Elizabeth Warren says Trump’s pick for defense secretary ‘must be rejected’

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Politics

“A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be Secretary of Defense.”

Elizabeth Warren says Trump’s pick for defense secretary ‘must be rejected’

Pete Hegseth. John Lamparski/Getty Images

Sen. Elizabeth Warren condemned President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Fox News host Pete Hegseth, a veteran, as his defense secretary and called for the appointment to be “rejected.”

“A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be Secretary of Defense,” Warren signed X. “Donald Trump’s election will make us less safe and must be rejected.”

Half of all federal spending goes to the Department of Defense, which has “a profound impact on the economic health of our nation,” Warren previously told Boston.com.

  • Trump nominates Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense

  • In Time piece, Warren lays out a plan to resist Trump’s policies

“It affects us right here in Massachusetts,” Warren, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview in September. “How we treat our active-duty military, our veterans and our military families has an important impact on who serves and what their experiences are like.”

Hegseth, a military veteran and conservative media personality, has advocated for the release of service members accused of war crimes, according to the Associated Pressand was also reportedly considered for a position in Trump’s first administration.

According to the AP:

Hegseth has served in the military, although he lacks senior military or national security experience.

After graduating from Princeton University in 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry captain in the Army National Guard, serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantanamo Bay.

He was a former head of Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and also ran unsuccessfully for the Minnesota Senate in 2012. According to his Fox News biography, he has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In a statement, Warren also called Trump’s recently announced appointments of Stephen Miller, Tom Homan and Kristi Noem “alarming.”

“Trump is bypassing Senate oversight to give control of mass deportations to Stephen Miller and Tom Homan — the key architects of the family separation policy,” the statement said. “With a long history of championing Trump’s draconian immigration policies, Governor Kristi Noem will carry out her cruel plans without a second thought.”

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Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.comthat reports on news, crime and politics throughout New England.