Sherrill says Hegseth ‘escalating his war on women in the military’
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), a former Navy pilot running for New Jersey governor, on Tuesday accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of trying to force women out of the military after he announced the “highest male standard” would be imposed on all combat roles in the armed forces.
“Eliminating the current highly rigorous standards for women in combat positions has nothing to do with increasing lethality and everything to do with forcing women out of the Armed Services,” Sherrill said in a statement after the secretary’s announcement.
“Secretary Hegseth has said he does not believe women should serve in combat,” she continued. “Now he is trying to make that happen by escalating his war on women in the military, despite presenting no evidence that women cannot ably serve in combat positions.”
Hegseth gathered top military leaders at a base in Quantico, Va., on Tuesday to reinforce his vision for the Defense Department, earlier announcing that the U.S. military will require those in combat jobs to meet the “highest male standard only” of their service’s physical fitness test.
“At my direction, each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat MOS [military occupational specialty], for every designated combat arms position, returns to the highest male standard only, because this job is life or death, standards must be met, and not just met — at every level, we should seek to exceed the standard, to push the envelope, to compete,” Hegseth told the attendees at the event.
While the move does not directly call for fewer women to serve in combat roles, Hegseth acknowledged that is a likely outcome.
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” the secretary said. “It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify — because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Hegseth had advocated against women serving in combat roles. During his confirmation process, he assured senators that he would support women serving in all roles in the military.
Sherrill called the Tuesday gathering in Virginia, where President Trump also delivered remarks, a “vanity rally” and “yet another display of incompetence.” She said it demonstrated Hegseth “is completely unfit” to serve in his role and accused him of injecting politics into the U.S. military.
“Serving in the military is a serious business for serious people. Today’s campaign rally is just the latest example of how Secretary Hegseth is incapable of doing his job and has to resort to theatrics to distract from his failures,” Sherrill said in her statement.
“Instead of focusing on improving our readiness or deterrence against our adversaries, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth clearly only care about further infecting our military with partisan, culture war ideologies that will ultimately make us less safe.”