January 15, 2025 11:16 AM UTC

Gabe Evans, Jason Crow: Yin And Yang On Pete Hegseth

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• by: Colorado Pols

Ernest Luning of the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog connected with two members of Colorado’s congressional delegation who are also military veterans: Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora, a decorated combat veteran, and newly-election Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, who served as a National Guard helicopter pilot and was deployed overseas during Operation Enduring Freedom. Though neither of these House members will vote on the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, their opinions are as relevant to the debate over Hegseth’s controversial nomination as any member of Colorado’s delegation on account of their service.

And as Luning reports, the two veterans couldn’t be farther apart on whether Hegseth is fit to serve:

Crow, an Army Ranger combat veteran and attorney serving his fourth term in Congress, said Hegseth is “grossly unqualified” to run the Department of Defense, the largest federal agency, telling Colorado Politics that the nominee’s experience and character both come up short…

“The man remains grossly unqualified, both by experience but even more importantly by character to serve as the secretary of defense,” Crow said. “The military is an organization that puts emphasis on character, integrity and leadership. It’s not just the repeated accusations about alcohol abuse, abuse of women, running nonprofits into the ground and into debt, but his repeated assertions that women should not serve in the military and in combat roles are just automatically disqualifying.” [Pols emphasis]

Rep. Gabe Evans, who eked out a slim victory in last November’s “red wave” on a tight embrace of the MAGA brand including backing up Trump’s gross exaggerations about the city of Aurora on the campaign trail, appears to be willing to let Pete Hegseth’s mountain of disqualifying baggage slide and see Hegseth confirmed to run the Department of Defense based on his deep Fox and Friends credentials:

An Army combat veteran and retired police lieutenant elected in November, Evans expressed confidence in Hegseth’s “fresh ideas” and ability to make troop recruitment, retention and readiness the military’s top priorities…

“Operational readiness, recruiting and retention have sorely lagged under the Biden administration and need to be the absolute top priorities for the Department of Defense,” Evans said. “Between his own combat deployment and his fresh ideas, I trust Pete Hegseth will serve faithfully.”

Added Evans: “Currently Colorado’s National Guard is facing recruitment and retention problems, which directly threatens our readiness and national security. I welcome Hegseth’s plans to cut out DEI nonsense. Recruiting, retention, and readiness of our brave troops must be the priority.” [Pols emphasis]

Much like fellow freshman Rep. Jeff Crank’s praise for Hegseth’s leadership of an organization Hegseth left under a cloud of mismanagement allegations, there’s a huge gap between Evans’ expressed hopes that Hegseth will help with “recruiting and retention” and Hegseth’s actual record of managing organizations poorly and abusing people. We don’t expect to get good answers from Gabe Evans for the hard questions about Hegseth’s highly questionable nomination no matter which way it goes, but assuming Hegseth makes it through the Senate confirmation process as pundit chatter today after Hegseth’s “spirited,” “plucky,” “ballsy,” “gutsy,” “‘scrappy,” “spunky” (we admit to coming up with ‘spunky’ ourselves) first round of hearings suggests, it’s Hegseth’s performance as Secretary of Defense that Trump and every Republican who vouched for Hegseth’s fitness will answer for in the next election.

Only one of these men is right, and Evans has more to lose every time he’s wrong.