.  The hearing, which kicks off at 9:30 a.m., will be packed with veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C., to support Hegseth in the face of attacks. For weeks, Hegseth has been visiting Capitol Hill to meet with senators, including those who are skeptical of him. Last Wednesday, he met with the top Armed Services Committee Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and the meeting apparently didn’t go well.  “Today’s meeting did not relieve my concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and raised more questions than answers,” Reed said in a statement. Hegseth must first win a majority in a vote of the Armed Services Committee, made up of 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats, meaning one Republican defection could tank the vote. He then needs to win a simple majority on the Senate floor, meaning he can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes.  “I think he kind of knows that all he needs is Republican votes to get from now into the job,” said a Democrat aide. “His job is to just keep his head down and not say something that would create an opening for these [Republicans], many of whom I really don’t think want to vote for him, to have a reason to revisit that. So I expect that he’s going to try to say very little and say it very calmly and politely.” In committee, all eyes will be on Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a veteran herself who at first seemed hesitant about Hegseth. After two meetings with the nominee, Ernst said she would support him through the confirmation process and looked forward to a fair hearing. She didn’t commit to voting for him.  Senators will also take a fine-toothed comb to Hegseth’s lengthy record of public comments on TV and across the five books he’s written.  One such belief is that women should not fight in combat roles.  “Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially not in combat units,” he wrote in his most recent book, “The War on Warriors,” published in 2024. “Men are, gasp, biologically stronger, faster and bigger. Dare I say, physically superior,” Hegseth added. PETE HEGSETH SAYS HE HASN’T HEARD FROM WEST POINT SINCE EMPLOYEE ‘ERROR’ DENYING HIS ACCEPTANCE On a Nov. 7 episode of the Shawn Ryan podcast, which aired mere days before Hegseth was tapped to serve as Defense Secretary, the nominee said, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” Hegseth later told Fox News in December that women are some of the U.S.’ “greatest warriors.”  “I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued, that I somehow don’t support women in the military; some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women,” he said. Female service members “love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe. I’m not presuming anything,” he added.

Pedophiles could see death penalty under new House GOP bill: ‘Taken off the streets permanently’

Pedophiles could see death penalty under new House GOP bill: ‘Taken off the streets permanently’

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is unveiling a new set of bills that could have child sexual predators facing the death penalty. “If you are raping someone, if you’re molesting someone, you are essentially murdering their soul. Those people never actually fully recover. I’ve actually sat on a committee with a very prominent [female House Democrat] who actually talked about the fact that she was molested as a child. And so you can see that it impacts and really hurts people,” Luna said. Two of her three bills, all of which are being introduced in the 119th Congress on Tuesday, would require sentences of death or at least life imprisonment for those charged with a wide range of crimes related to children.  JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS ‘DISHONEST’ A third bill would require guilty verdicts of rape and sexual abuse against adults to carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Luna told Fox News Digital she broached the topic with President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend, who she suggested was enthusiastic about the idea. “I got the impression that he absolutely is supportive of anything in this sector,” Luna said. The Florida congresswoman was among the members of the House Freedom Caucus who met with Trump over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago.  REPUBLICANS GIVE DETAILS FROM CLOSED-DOOR MEETINGS WITH DOGE’S MUSK, RAMASWAMY She said they also discussed Trump potentially signing an executive order levying the death penalty for pedophilia-related crimes but that it would likely be impossible to accomplish that way. “He would be willing to sign an [executive order]. But the fact is, is that it has to go through Congress first. So it would have to come to his desk that way,” she said. Luna first introduced the bills in the last Congress when Democrats controlled half of Congress as well as the White House. They failed to get much traction, however, and ultimately never saw a House-wide vote. She suggested that the death penalty aspect could have put some people off of an issue that otherwise could get wide bipartisan support, but she argued that child predators “cannot be rehabilitated.” “If you are going to continue to push forward in a moral society, [then] you need to ensure that people like this, that are predators, are taken off the streets permanently,” Luna said.

Planned Parenthood chapter provided Harris campaign workspace, breaking tax law: IRS complaint

Planned Parenthood chapter provided Harris campaign workspace, breaking tax law: IRS complaint

A Planned Parenthood chapter in Florida allegedly violated its tax-exempt status by providing workspace for the Harris-Walz presidential campaign, according to an IRS complaint filed by a pro-life organization. 40 Days for Life, one of the country’s leading pro-life organizations, filed the IRS complaint in December. It claims to have information about “potentially prohibited political activities that may impact the tax-exempt status” of Planned Parenthood Florida.  “This is one of the many violations we’ve seen Planned Parenthood do, because we’re physically at these abortion facilities, holding peaceful vigils and offering medical alternatives to abortion. And so because we’re out there, you know, at over 1700 locations, we see a lot of things that Planned Parenthood does,” 40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney told Fox News Digital.  Fox News Digital reached out several times to Planned Parenthood Florida, but did not hear back by the publication deadline. PLANNED PARENTHOOD OFFERING FREE ABORTIONS, VASECTOMIES AT DNC “This was clearly noticeable. They were giving out flyers that said Tim Walz Tuesdays, which doesn’t sound like the greatest time in the world, but nevertheless, they were promoting all these events of hosting Walt Harris campaign events and providing their space to do that, which, of course, they did not do for the Republicans. And you just can’t do that as a 501c3. This is very, very basic.” Last summer, Carney’s group filed a separate complaint about Planned Parenthood’s mobile abortion bus that was operating a few miles from where the Democratic National Convention was taking place. On day one of the DNC, abortion took center stage. Several speakers spoke at length about it being one of the central issues of the Democratic Party’s 2024 platform. MASSACHUSETTS LAUNCHES $1 MILLION TAXPAYER-FUNDED CAMPAIGN WARNING OF ‘DANGERS’ OF PRO-LIFE PREGNANCY CENTERS  “The pro-abortion angle of running on celebrating abortion was a dismal failure for the Harris-Waltz campaign, but when we filed that, we did get a response that they had received it, and we are hoping and pushing the Trump administration to take up that investigation, because now we have two violations, both of which were obviously against the Trump administration and were heavily politically partisan towards the Democrats, which, of course, as nonprofits, you just can’t do,” Carney said. The 42-page  IRS complaint also alleges “Planned Parenthood’s activities, in this case, are starkly different from permissible lobbying.”  MISSOURI LAW BANNING GENDER-CHANGING TREATMENTS FOR MINORS TAKES EFFECT “The provision of office space juxtaposes its tax-exempt privilege against a politically charged environment, serving as a clear indicator of political endorsement or opposition of particular candidates and parties,” the complaint reads. Included in the complaint are photographs of campaign staffers walking inside what appears to be the Planned Parenthood office in Sarasota, Florida.

TikTok says reports of potential sale to Elon Musk are ‘pure fiction’

TikTok says reports of potential sale to Elon Musk are ‘pure fiction’

Video-sharing platform dismisses reports that the Chinese government is considering its sale to Tesla and SpaceX CEO. TikTok has dismissed as “pure fiction” reports claiming that the Chinese government is considering allowing the sale of the platform to Elon Musk so it can continue operating in the United States. Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Chinese officials have discussed allowing the sale to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to avoid a ban scheduled to take effect on Sunday unless China-based owner ByteDance sells off TikTok’s US operations. While Beijing officials would “strongly prefer” that TikTok remains under the control of Beijing-based ByteDance, senior Chinese officials have begun to debate “contingency plans”, Bloomberg said. Beijing has not communicated its contingency plans to ByteDance, The Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed people familiar with the discussions. The Bloomberg report, which also cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, said one scenario being discussed would involve TikTok being combined into Musk’s social media platform X. Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk, the world’s richest person with an estimated net worth of more than $400bn, would carry out the transaction or if he would need to sell some of his other assets to complete any sale. Advertisement Responding to the reports on Tuesday, a TikTok spokesperson told Al Jazeera: “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction.” The US Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the looming ban after TikTok filed a legal challenge against the related Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. During oral arguments on Friday, the court appeared to be inclined towards upholding the ban, with a majority of judges seeming unconvinced by TikTok’s argument that forcing a sale would be a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which upholds free speech. Outgoing President Joe Biden signed the TikTok bill in April amid bipartisan concerns about alleged national security risks. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the platform could be used to hoover up Americans’ personal data and manipulate the public discourse. President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to be inaugurated on January 20, pledged to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign, a reversal from his attempt to ban the app during his first term in office. Adblock test (Why?)