Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth offered a strident defense of Kingsley Wilson, the recently promoted Pentagon press secretary with a history of espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, under questioning at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Wilson, prior to her appointment, attacked the Anti-Defamation League for memorializing the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was wrongly convicted for raping and murdering a child, and called the ADL “despicable.” Wilson insisted that Frank was guilty — a niche and discredited theory largely associated with neo-Nazis.

She also has frequently boosted the antisemitic “Great Replacement” theory, advocated for Christian nationalism, used a neo-Nazi linked slogan to praise the far-right Alternative for Germany party, compared the murder of Israeli babies by Hamas to abortion and opposed U.S. aid to Israel, among a host of other controversial comments.

“I’ve worked directly with her, she does a fantastic job, and any suggestion that I or her or others are party to antisemitism is a mischaracterization attempting to win political points,” Hegseth said in a heated exchange with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who co-chairs the Senate antisemitism task force.

“Senator, you’re attempting to win political points on the backs of mischaracterizing the statements of a member of my department and I’m not going to stand for that,” Hegseth continued.

“Your lack of an answer confirms what we’ve known all along: The Trump administration is not serious. You are not a serious person, you are not serious about rooting out and fighting antisemitism within the ranks of our DoD,” Rosen responded, as she and Hegseth attempted to shout over each other. “It’s despicable. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Some Senate Republicans, including the Armed Services Committee chairman, had expressed concern about Wilson prior to her promotion and said that they were probing the issue and expected the Pentagon to address it.

Rosen referenced some of those criticisms in her questioning of Hegseth.

Earlier in her questioning, before mentioning Wilson specifically, Rosen asked Hegseth if he agreed that antisemitic conspiracy theories should not have a role in the government or military and that individuals who promote neo-Nazi conspiracy theories should not be in positions of power.

“Since I don’t believe the characterization of many officials in the news media, I would need to see precisely what’s being characterized,” Hegseth said initially, before affirming that he agreed.

Hegseth was also asked multiple times throughout the hearing about potential U.S. planning for a strike on Iran or to defend U.S. troops should Iran target them. He largely declined to speak publicly on the issue beyond saying that the Pentagon’s role was to plan for a range of potential scenarios. Hegseth will take more questions from senators in a classified setting in the afternoon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding between the Trump administration and Qatar for the gift of a luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet has not been completed and signed.

Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine were pressed repeatedly on the terms of the contract allowing for the U.S. to formally accept the Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Qatar while testifying before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on the Pentagon’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget. The two largely declined to answer questions on the subject given the public setting, though the defense secretary acknowledged that the MOU was still being worked on.

“Any specifics about future aircraft that could be Air Force One can’t be discussed here, but there is a conversation about a memorandum of understanding. A memorandum of understanding remains to be signed,” Hegseth said in response to Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) asking if the U.S. was currently in possession of the jet.

Hegseth declined to answer Reed’s subsequent questions about the price of the contract to reconfigure the aircraft, saying he would provide it to the senator’s office but could not divulge that information in public. He offered the same response when Reed asked about the delivery time for the reconfiguration contract. 

Reed pointed out that the terms of the contract originally signed with Boeing to deliver the next Air Force One jets were public while criticizing the secrecy around this deal. 

“The Boeing information was public knowledge — the delivery date, the cost, the course overruns — but this is not, because this is not only a bad deal for the American public, it is just gratifying the presidency, that’s all it is,” Reed said.

Later in the hearing, Hegseth again confirmed to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) that the MOU was still not signed. The Connecticut senator then pressed the defense secretary on the need for the Qatari jet, noting that the extensive modifications and security enhancements may keep it from being usable before Boeing’s new fleet of Air Force Ones are ready in 2028. 

“It doesn’t stand to reason that you will be able to retrofit the plane from Qatar much sooner than 2028 so I’m trying to understand what the gap is that we’re trying to fill. If this contract ends up being a half a billion dollars and the gap only ends up being six months, that doesn’t sound like a wise investment for this committee to make,” Murphy said.

Hegseth replied by pointing to the repeated delays from Boeing in delivering on their new fleet. “I don’t know that’s a firm fixed date yet, unfortunately, that can be counted on,” Hegseth said.

A senior Air Force official testified at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing last month that Boeing had told the service that it could potentially deliver the fleet by 2027 if certain requirements were lifted.

After Hegseth told Murphy it was his understanding that the plane would be transferred to Trump’s presidential library at the conclusion of his term, the Connecticut senator replied: “Why would we ask the American taxpayer to spend upwards of $1 billion on a plane that would then only be used for a handful of months and then transferred directly to the president?”

Hegseth emphasized the importance of the modifications to “ensure the safety and security of the president of the United States,” but did not address Murphy’s question directly. 

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) pressed Hegseth on whether the Department of Defense or the Qataris initiated conversations about the jet and how the transaction came to be. Hegseth said he would need to “go back and review” the details and did not go into specifics, to which Schatz asked, “I think it kind of matters who’s asking, doesn’t it?”

“I think this is illegal and unconstitutional and I won’t rant about that, but I actually think from the standpoint of our collective responsibilities it very much matters what the paper flow was. Who started these conversations? Did it come out of the White House, did it come out of the secretary of state or the president or the SEC Def [secretary of defense] or at a lower level or ambassadors?” Schatz asked. 

“We’re entitled to know, because we can agree or disagree about the propriety of this, but my basic request of you is that if we’re going to disagree, let’s disagree with the same set of facts. Let’s have the documentation on the Qatari aircraft,” he continued.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine declined to definitively say on Wednesday whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one. 

As they testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Hegseth and Caine to provide their “professional military judgement” on whether they agreed with Israel’s assessment that Tehran would use a nuclear weapon against the Jewish state. 

“I think they would potentially do that,” Caine said. “I think they’d use it to pressure Israel. I don’t know whether they would use it.”

“I think Israel believes, and quite understandably, that it is an existential threat to their existence, and that in the hands of the wrong Iranian, a cleric or a radical, that they would seek to use it,” Hegseth said. 

Graham replied to Hegseth, “Well, is this a radical cleric that exists there today? If he’s not, who the hell would be? So I’m trying to get everybody to think, let’s don’t do what we did in the ‘30s. They’re going to use a nuclear weapon if they get it.”

The South Carolina senator began his questioning on the topic by asking Hegseth and Caine if each thought the world “miscalculated Hitler in the ‘20s and ’30s,” which both men responded to affirmatively. “We certainly did not understand the scope of the threat, yes,” Hegseth replied. 

“The guy wrote a book [saying that] I want to kill all the Jews and nobody believed him. … The danger of that is like 50 million people get killed. So let’s not do that now,” Graham said.

After asking Hegseth and Caine about the Iranian nuclear program, Graham pressed both about China’s intentions in Taiwan and Russia’s plans in Europe beyond Ukraine while encouraging them to take a tougher posture on U.S. adversaries. 

“Listen, I like what you’re doing. I just think we got to get this stuff right. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon because they’ll use it. They’re homicidal maniacs who are religious Nazis. China is an expansionist power who will take Taiwan if we don’t deter them. Russia will dismember Ukraine and keep going if we don’t stop them,” Graham told the two. 

Graham then turned to the issue of radical Islamic terrorism and asked if al-Qaida would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one. “A nuclear weapon in the hands of al-Qaida would be a very bad thing,” Hegseth replied.

“Is there a whole lot of difference between a nuclear weapon in the hands of al-Qaida and the Ayatollah in Iran? I don’t think so. They just have a different religious reason to do it,” Graham said. 

At a Senate hearing, @LindseyGrahamSC asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one.

"I’m trying to get everybody to think, let’s don’t do what we did in the ‘30s.… pic.twitter.com/e6U7nIKwPS

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) June 11, 2025

Graham is set to introduce a resolution on Thursday affirming that the only acceptable outcome of U.S. nuclear talks with Iran would be the total dismantlement of its enrichment program.

Many Republicans on Capitol Hill have expressed concern that the Trump administration could agree to a deal with terms similar to former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement. 

For his part, Graham has expressed confidence that Trump would not allow for any enrichment, citing recent private conversations with the president.

Kingsley Wilson, a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense who has come under fire from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Jewish communal organizations for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, has been promoted to serve as the department’s press secretary, the Pentagon announced on Friday. 

“Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President [Donald] Trump,” Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman and a senior advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, posted on X on Friday. 

When Wilson was named deputy press secretary in March, she faced widespread condemnation for dozens of tweets viewed as antisemitic and racist. On two different occasions, she attacked the Anti-Defamation League for sharing its origin story — the organization was founded after the lynching of Leo Frank, an Atlanta Jew widely believed to have been wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a white child over a century ago. 

“Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl,” Wilson wrote in 2023 in response to a post from the ADL, and repeated the claim a year later. “He also tried to frame a black man for his crime. The ADL is despicable.” (The tweet has not been deleted.) 

Wilson has also called Confederate General Robert E. Lee “one of the greatest Americans to ever live” and regularly promoted the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory.” 

Her appointment in March drew bipartisan criticism. “Obviously I don’t agree with her comments. I trust the Pentagon will address this,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Jewish Insider at the time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for her firing. 

Spokespeople for the Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.