Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee, and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee were critical of the Defense Department’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

“First and foremost, up front, you have to tear out DEI and [critical race theory] initiatives, root and branch out of institutions,” Hegseth said Tuesday during his confirmation hearing. “Then you have to put in Army, Navy, and Air Force secretaries and others, civilian positions, at the helm who are committed to the same priorities that the president of the United States is, and if confirmed, the secretary of defense will be. Send a clear message that this is not a time for equity.”

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Republicans have largely been critical of the Biden administration’s promotion of diversity and equity broadly, including in the service branches and service institutions. Hegseth, especially during his time as a Fox News commentator, has long railed against the same policies.

“DEI is not about giving everybody opportunity,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said. “It is rooted in cultural Marxism, the idea that gets the room, any room with oppressor versus oppressed. It’s race essentialism, and it is poison.”

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) followed up on the line of conversation during his allotted questioning time.

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“That’s a lot of service members sitting in a lot of briefs, hearing about a lot of threats or political perspectives that might be dangerous, that do not comport to threats that actually exist inside the force, or ideas that introduce critical race theory or DEI or climate change initiatives that they and their commands have to conform to,” Hegseth told Banks.

Prior to being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, Hegseth said Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be fired.

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“First of all, you got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said on the Shawn Ryan Show in early November 2024. “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke s*** has got to go.”

GOP senators on the committee supported Hegseth’s nomination throughout the hearing as Democrats grilled him on allegations that he committed sexual assault in 2017, which Hegseth was not charged for and has claimed was a consensual encounter; claims of financial mismanagement at previous positions; and sentiments he has shared about women in combat roles in the military.