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WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and chair of the SASC Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, today received commitments from Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee, regarding Alaska and restoring military readiness during a SASC hearing on Hegseth’s nomination. Specifically, Sen. Sullivan asked for and received commitments from Mr. Hegseth concerning the strategic importance of Alaska and the need to continue “to build up our military assets and infrastructure in Alaska to establish deterrence in the Arctic and in the Indo-Pacific.” Sen. Sullivan also received commitments from Mr. Hegseth to visit Alaska, to address the Navy’s shipbuilding crisis, to restore lethality and war-fighting as the core mission of the Department of Defense (DOD), and to root out woke policies that detract from that mission.

Mr. Hegseth Commits to Senator Sullivan to Visit Alaska and to Continue the Critical Military Build-up in Alaska

SENATOR SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Hegseth, congratulations on your nomination and thank you and your family for your service and sacrifice. Now for the most important question you will receive all day: In 1935 before the Congress, the father of the United States Air Force General Billy Mitchell was testifying about a certain place in the world. He said, “I believe that in the future, whoever holds [this place] will control the world. [This location] is the most strategic place in the world.” What place was Billy Mitchell talking about? Let me give you a hint. It wasn’t Greenland.

PETE HEGSETH: I believe he was talking about the great state of Alaska.

SULLIVAN: He was talking about the great state of Alaska. Great answer. If confirmed, will you commit to come with me to the great state of Alaska to meet our warriors who are on the front lines every day?

HEGSETH: Senator, I have and as I mentioned to you in the past, I did a brief training exercise up at Fort Wainwright in a previous part of my military life. I look forward to returning.

SULLIVAN: I will say we are on the front lines with this new era of authoritarian aggression in Alaska. The last two years, we’ve had Chinese and Russian naval task forces, joint strategic bomber task forces in our EEZ in our ADIZ. After his election, President Trump put out an extensive statement on Alaska, which included the following statement: “We will ensure Alaska gets even more defense investments as we fully rebuild our military, especially as Russia and China are making menacing moves in the Pacific.” Mr. Hegseth, if confirmed, will you work with me, this committee and the incoming commander in chief on continuing to build up our military assets and infrastructure in Alaska to establish deterrence in the Arctic and in the Indo-Pacific?

HEGSEH: If confirmed, Senator, it would be a pleasure to work alongside you and this entire committee to recognize the very real threat in the Indo-Pacific, the very real ways—even these past couple of weeks—that Russia has attempted to probe and push in and around Alaska, and also the very real strategic significance of Alaska vis-a-vis shipping lanes through the Arctic. There are many, many ways in which Alaska is strategically significant. With a necessary shift toward INDOPACOM, Alaska, by necessity, will play an important role in that.

Mr. Hegseth Commits to Senator Sullivan to Restore the Focus of the Military to “Lethality” and “Defeating our Enemies”

SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Hegseth. I very much appreciate your focus on lethality and warfighting. We desperately need it. I want to provide a few examples of the Biden woke military, which is not focused on readiness or lethality. I want to get your comments on it. Nobody wants an extremist or racist in our military, but one of the most disgraceful and shameful things I’ve seen over the past four years as a senator on this committee and as a Marine Corps reserve officer was, on day one, the Biden administration played up a false and insulting narrative that our military was chock full of racists and violent extremists. This reached a pinnacle in this committee when Biden’s Under Secretary of policy, Colin Kahl, the number three guy at the Pentagon, testified that one of his top goals would be to “[end] violent extremism and systemic racism within the ranks of the military.” He had no data on this. The media loved it, fanned the flames, wrote baloney stories on this false narrative. Disappointingly, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle here reinforced this ridiculous narrative, one even suggesting almost 10 percent of our uniformed military were extremists. 200,000 members. Ridiculous, by the way, from this committee on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Hegseth, unlike Under Secretary Kahl, you have a lot of experience with our military. Do you believe the military is a systemically racist organization and, if confirmed, will you commit to defend, not denigrate our troops?

HEGSETH: Senator, I was also offended by those comments because anyone who’s been on active duty, in the National Guard, man or  woman in units, understands that is fundamentally false.

SULLIVAN: By the way, there are three studies. To his credit, Secretary Austin put out one of them that said exactly what you just said. Fundamentally false.

HEGSETH: Senator, they knew it. Anyone who’d been in a unit knew it. One could argue that, if not the least, one of the least racist institutions in our country is the United States military. Being a racist in our military has not been tolerated for a very long time.

SULLIVAN: Would you agree the U.S. military is one of the most forward-leaning, probably one of the greatest civil rights organizations in American history?

HEGSETH: No doubt.

SULLIVAN: Let me turn to another one. Last year, at a hearing before this committee, I called on the Biden Secretary of the Navy to resign because he’s failing in his ability to build ships. We are being completely out-built in terms of ships by the Chinese. Yet, this Secretary of the Navy has been focused on climate change, not building ships and lethality. Mr. Hegseth, if your Secretary of the Navy ends up focusing on climate change more than shipbuilding and lethality, will you commit to me to fire him?

HEGSETH: My Secretary of the Navy, should I be confirmed, will not be focused on climate change in the Navy, just like the Secretary of the Air Force won’t be focused on LG-powered fighter jets, or the Secretary of the Army will not be focused on electric powered tanks. We’re going to be focused on lethality, defeating our enemies.

SULLIVAN: I appreciate that. The other thing President Biden did, his first executive order as president was to focus on transgender surgeries for active duty troops. This is all I’m describing the woke military here under Biden over the last four years. If confirmed and you issue an order saying we are going to rip the Biden woke yoke off the neck of our military and focus on lethality and warfighting, how do you think the troops will react?

HEGSETH: Senator, I know the troops will rejoice.

SULLIVAN: They will love it.

HEGSETH: They will love it. And we’ve already seen it in recruiting numbers. There’s already been a surge since President Trump won the election of recruiting. The Army say…

SULLIVAN: Do you think our military will follow that order?

HEGSETH: Our military will follow that order gladly because they want to focus on lethality and warfighting and get all the woke political prerogative, politically correct social justice, political stuff out of the military.

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  defense, sasc, sullivan