Hegseth stands by Ukraine comments as GOP senator slams "rookie mistake"
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Photo: Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg
WARSAW -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on remarks he made at NATO this week about the terms of a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal, saying his job was simply to "introduce realism to the conversation."
Why it matters: Hegseth's comments, followed Wednesday by President Trump's initiation of direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, drew fierce criticism from NATO allies and even some Republicans.
- "I don't know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool," Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, told Politico.
- Wicker, speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, suggested that Hegseth had made a "rookie mistake" and "walked back some of what he said" on Thursday.
But Hegseth, whose position on Ukraine and NATO was echoed by Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, rejected the notion that he walked back anything at a press conference with Poland's defense minister.
What they're saying: "I stand by the comments that I made on that first day in the Ukraine Contact Group — and that's for all the press out there, who it's difficult for them to understand that," Hegseth told reporters Friday.
- "My job today and in Brussels was to introduce realism to the conversation. The reality that returning to 2014 borders as part of a negotiated settlement is unlikely. The reality of U.S. troops in Ukraine is unlikely. The reality of Ukraine membership in NATO as a part of negotiated settlement, unlikely," he said.
- "That said, I would never put constraints around what the president of the United States would be willing to negotiate with the sovereign leaders of both Russia and Ukraine," Hegseth added.
Between the lines: Hegseth, like Vice President Vance and other Trump emissaries in Europe this week, is walking a difficult tightrope as negotiations get underway.
- Trump's position is clear, even if it's unpopular with Russia hawks: He believes Ukraine's potential membership in NATO instigated Putin's invasion, and that ending the war is the top priority.
- But Trump is also a self-styled "deal-maker," as Hegseth has repeatedly stressed this week, and refuses to definitively rule out trading chips as a matter of principle.
The big picture: What has proven most controversial in Washington, Brussels and Kyiv this week is the notion that Trump and Putin would directly negotiate a deal without Ukraine's approval.
- "I think Ukraine ought to be the one to negotiate its own peace deal," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Axios. "I don't think it should be imposed upon it by any other country, including ours."
- "It's obvious that Europeans can't be involved in securing peace that they haven't been involved in negotiating," German defense minister Boris Pistorius told reporters in Munich, calling Hegseth's comments "clumsy."
Go deeper: Trump and Hegseth send NATO scrambling over future of Ukraine
