Anonymous wrote:Sen Duckworth asking "yes or no" over an over is great. She's not even asking hard questions.
Actually, she asked the following questions which should not have been hard for anyone qualified for the position of Sec of Defense of the largest army in the world. Not only is Hegseth ignorant, he also didn't spend enough time getting up to speed on basic facts that he would have to know as Def Sec. Dude didn't even do his homework. He is not a serious person.
"Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army combat veteran, repeatedly pushed Pete Hegseth on his qualifications to be secretary of defense, asking him about the international security agreements and negotiations he will be expected to handle in the job.
“What is the highest level of negotiations that you engaged in, that you’ve led in? Because the secretary of defense does lead international security negotiations. There are three main ones that the secretary of defense leads and signs — can you name at least one of them?” the Illinois Democrat asked.
Hegseth, after asking her to repeat the question, said he has not been involved in international security negotiations given he has not been in government. In response to Duckworth’s question to name security negotiations, Hegseth said, “NATO might be one that you’re referring to.”
Duckworth then asked him to name “the importance of at least one of the nations in ASEAN and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations, and how many nations are in ASEAN by the way?”
The US works closely with ASEAN, which stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on Indo-Pacific security and defense issues.
“I couldn’t tell you the exact amount of nations in that, but I know that we have allies in South Korea, in Japan, and in AUKUS with Australia in trying to work on submarines with them — ” Hegeseth said.
“Mr. Hegseth, none of those countries are in ASEAN,” Duckworth said. “None of those three countries that you’ve mentioned are in ASEAN. I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations.”
There are 10 member nations of ASEAN, including Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore."
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-cabinet-confirmation-hearings-01-14-25/index.html