The Senate Armed Serv­ices Committee held a contentious confirmation hearing Tuesday for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of defense.

Hegseth attended Princeton University, was commissioned as an infantry officer in the National Guard and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In civilian life he has been a strident conservative activist best known for his work at Fox News as co-host of the talk show “Fox and Friends.”

He gained prominence advocating for service members convicted of war crimes and successfully persuaded Trump to pardon several — including those who were turned in to military authorities by subordinates who witnessed their crimes. Hegseth has pledged to rid the military of “woke” officers and civilian officials and has taken aim at diversity and environmental programs that he has promised to end.

Soon after his nomination, a series of news stories came out featuring allegations of sexual misconduct, problems with alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement when he ran the organization Vets for Freedom.

Those controversies dominated much of the hearing, but lawmakers quizzed him on his knowledge of international affairs and how he would approach relationships in the Pacific amid tensions with China.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-­Hawaii, and other Democrats challenged Hegseth on his qualifications for the job.

“You are no longer on ‘Fox and Friends,’ Mr. Hegseth,” Hirono said. “If confirmed, your words, actions and decisions would have real impacts on national security and our service members’ lives. There are close to 3 million personnel in the Department of Defense — $900 billion budget. I hardly think you are prepared to do the job.”

Outside of the military, Hegseth has no experience in government and has drawn charges that he’s unqualified to lead the massive Department of Defense. But supporters argue that his outsider status makes him an ideal candidate to reform the Pentagon — which has consistently failed audits even as its budget balloons.

“The nominee is unconventional, just like that New York developer who rode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president,” said SASC Chair Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “That may be what makes Mr. Hegseth an excellent choice to improve this unacceptable status quo.”

In his opening remarks, Hegseth pledged to “rebuild” the U.S. military, strengthen the American arms industry and take a tough stance on China.

He told lawmakers “we’re going to reestablish deterrence. First and foremost, we will defend our homeland, our borders and our skies. Second, we will work with our partners and allies to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific from the Communist Chinese. And finally, we will responsibly end wars to ensure that we prioritize our resources to reorient to larger threats.”

Over the course of the hearing, Democrats on the SASC sparred with Hegseth.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., an Army combat veteran who was badly wounded in Iraq when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was shot down by insurgents, told Hegseth, “You talked about the Indo-Pacific a little bit, and I’m glad that you mentioned it. Can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations — and how many nations are in ASEAN, by the way?”

Hegseth responded, “I couldn’t tell you the exact number, but we have allies in South Korea and Japan and in AUKUS with Australia and trying to work on submarines with them.”

“None of those three countries that you mentioned are in ASEAN,” Duckworth said. “I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations.”

ASEAN members include the Philippines — a U.S. treaty ally — and other countries that border the South China Sea, a critical waterway that a third of all international trade travels through. Many have been embroiled in disputes with Beijing over maritime territorial and navigation, with China considering the entire waterway its exclusive territory and occasionally attacking vessels and maritime workers from those countries.

Hirono questioned Hegseth on allegations of sexual misconduct as well as a pledge he made to stop drinking if he takes on the job of defense secretary. She also asked him about recent comments by Trump stating that he seeks to take control of Greenland — a territory of Denmark — reestablish American control of the Panama Canal and would seek to make Canada the “51st state.”

Both Canada and Denmark are NATO allies and said they will not give up territory. Trump has said he seeks to use economic pressure to take territory but has not ruled out using military force.

When asked by Hirono whether he would comply with an order to use military force to seize territory in Panama, Greenland or Canada, Hegesth answered, “Senator, I will emphasize that President Trump received 77 million votes to be the lawful commander in chief of this country.”

When asked again, Hegseth replied, “One of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand. And so I would never, in this public forum, give one way or another direct what orders the President would give me in any context.” Hirono said, “That sounds to me that you would contemplate carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland and take over the Panama Canal.”

Critics of Trump have charged that his apparent desire to seize territory from nearby countries essentially validates approaches China and Russia have taken toward their own neighbors.

Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, who sits on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “They’re very happy that Trump is talking about going out and, you know, basically taking sovereign territory from other countries or at least compelling it to be yielded to. I mean, how is that functionally different from (Russia’s invasion of) Ukraine or from China in the South China Sea, or Taiwan for that matter?”

Case said the rhetoric could have ripples in the Pacific, arguing that “maybe we’re used to the way Trump talks, but, you know, (Pacific countries) take a presidential statement pretty literally sometimes, and so that is highly destructive to the efforts that we have and the efforts that we want to advance in the Indo-Pacific.”

Hirono also asked Hegseth about using the military domestically, citing an incident in June 2020 during civil unrest after the killing of George Floyd, when then-President Trump directed former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to order troops to fire on protesters in Washington, D.C. — an order Esper refused to follow. When asked whether he would follow a similar order, Hegseth declined to rule it out.

When Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, asked whether Hegseth would commit to firing his Navy secretary if he began emphasizing climate change in his policies, Heg­seth said, “My secretary of the Navy — should I be confirmed, sir — will not be focused on climate change in the Navy,” and said that he would prevent any service leaders from pursuing renewable energy of any kind to power military vehicles.

The military has studied climate change, and how it can affect operations, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. It also has looked into renewable energy sources to free it from supply chains dependent on fossil fuels, especially in the Pacific. Case said, “We don’t want to mute the military telling the rest of us, including Congress in particular, that their bases are sinking, that the kind of weather that they trained for in a conflict is maybe not the weather that they thought they were going to have.”

Hegseth has promised to remove personnel he considers “woke,” and prior to the hearing said he hopes to “clean house.” In December the American Accountability Foundation — a conservative advocacy group — sent a letter to Hegseth with 20 names of leaders across the military who the organization hoped he would fire on “day one,” including several senior leaders holding key positions in Hawaii and across the Pacific.

Among them are Pacific Air Forces Chief Gen. Kevin Schneider, the Pacific Fleet’s commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea Rear Adm. Neil Koprowski and deputy commander of 7th Fleet Rear Adm. Amy Bauernschmidt.

Case said that he considers proposals to root out personnel who have been involved with diversity and environmental programs a “witch hunt.”

“One thing we don’t know is how much of this is negotiating and how much of this is what they really mean,” he said. “Do they really mean to completely upend some very basic assumptions inside the Defense Department? Or do they mean to try to get into a negotiating posture and to bend at least the DOD to the president’s personal will, which, by the way, is its own danger?”