A recently unearthed video clip of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Defense, shows the former Army National Guard officer lamenting that allowing LGBTQ service members to serve openly, and allowing women into combat roles, would erode military standards.

Hegseth, a former Fox News contributor, made the comments during a 2015 appearance on the station’s Red Eye program. (MeidasTouch News obtained and posted the clip to its website.) During a panel discussion, Hegseth accused military higher ups, under former President Barack Obama’s administration, of engaging in “social engineering” by pushing for greater inclusivity instead of improving national security.

“What you’re seeing is a military right now that is more interested in social engineering led by this president than they are in war fighting,” Hegseth says. “So, as a result, through ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and women in the military and these standards, they’re going to inevitably start to erode standards because they want that one female special operator, that one female Green Beret, that one female Army Ranger, that one female Navy Seal, so they can put them on a recruiting poster and feel good about themselves and has nothing to do with national security.”

Hegseth made the comments five years after Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into effect. The law, which was in place from 1994 to 2010, was a compromise between Bill Clinton and a conservative Congress, in which — at least in theory, though not in practice — LGB service members would not be asked about their sexual orientation, in exchange for not disclosing their identities to superiors or fellow service members.

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Those service members who violated the policy — or, in many cases, found themselves targeted by anti-LGBTQ enemies within the military — were forcibly discharged, with 13,000 ultimately being kicked out, and in the process, losing their benefits.

Similarly, it was the Obama administration, under former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, that lifted the ban on women service members serving in combat roles. However, such changes have not been embraced by those with more traditional views or others who believe women lack the physical strength and endurance to comply with the various military branches’ physical fitness requirements.

Some senators have balked at Hegseth’s comments about women serving in combat roles, arguing that his views are sexist, antiquated, and call into question his ability to lead a military where women are serving.

He has since walked back or attempted to clarify some of his comments. His supporters have argued that he supports women serving in the military but believes that most are not capable of meeting the requirements to serve in combat roles or elite units. 

Hegseth also faces scrutiny over having paid an undisclosed amount of money to a woman who accused him of raping her at a Republican event in California in 2017, reports USA Today.

He has also been accused of misconduct, which allegedly led to him being ousted from a veterans’ charity organization, and he reportedly sparked concern among some of his co-workers at Fox News by allegedly abusing alcohol.

Although most of the outrage around his nomination has been rooted in his comments concerning women in the military, Hegseth has more recently come under fire for his views on LGBTQ rights and his criticism of the Obama administration for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

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According to Talking Points Memo, Hegseth has held anti-LGBTQ views since his college years in the early 2000s, when, as the publisher of the conservative magazine The Princeton Tory, he penned various publisher’s notes and columns criticizing homosexuality.

As publisher, Hegseth oversaw an editorial team that penned a recurring feature called “The Rant” — which did not have an individual author but were identified as being “compiled by Tory editors” — that frequently railed against homosexuality and same-sex marriage rights.

One of the rants criticized a “Gender Bender Day” event that LGBTQ groups on campus held, with the editorial team writing, “Boys can wear bras and girls can wear ties until we’re blue in the face, but it won’t change the reality that the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral.”

As recently as June, Hegseth appeared on The Ben Shapiro Show, where he said that the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was part off a “Marxist” agenda, in which service members are more focused on their individual identities rather than focusing on being part of a larger unit.

He also said the repeal was “a costume for the trans agenda being pushed into the military,” which he alleged undermined the military’s overall effectiveness, according to CNN. Hegseth also claimed that many who once supported the repeal now regret it for the same reason. He has made similar claims in his book The War on Warriors.

“At least when [the Army’s advertising and recruiting slogan] was an ‘Army of One’ [between 2001 and 2006] they were, you know, tough looking, go get ‘em army – but … that was the subtle shifting toward an individual ad campaign,” he said. “Now [since the repeal of DADT,] you just have the absurdity of ‘I have two mommies and I’m so proud to show them that I can wear the uniform too.’ So they, it’s just like everything else the Marxists and the leftists have done. At first, it was camouflaged nicely and now they’re just, they’re just open about it.”

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In a statement to CNN, a Trump spokesperson said: “Pete wants to see the U.S. military focus on being the world’s strongest fighting force — not on cultural and social issues. Bottom line: If you can meet the standards, you can serve. But given the threats we face, our priorities shouldn’t be lowering standards and wasting taxpayer money to meet arbitrary social quotas — our priorities should be readiness and lethality.”

An estimated 6.1% of current service members identify as LGBTQ, according to a 2022 study.

The national LGBTQ rights organization the Human Rights Campaign blasted Hegseth’s past remarks to Shapiro.

“Every day, brave military servicemembers get up and courageously protect and defend our country. They put their lives on the line for our freedoms, and they are owed our ironclad gratitude for their sacrifice,” HRC Press Secretary Brandon Wolf said in a statement.

“The Secretary of Defense is responsible for supporting all our service members, but Hegseth’s comments show an immense disrespect for those in the military who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, women, and anyone who doesn’t fit his own narrow ideology,” Wolf adde.d “Not only is he unqualified and unfit for this role, but those who have stepped up to serve their country deserve better than the failed, discriminatory policies of the past.”

For a while, it seemed that Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense might be scuttled, but, as Politico reports, the outcry from conservative activists who want to see Hegseth installed, along with a pressure campaign by the Trump transition team, has led reticent Republican senators to do an about-face on their concerns.

Additionally, Hegseth has since walked back his comments, responding affirmatively after U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked him whether he supported gays in the military, according to Politico. He is now expected to receive enough votes from Republicans to be confirmed. 

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include Hegseth’s 2024 remarks on the repeal of “Don’t Ask,  Don’t Tell.”