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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman said "I'm just doing my job" as he prepared to meet Republican Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense.
Fetterman spoke with CNN's Manu Raju Thursday morning about his ongoing support for some Trump's nominees. The Pennsylvania lawmaker will become the first Democratic senator to meet with Hegseth, and believes his party should be open to such conversations, to ensure everyone is working together.
"I'm not sure why it would be controversial to anybody," Fetterman said. "Those individuals can vent or rant on Twitter, but I'm here to have conversations and I think I'm just doing my job."
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Newsweek reached out to Fetterman's office for additional comment.
Hegseth served with the Minnesota National Guard and was deployed in three tours of Iraq and Afghanistan as a platoon leader and civil military operations officer.
However, Hegseth has been seen as a controversial pick, calling for a purge of "woke" military leaders, arguing that women should not serve in combat roles and advocating for pardoning service members charged with war crimes.
He left the Army in 2021 saying, according to Reuters, he was not wanted after being labeled an "extremist." In his book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, Hegseth wrote that the feeling was mutual: "I didn't want this Army anymore either." The FOX & Friends Weekend host has also been criticized for lacking the experience needed to run the defense department.
Also, Hegseth was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in California seven years ago. Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth's lawyer, has previously dismissed the allegations, telling Newsweek that no criminal charges were filed.
Raju asked Fetterman if he will raise the allegations with Hegseth, and the Senator said there will be "an FBI vet and a committee hearing," which will highlight those issues.
"I know there hasn't been any formal charges, criminal-wise," Fetterman said. "It's all one of the things that I'm sure might come up on the conversation today, but I am aware there are some allegations of course."
He did not blatantly say he would vote for Hegseth, just that he is open to the conversation currently.
Fetterman did note, however, that he had never heard of Hegseth before his nomination.
"We're just going to have a straight up conversation," Fetterman said, adding that the meeting with Hegseth will be off-the-record. "I suspect there's some things we might agree on in terms of the military, whether it's China or Israel, maybe disagree some when it comes to Ukraine, but I think it's an opportunity to have a conversation."
Fetterman also noted that Hegseth might not have been in his "top 10 choices because I wasn't familiar with him at all."
"But that's where we are," Fetterman said. "If this is the individual that could have this incredibly important role, I think it's responsible for me to be a senator from Pennsylvania to have a conversation and to establish some type of relationship with that individual."
But the senator also repeated that he is looking out for everyone's interests.
"I'm not just the senator for Pennsylvania or for my voters or for Democrats," Fetterman said. "It's for all of us. We have received a lot of support calls into our office saying, 'hey will you have a conversation.'"
Fetterman has been a lone Democrat by voicing his support for some of Trump's Cabinet nominations. The senator has been a vocal critic of the Democratic Party's election strategy and has supported picks including New York Representative Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador for her "strong and unapologetic pro-Israel position," as well as the "strong choice" of Florida Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
On November 19, Fetterman even managed to be positive about his former opponent in the Pennsylvania Senate race, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I'm voting for the dude," Fetterman posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Most recently, Fetterman and billionaire Elon Musk traded pleasantries on X.
"Democrats or other people can freak out over anyone that was nominated, and I'm not that guy," Fetterman said. "I'm hoping to have a conversation for whoever, especially the really important ones … If these people are going to hold these kinds of offices and we're in the business of working with people that disagree with some of the things we have and we try to find the things we can possibly agree on for the best possible outcomes."
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