Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, said women shouldn't serve in combat roles in the military before he walked his comments back.

A senator told Hegseth: "I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations."

“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert said defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is facing allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. But he also has his supporters, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who flubbed a key line as he wrapped up his defense of Hegseth during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing.

Sen. John Curtis said he’s decided to support President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. The Utah Republican was one of a few GOP senators who had not declared how he would vote on Hegseth’s nomination. This makes Hegseth much more likely to clinch the Cabinet position.

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said of Hegseth's remarks on North Korea's status as a nuclear power: "We've not made such a recognition. I can't speak to what the incoming team will—how they'll characterize it. We've not gone so far as to make that recognition."

Pete Hegseth, center, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, is joined by his wife Jennifer Rauchet, right, as they depart a meeting with Republican House members, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republicans appear poised to confirm Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the government’s largest and most complex agency

Pete Hegseth’s views on women in combat were a matter of public record long before the Senate Armed Services Committee heard his case to become Donald Trump’s Defense secretary. Women are “life-givers,

The report doesn't offer material from Hegseth's ex-wives or a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth has said that encounter was consensual, and prosecutors never filed charges.

At his confirmation hearing, the defense-secretary nominee looked like a man who understood that the fix was in.

Pete Hegseth could hardly be more suited to be Donald Trump’s secretary of Defense — even though he’d surely be deemed unqualified by any conventional president.