Pete Hegseth survives confirmation hearing with defiant performance

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Pete Hegseth showed why Trump chose him with a defiant performance that would have looked at home on Fox News, where he used to be a host.
55% : Kaine asked: "Are there any other important facts you chose not to reveal?"Hegseth said: "I sit here before you, an open book".Kaine replied: "With multiple non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality agreements tying the hands of people who would like to speak to us".Republicans seemed to be enjoying themselves and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told the hearing it was "going well".
52% : But instead - aside from the public chastening - he seemed likely to be confirmed in a sign how powerful Trump has become.
41% : Hegseth said that he was in the Washington DC National Guard unit on duty that day, to which Hirono replied: "That sounds to me you will comply, you will shoot protesters in the legs".Hirono also asked if Hegseth would use military force to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal as Trump has suggested he might.
39% : Hegseth dodged again and said that "President Trump received 77 million votes to be the lawful commander in chief".
38% : But, as President Trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly 'the right credentials' and where has it gotten us?"In response to a question from a Republican Senator, Hegseth blamed a "coordinated smear campaign" from the liberal media for trying to take him down.
34% : "Once you have babies you're no longer able to be lethal?"Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, asked Hegseth if he would obey an order from Trump to shoot protesters in the legs as the President-elect did during the 2020 incident in Lafayette Square in Washington - Mark Esper, the defence secretary at the time, refused.

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