Video: Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) Worries About Pete Hegseth’s Drinking Impairing His Ability to Decide “whether we attack someone or…to what extent nuclear weapons could be used”

Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) nails it in this conversation with  Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.”  See below for video and highlights:

• “[Hegseth’s] comments opposing women in combat, many of whom are decorated and have acquitted themselves very well, with his own sexual assault allegations, there’s a concern that it would halt or reverse progress that we have made addressing sexual assault in the military and creating an environment less hostile to women in the military. But I’m also hearing concerns about his drinking and the fact that you need to be sure that you have someone who will decide whether we attack someone or who could decide to what extent nuclear weapons could be used, having the presence of mind and not being impaired.”
• “I have been saying since [Hegseth] was first announced that his appointment would have a chilling effect on on attracting and retaining the best and the brightest in our Armed Forces – women, also minorities…We have done a really good job making sure that our Armed Forces reflect the diversity of the country that they defend and we’ve had challenges meeting some of our recruitment goals for a wide variety of reasons…Mr. Hegseth would add to those problems if he were confirmed.”
• “I’m very concerned about [Trump’s efforts to get rid of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – DEI – goals in the federal government], I mean these go so far as to even to rescind a 1965 executive order from President Johnson that applies to…federal government contractors; that includes contractors that serve our military, contractors that build our warships. And it basically means now there’s nothing prohibiting them by executive order from engaging in discrimination against employees simply for who they are. It’s appalling and undoes so much progress that we have made over the past 60 years.”
• “Well we have over 200,000 federal employees and contractors and over 140,000 veterans. [Trump’s assault on the federal workforce] is already having an effect. The VA hospital in my district had a meeting yesterday to talk about how it was going to impact their ability to provide services to veterans. They were about to open a new VA hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, less than 30 minutes away from my district. Now they’re not sure they can do that because they can’t hire the staff to staff it. We’ve seen VA hospitals and other states that have rescinded employment offers to nurses. We already have a nursing shortage, we are already struggling to meet the health care needs of our veterans, this is going to make it worse. The VA is  concerned they’re going to have to start sending veterans to civilian hospitals in the region; they are already struggling with nurse and provider shortages. This is a mess. And this is not what the American people voted for when they voted for Donald Trump; they thought they were voting to reduce costs, instead he is burdening our veterans, he is burdening our soldiers and he is burdening our military families.”
• “What we need to do and what Democrats were ready to do with Republicans last Congress was pass an immigration border security bill that invests in Border Patrol agents and put them on the border so that our armed forces can do the job they were trained for and that is to serve our needs both here in bases, but also overseas.”
• “…as a member of the Armed Services Committee in the last Congress, when I went to Norfolk Naval Station and asked
  their commanding officer what is the number one thing that keeps you up at night, she talked about the fact that when they have heavy rains – not just increased storms and higher intensity storms but heavy rains – there is a street that bisects that naval station that floods and she can’t get her people from one side to the other. How is she going to be able to deploy ships in an emergency or when they are deployed if she can’t get across the base because it’s flooded? And by rolling back all of the effort that we have made to address resiliency and climate action…what the president is doing is ignoring the impact that climate change has on military readiness and on our soldiers’ ability to do their job and frankly their quality of life.”
• “[Conditioning disaster aid] is a Rubicon Republicans should not cross. The American people expect their government to solve problems and help people, particularly when there is a natural disaster. There are people in California that voted for Mr Trump, there are people in California that voted for Kamala Harris, there are people in California that did not vote an all. But they all expect their government to help them in an emergency. And we have never conditioned aid in a natural disaster. And there’s so much misinformation that they’re even using to justify these conditions, but they’re ignoring the fact that it is difficult to fight a fire in hurricane-force winds. So we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can in California and North Carolina and anywhere else to address the needs of the American people, especially in a natural disaster.”
• “I think we need to make sure that all of of us this is an
  all-hands-on-deck moment: it’s me as an elected official, it’s you as a member of the press making sure we are calling out this misinformation and that we are countering it…in every medium where people receive their information. And so that’s what we need to make sure we are doubling down and being more aggressive, whether you get your information from social media, your neighbor next door, we’ve got to make sure that we’re giving you the truth.”