Mark Kelly to Pete Hegseth: "You're not being honest"

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) sparred with Pete Hegseth at the Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday for his nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of defense. Since Trump announced his intention to nominate the former Fox News host to head the Department of Defense, Hegseth has been grappling with a multitude of critical stories, including disturbing accusations of sexual assault, alleged incidents of alcohol abuse, his multiple reported infidelities, and an email his mother sent him in which she called him an “abuser of women.” Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing and his mother has walked back the email while staunchly defending her son. Nonetheless, his critics have still raised concerns over the allegations and argued that his résumé is far thinner than past nominees for a job that entails exercising command and control over our all military service branches, overseeing a nearly $900 billion budget, and supervising millions of people. Kelly, himself a former combat naval aviator and NASA astronaut, focused on the issues of transparency and experience in his questioning of Hegseth. The nominee repeatedly attributed the allegations against him to “anonymous smears” when Kelly asked him about them.