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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 5:53 p.m. ET – Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama’s choice to be secretary of defense, finished a day-long marathon confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, enduring nearly eight hours of testy and skeptical questions from Republicans.
At the start of Thursday’s hearing, it seemed nearly certain that the Senate would vote to confirm Hagel. But the nominee labored at certain points during the day to clarify and explain his comments. Whether his occasional stumbles were serious enough to jeopardize his confirmation was not clear by the end of the testimony.
There are 55 senators in the Democratic caucus and 45 Senate Republicans, so if there’s no filibuster, Hagel would seem assured of confirmation. The last time the Senate rejected a Cabinet nominee was in 1989 when there was a Republican president and a Democratic-controlled Senate.
Republican senators confronted Hagel with quotations from statements he had made months or years ago – and sometimes he apologized for them or amended them.
Late in the day Sen. Mike Lee, R- Utah, asked Hagel whether he’d said in 2003 that Israel keeps Palestinians “caged up like animals” and whether he still believes that.
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“Like many things I’ve said, I would like to go back and change the words and the meaning,” Hagel told Lee. “If I had a chance to go back and edit it, I would. I regret that I used those words.”
But he said he’d made his statement “in a larger context … (addressing) the frustration in what’s happening (in Israel) which is not in Israel’s interest” and mentioned the need “to find ways that we can help bring peace and security to Israel.”
Quizzed by both Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. David Vitter, R- La., on a statement he’d made calling the Iranian government a “legitimate” one, Hagel said, “I should have said ‘recognized’ instead of ‘legitimate.’”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., grills Secretary of Defense nominee Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., on his opposition to the 2007 troop surge in Iraq.
At one point he told Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R- Ga., regarding U.S. policy toward Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons: “I’ve just been handed a note that I misspoke and said I supported the president’s position on ‘containment.’ If I said that, I meant to say that obviously – his position on containment – we don’t have a position on containment.”
Hagel then said, “I’ve had more attention paid to my words in the last eight weeks than I ever thought possible.”
This prompted Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D- Mich., to intervene, “Just to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment – which is we do not favor containment.” Hagel quickly concurred with Levin’s statement.
Hagel told the panel in his opening remarks that he is “fully committed to the president's goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” and that “all options must be on the table to achieve that goal. My policy is one of prevention, and not one of containment and the President has made clear that is the policy of our government.”
At another point, Hagel, explaining his criticism quoted in a 2008 book by Aaron David Miller, of “the Jewish lobby” and his allegation that “it intimidates a lot of people” in Congress – comments for which Hagel has apologized – said he ought to not have used the word “intimidates.”
“I should have used ‘influence,’” he said.
Later, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., challenged Hagel to “name one dumb thing we’ve been goaded into doing” by the pro-Israel lobby or to identify one member of Congress whom the pro-Israel lobby had intimidated. Hagel said, “I didn't have in mind a single person," and did not identify any policy the U.S. government had been goaded into.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, played Hagel a recording of an interview Hagel did in 2009 with an al Jazeera program. A listener submitted a question asking about “the image of the United States is that of the world’s bully” and whether the United States needed “to change the perception and the reality” before asking other nations to reduce their arsenals. In that 2009 program Hagel began his reply by saying, “Her observation is a good one … .”
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports on the latest from Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing.
When Cruz asked Hagel to explain this reply, he said Thursday, “I think my comment was it was a relevant and good observation. I don’t think I said that I agree with it.”
Early in the testimony, the Iraq war and President George W. Bush’s 2007 surge of U.S. troops into Iraq became the heated focus of the hearing.
Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., repeatedly pressed Hagel, a fellow Vietnam War veteran, on whether he had been right or wrong to say that the 2007 surge was “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since Vietnam.”
When McCain angrily said “Will you please answer the question?” Hagel told McCain “I’m not going to give you a yes or no answer … I’ll defer that judgment to history.”
When McCain shot back that Hagel had been wrong about the surge, Hagel said his “most dangerous blunder” comment had been “not just about the 2007 surge but the overall war of choice going into Iraq” in 2003.
As a senator, Hagel voted for the congressional resolution authorizing Bush to invade Iraq, but later turned critical of Bush’s conduct of the operation.
Other Republicans on the committee repeatedly pressed Hagel on his support for endorsement of Global Zero, the movement calling for abolition of nuclear weapons by 2030.
Hagel served on the Global Zero U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission which issued a report last May calling for an 80 percent reduction in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Hagel told ranking Republican committee member Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma that his position “has never been unilateral disarmament.”
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Former Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to be Defense Secretary, on Capitol Hill, Jan. 31, 2013.
And he said the Global Zero report was discussing “illustrative possibilities” and “scenarios” and wasn’t urging specific policies.
But last May’s Global Zero report, which Hagel signed on to, says that a drastically smaller U.S. arsenal could be negotiated bilaterally with Russia – “or implemented unilaterally.”
In his opening statement Hagel pledged that he would maintain an effective nuclear arsenal. “America's nuclear deterrent over the last 65 years has played a central role in ensuring global security and the avoidance of a World War III. I am committed to modernizing our nuclear arsenal,” he said.
Hagel, who was seriously wounded while serving as an Army infantryman in Vietnam, was a Republican senator from Nebraska from 1997 to 2009 but did not support Republican presidential candidates McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney last year.
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DEMAGOGUERY: The Republican strategy for gaining and maintaining political power by appealing to the ignorance, prejudices, emotions, fears, vanities and expectations of the public - typically by impassioned rhetoric, lies and propaganda (as deflection), often using nationalist, populists and religious themes as a cover for the orator's and his own party's incompetence, corruption and tyranny...
will4203, you are a fool to believe your own words,
Will, that is a Democrat "strategy". They used all thru the 2012 fiasco. Obama NEVER ran on his accomplishments of his first term. He ran on a "WAR on , nsert what ever here, "
The GOP and Tea Party and Right Wing have proven themselves unworthy again and again and again and again....
The documentation this there. Republicans aren't fit to be in power at any level. They're a menace to the security and stability of the United States - and the World....
Will4203
Which hand book did you get that one from Lib 1 or lib 2?
No, blind obedience to an absolute fool is a menace to our society as a whole. History has shown this time and time again.
my opinion is obame,hagel,clinton,and kerry and the rest of the liberal idiots are traitors and america was verry stupid in electing them and for all you liberal idiots,the liberal idiots always and will contiue to use the scare tactics,just look at obame,that idiot made up all sorts of lies and fake wars on everything to ruin this once great country
,that idiot made up all sorts of lies and fake wars on everything to ruin this once great country
i agree with soldier WMD's, the hunt for bin laden, and all the lives wasted on the war to get oil. SHut up. You my friend are the problem with this country.
Terri -
WRONG! I really feel sorry for liberals because they are so brainwashed that they cannot form a rational thought of their own, but instead spout talking points day in and day out.
As for WMD's, evidence was found that Hussein had actually used some of them on the Kurds. They suspect that many of those left were sent to Syria, but because Clinton gutted our intelligence agencies, we'll never know for sure.
As for the evidence for going to war in Iraq, Bush was using the exact same intelligence that Clinton was using when the democrats in Congress were demanding that we take action in Iraq.
We have yet to see any oil from the region used to this country's advantage.
But, being the biased and ignorant liberal that you are, you'll just keep your head buried in the sand instead of looking up anything for yourself. (HuffPo and moveon are not reliable sources).
Oh, and as for being quiet - Thanks to the 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights, neither soildier or I have to - at least until you liberals try to take that away as well.
The stupid eat their own,,lmao
Welcome to today's GOP obstructionists party of soon to be retired,old pasty faced men
Iraq was a faulty war,brought on by Dick head Cheney and Buch the war mongrels.Hagel was smarter not not agreeing to go.
bulletman ,i keep reading your commits and i see you have about a kindergarten education
You are what's wrong with the Left and you are a racist.
Bulletman357
How come you have not add Gen. Powel to that... Don't forget he is the one that sold the war to Congress and the UN and NATO.
Sessions now criticizing Hagel for his holding on the Nuke Zero long term plan. Oh boy - shocking, shocking, says Sessions.
Except for the fact that this was Saint Ronald Reagan's view as well.
And, intelligence shows a clear demonstration that cyber security is where we should be putting our money - so that our existing nukes, as well as other countries', will not be vulnerable.
newsgirl24,
Saint Ronald Reagan is absolutely correct.
Bush I ruined Reagan's abolitionist effort.
I worked at the Devil's Workshop for Saint Reagan, and it was the most fun you can have at work.
Bombs. Bombers. Rockets. Supersonic combustion ramjet engines.
It was a real blast!
Isn't it time to tell the pompus ass McCain that the world is NOT yes and now, black and white but in fact the world is many shades of gray.
Nowhere else in the world will you find a government that wants to destroy itself.
Byron the GOP has done anything and everything they can to ruin this country while Obama is in, remember idiot McConnell stating on the TV that he and the rest of his buddies would do everything to make sure that Obama would be a one-term president instead of fixing this country. Now why would you pay someone who would do that instead of fixing the country? You idiots seem to forget a whole lot.
It seems to me,the American people are tired of these repukes.,as we will be voting these Taliban losers out until they are all gone.
Hagel,is a nam vet,and does think for himself.
And the Republicon party is what's wrong with America,,IAgree
A lot of us 'Nam vets call John McCain an "ace." You see, you get 'ace' status when you've downed five aircraft. In John's case, however, they were all ours.
Thanks, People always seem to forget his flight record.
Where are the stories about Obama's progressive economic agenda dropping the economy back into a recession last quarter?? Have to think if a fiscal conservative was in office the media would be in a frenzy..
What's a fiscal conservative?
Never seen one from the GOP.
Then who are you thinking of or is that just a pie in the sky comment?
Very true we haven't seen a true fiscal conservative from either side in quite some time. Great example of a true fiscal conservative today would be Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Take a look at what he has done. Took a $3.6B deficit created by the previous progressive Gov. Jim Doyle, in less than 2 years turned that deficit into a $400M+ surplus... No pie in the sky comment here...
Weather you a Liberal, Conservative, Moderate or just a plain Repuke one thing for sure McCain is still sore and angry about losing to Obama and Bush He is 1 Angry White Man. Can we say heart attack on the horizon.
Not if he takes an aspirin a day. But Obama levied a tax on aspirins today so the price is going up. That's because they are white and they work!
Strange Twist,
When it comes to McCain, Angry White Devil Worshipping War Mongering Power Abusing Christian Man is more like it.
I do not understand why McCain has not been charged with sedition and/or treason. Some of his comments are outright lies and the lies are used to attack the President of the United States!
Racist age discrimination.
Follow up to your sad sarcasm! he is a vet like me, if he need aspirin @ the VA Hospital he get them all day for free. It was like that be-4 Obama was born Idiot.
Just another cooky cutter stiff. They circulate in the higher echelons of power long enough and they get appointed to every position of power and influence there is. The heads of Defense, the CIA, the NSA. Sec. of State, Special Envoys to East Bum Phuck Egypt! What's the difference? Panetta was an elected member of the House, then Director of the OMB. Then Clinton's Chief of Staff. He is also a lawyer, which is the first requirement to becoming a member of the club!
They are all insiders!
That means they follow the official gubmint policy. And you morons thought it was about Reps and Dems!
This country's name is The UNITED STATES of America ...so why are (Government) so divided when it comes to resolutions to get things done and happening to better our nation . We more than ever need to REunite and find solid solutions to what's best for our beloved country and its people . If the government can't be a good exemple on this issue how can then the government expect its citizens to do so .
I find diverse opinions are a positive thing. However, when it becomes radical and causes a stalemate and hurts the country, then, this is not good. Politicans should be focused on the good of the country and do what their people who vote for them expect them to do. But, if it was all just about the good of the country, the Queen of England would be Elton John. We should all share in these faults and vote them out and get a whole new crew. We therefore share the blame.
He rigged the voting so he could win his own election, now Obama owes him for rigging the presidential election, sad that the media can't do any research on these crooks.
Which year did he rig to win his own election?
Ridgelon.....riged the vote? Ummm, Bachmann, Palin, Perry, Romney, war based on a lie to get oil. A GOPher saying that crazy rape @!$%# (Akin R/Mo.) remember that. Obama did not have to rig a thing, you idiots had no one worthy of the presidency. Get your head out your ass,
Terri -
Any time that there are entire regions of states that show absolutely no votes for the opponent there should be an investigation to find out why as the situation reeks of election fraud.
However, we know that won't happen as it was in Obama's favor. Just like his administration refuses to prosecute voter intimidation by Black Panthers - even when it was caught on video.
Liberal math= 140% of a county's population voting = 100% only because 140% of them voted for The Obama. Your ignorance and lack of even bothering to question is the open door they are counting on.
Continue being sheep, your grandchildren already have to pick up your bill for it.
For golfsleft:
Failure to disclose involvement with electronic voting firm
For the first ten weeks of 1996, Hagel served as chairman of American Information Systems (AIS), a voting machine company which later changed its name to ES&S. He also had holdings in the firm's parent group, McCarthy Group Inc., worth between $1 and $5 million. [10] In November 1996, Hagel was elected to the Senate, the first Republican elected from Nebraska since 1974. He came from behind twice during his run (according to polls), first against well known Republican Attorney General Don Stenberg in the primary, and then against popular Democratic Gov. (and eventual senator) Ben Nelson. In fact, one Nebraska newspaper described his victory as a “stunning upset.” [11] In January 1997, the Washington Post called Hagel's victory, "the major Republican upset in the November election." [12] According to Bev Harris of Blackboxvoting.org, a group aimed at “consumer protection for elections,” Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely African-American communities that had never before voted Republican. AIS was responsible for counting approximately 80% of the votes in the election. [13] [14] [15]
In a disclosure form filed in 1996, Hagel did not report that he was chairman of AIS during 1996 or go into detail regarding the company’s underlying assets. Rather, he cited his holdings as an “excepted investment fund,” which is exempt from detailed disclosure rules. [16] [17] [18]
On May 23, 1997, Victor Baird, then serving as director of the Senate Ethics Committee, sent a letter to Hagel requesting “additional, clarifying information” for the personal financial disclosure report Hagel filed. In 2002, the issue surfaced again as Charlie Matulka, Hagel’s opponent for reelection, wrote to Baird requesting an investigation into Hagel’s ownership in and nondisclosure of ES&S (the information remained undisclosed as of 2002). Baird replied that Matulka's complaint lacked merit and dismissed the matter. [19] [20] [21]
Under the ethics panel’s regulations at the time, an “excepted investment fund” was one that was “publicly traded (or available) or widely diversified.” The committee had defined a “publicly available” stock or investment as one that could be purchased on a public market or for which information was publicly available. This type of information, some contended, would typically be found in reference outlets such as Moody’s Financial Services Information, Standard & Poor’s register, or Barron’s The Dow Jones and Financial Weekly. A 2003 search of all three by The Hill, however, revealed no references to McCarthy. In addition, a comprehensive report ordered by The Hill from Dun & Bradstreet, a leading financial information firm, indicated that McCarthy's financial information was not publicly available. Michael McCarthy, chairman of the McCarthy Group and Hagel’s campaign treasurer, acknowledged that the company was not publicly traded or widely diversified, but claimed that it was publicly available nonetheless. [22] [23] [24]
On January 25th and 27th of 2003, Baird met with Hagel's office. Later on the 27th, he abruptly resigned his post, ending a sixteen year stint with the committee. Later that day, Baird’s replacement, Robert Walker, changed the committee's definition of “excepted investment fund.” Under the revised definition, the committee would have the ability to decide, based on the specific facts of each case, whether an investment had been made in a publicly available firm. Many argued that the new definition made it virtually impossible to determine whether Hagel, or any other legislator, must report investments in non-traded private companies. [25] [26] [27]
Soon after the change, Lou Ann Linehan, Hagel’s chief of staff, denied that Hagel had ever failed to meet the Senate Ethics Committee’s reporting requirements in his annual financial disclosure forms. She claimed that she was sure that at least one investment advisor and broker confirmed that McCarthy Group Inc. was publicly available. She was unable, however, to offer the name of any investment broker or advisor who consulted with Hagel or his staff on the matter. [28][29] [30]
You should be able to use google too.
Old man loser McCain, lost really really big to Obama,in 2008.every time ace boy opens his old sore pie hole he looks like the old serial fool he is.
Age discrimination.
goober...
McCain is what is wrong in goverment today...bitter old white man republican. He will never learn anything new.
Bigot
'senator' Paine McCain the playboy alky fly-BOY who
Gets to be wit his lover 'senator' Graham cracker git to be together and show
their dumb-as-es for the whole world to see
Show da whole world how many stupid Americans VOTE for trash
bigot
Hagel's Greatest Hits:
On Israel:
-- Hagel, in 2007: The Israelis have “chained down [the Palestinian people] for many, many years.”
-- Hagel, in 2003: Israel "keep[s] Palestinians caged up like animals."
-- Hagel, in 2006: Accused Israel of carrying out a "sickening slaughter" in Lebanon.
-- Hagel, in 2009: Signed a letter addressed to President Obama calling for direct negotiations with the terrorist group Hamas.
-- Hagel, in 2006: “The political reality is that … the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here. ... Let me clear something up here if there’s any doubt in your mind. I’m a United States Senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel.”
On Iran:
-- Hagel, in 2006, speaking in Islamabad, Pakistan: “A military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.”
-- Hagel, in 2008: “Iran will not be deterred from developing nuclear arms only because the United States and the EU say they must—especially if they feel threatened and if the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, among others, all retain their nuclear weapons.”
-- Hagel, in 2006: Refused to ask that the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be designated a terrorist organization.
On defense:
-- Hagel, in 2009: On an Al Jazeera show, Hagel agreed that the U.S. is “the world’s bully.”
-- Hagel, in 2012: "[R]ecommended deep reductions in the U.S. nuclear inventory and eventually retiring intercontinental ballistic missiles, which form the land leg of the military’s nuclear triad of land, sea and air delivery platforms — that has drawn the most scrutiny."
-- Hagel, in 2011: "The Defense Department, I think, in many ways, has become bloated. ... In many ways I think the Pentagon needs to be pared down."
Are the repubs going to drop the S-bomb in one of their questions - "Chuck what do you think about the rebs in the red states wanting to secede, several counties are on the move now it appears?"
How about the A word.
Anti-Semite
Someone please eliminate John McCain from the planet...what a douche
Death threats?
Oh STFU you douche....
Jerry -
Reported as the threat that it is.
By the way, the only 'douche' around seems to be you.
Who does the GOP think should be nominated?
A former GOP Senator is not good enough?
Then who would they support?
Or is it just politics to oppose Obama any day, every day, always?
Rhetorical question.
How about one that isn't a RINO
Maybe he should ask John McCain to be the Secretary of Defense if he wants a Republican in the office.
Rhetorical answer.
Nah.
Just ask someone who isn't an Anti-Semite.
Is there any GOP who isn't a RINO?
Plenty.
And I'm sure you hate them all.
I think GOP wants someone with common sense, intelligence and compassionate to be defense secretary.
Rush Limbaugh? hannity? Beck? Trump?
No Maddow, Schultz or one of the other fine journalist from the bastion of credible news source.
I want know what former senator's Hagle's bit claim to fame is to be selected to be the next Sec. of Defense. It doesn't mention anything in the article. I don't care if when he was a senator if he was on the "Armed Services Committee" that doesn't make him an expert. Now remember former senator Hagle is no longer a senator so where's the experience?, there is none. It's like hiring someone to be maanger who has never been a manager that's what Chuck Hagle is. If and when he is confirmed it's going to be "on the job training" for the next four years. When you are away from Washington and not knowing what is going on that makes Chuck Hagle a bad candidate for Sec. of Defense.
The mere fact that this jerk undermined a sitting president should automatically disqualify him from serving as defense secretary. A good defense secretary should work to unite the country together in times of war. Dividing the country on the home front is inexcusable. I am sure this is Obama's way of "paying" this idiot for his support for Obama care. The Republicans need to put everything on the table and call this president out when he is obviously granting favors despite what may be best for the country.
. Get used to it because they are not going away and they will not fight fair.
Roger what's that saying, "All's fair in love and war", when intruders come into your country to kill you, you do whatever you have to to kill them. Come on now, Bubba! Dude they kicked our ass with IED's, and that proved successful cuz now this country in going broke becasue we have to fix the troops who were lied to.You remind me of that one marine on TV, after arriving in Iraq, saying they "weren't fighting fair. STF up, a$$hole. We went to Iraq, when most of our 9/11 attackers were Saudi. I guess bush couldn't read a map. STF up, flag-waver.
Guess the rest of Congress couldn't either, since they voted for it almost unanimously.
REALLY? It's comments like this that PROVE Progressive/Liberal/Democrats hate America and all she stands for! This would explain Obama's "fundamental transformation of america" and why ignorant people follow him to thier own destruction.
How about Dick "Deficits don't matter" Cheney for another go around at Sec of Defense?
Just let me stock up on Halliburton shares before the announcement.
hahahahhahahahahahahahhaa
Sure beats Hillary "What does it matter anyways" Clinton.