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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sen. John Curtis urges careful consideration of Trump's Cabinet nominees by the Senate.
• Curtis emphasizes personal character and thorough evaluation in the confirmation process.
• Pete Hegseth's hearing faced scrutiny over qualifications and past conduct, sparking tense exchanges.

WASHINGTON — As confirmation hearings begin for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, Sen. John Curtis called on his Senate colleagues to carefully consider their roles.

"I take very seriously the role that the Senate has in the Constitution for advice and consent," Curtis said Tuesday. "And I hope all my colleagues take that same seriousness in our constitutional responsibility."

Curtis' comments came during the "Politico Playbook: The First 100 Days" event at Union Station on Tuesday morning. Simultaneously, the first confirmation hearing for Trump's Cabinet nominees was underway, when Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Curtis, one of the new Republican members sworn into the U.S. Senate earlier this month, is widely viewed as a key vote on Trump's nominees. Each of Trump's Cabinet-level nominees must be confirmed by the Senate with a simple majority. At present, Republicans have a three-seat majority in the Senate with 53 members; as such, no more than three Republicans can vote "no" on any individual nominee.

In recent weeks, Curtis has met privately with several of Trump's nominees, including Hegseth, FBI director nominee Kash Patel and United Nations ambassador nominee Elise Stefanik.

When asked at Tuesday's event about his conversation with Hegseth, Curtis said he followed the same pattern he has for each of Trump's nominees: he asks the nominees for character references he can contact; he reads their books or other publications; he speaks with other individuals who know the nominees well.

"I can't make a good decision, whether it's somebody that's as controversial as Pete Hegseth or non-controversial as Marco Rubio, if I don't look at the entire sheet of music," Curtis said.

Curtis noted his careful process is "not going against the president," he explained. "In my view, that's actually helping the president. ... (My role) is not only consent, it's advice. I can't give the president advice if I've not thoroughly investigated and understood every moving part to this nominee."

Curtis will participate in his first confirmation hearing as a senator Wednesday when two of Trump's nominees appear before Curtis' committees: Sean Duffy, nominee for Transportation secretary, before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; and Rubio, nominee for secretary of State, before the Foreign Relations Committee.

Hegseth confirmation hearing focuses on morals, past statements

Hegseth's confirmation hearing Tuesday appeared to show unanimous support for the Trump nominee from Republicans on the Armed Service Committee. But Democrats, as expected, questioned Hegseth's qualifications for the role, citing allegations of sexual misconduct, marital infidelity and past comments about women and members of the LGBTQ+ community in the military.

Hegseth vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations. He would not say whether he believes excessive drinking or extramarital affairs should disqualify someone from the post of Defense secretary.

When Hegseth's marital infidelity was repeatedly mentioned, he said, "I'm not a perfect person, but redemption is real."

The back-and-forth between Hegseth and senators was tense, at times, with multiple Democratic members — including Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan — declaring their belief that Hegseth is not qualified for the role.

Hegseth told senators he does believe women in the military should be able to serve in combat roles — a shift from his previous statements.

"Well, I appreciate your eleventh-hour conversion," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, retorted.

Hegseth was critical of the media coverage about him since he was announced in November as Trump's pick to lead the Defense Department. "Our left-wing media in America today, sadly, doesn't care about the truth," Hegseth said. "All they were out to do was to destroy me because I'm a change agent and a threat to them. Despite the attacks, I stand committed to the truth and our warfighters."

Curtis, speaking at the Politico event, was asked how important he believes personal character is for nominees. "It's huge," Curtis said. "It is a big deal."

Curtis noted that "we're all flawed" and none are "perfect." "I'm the first to tell you, you know, I have things in my past that if I were a nominee would be coming up," Curtis said.

Curtis has not yet said how he will vote on Hegseth, emphasizing he will allow the process to play out before making a decision.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Samuel Benson

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Samuel Benson is the national political correspondent for the Deseret News. He covers the 2024 presidential election. He worked as the lead researcher on two best-selling books: “Romney: A Reckoning,” by McKay Coppins; and “Barkley: A Biography,” by Timothy Bella. He studied sociology and Spanish at Brigham Young University. When not writing or reading, Benson enjoys cycling and hiking in Utah’s beautiful outdoors.