Newly sworn-in Republican Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana mocked trans people while questioning Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth during his nomination hearing.

Amidst questions about allegations of sexual assault against him and his alleged drinking problems, Sheehy prioritized asking him how many genders there are. “Tough one,” he joked before Hegseth answered, implying he felt the obvious answer was two.

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“Senator, there are two genders,” Hegseth replied.

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“I know that well,” Sheehy added before making a joke about his last name. “I’m a ‘she-he,’ so I’m on board.” This is not the first time he has told this same joke in public.

Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, then proceeded to ask Hegseth how many push-ups he could do. He then praised Hegseth for saying his number one priority would be having “the backs of the warfighters,” as Hegseth put it.

“I don’t care, frankly, what all these letters and articles say,” Sheehy said. “I’ve been part of a smear campaign, too, I get it. I care that you’re going to have one thing in mind when you sit in that chair in that five-sided building.”

Sheehy was likely referring to accusations that he himself had lied about a bullet wound he claimed he got in Afghanistan. Former Park Service ranger Kim Peach claimed Sheehy actually shot himself while on vacation with his family in Montana. Sheehy claimed the story was manufactured by Democrats to try to stop him from flipping the Senate.

The hearing included numerous questions about Hegseth’s alleged drinking problems, allegations of sexual assault and past statements opposing women serving in military combat roles. In many instances under questioning from Democratic senators, Hegseth deflected or avoided answering questions directly.

Shortly after being named as Trump’s nominee, media reports revealed that the former Fox News host was accused by his own mother of abusing women and by previous coworkers of drinking on the job and sexually pursuing female colleagues. He had also been previously accused of paying off a woman who accused him of raping her while they attended a Republican conference in 2017 and of racking up over $400,000 in debt while serving as president of the organization Veterans for Freedom.

Hegseth repeatedly said during his hearing that the accusations against him were a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) noted that Hegseth has repeatedly argued women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles because they’re not as “capable” as men. Hegseth has previously said, “[Including women in combat roles] hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

In the hearing, Hegseth claimed, “Women in our military, as I have said publicly, have and continue to make amazing contributions across all aspects of our battlefield.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) slammed him for the flip-flop. “Why should women in our military, if you were the secretary of Defense, believe that they would have a fair shot at an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks if, on the one hand you say that women are not competent, they make our military less effective, and on the other hand, you say, ‘Oh no, now that I’ve been nominated to be the secretary of Defense, I’ve changed my view.’”

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) asked Hegseth about the rape accusation from 2017. Hegseth responded, “I was falsely accused in October 2017. It was fully investigated. And I was completely cleared.”

However, Hirono replied, “I don’t think ‘completely cleared’ is accurate.” Indeed, Hegseth paid off the woman and never challenged her claims in any court of law. As such, there was no legal investigation to “completely clear” him.

Hirono then asked Hegseth about accusations of his being drunk on the job when serving as president for Concerned Veterans for America (C.V.A.). Several former C.V.A. employees said in a whistleblower report that Hegseth was repeatedly intoxicated during various work events and had to be carried out of events due to his inability to walk while drunk.

Hegseth dodged a question from Hirono asking whether he’d commit to resigning as Secretary of Defense if he drank on the job. He also refused to answer her question of whether he would order the military to comply if Trump ordered soldiers to shoot protestors in the legs.

“That sounds to me that you would comply with such an order,” Hirono said in response to Hegseth’s silence. She later asked whether Hegseth would carry out an order from President Trump to seize Greenland, a territory of U.S. NATO ally Denmark, by force.” Hegseth tried to deflect the question by saying that Trump hadn’t revealed his military strategy yet. Hirono said she understood Hegseth’s answer to implicitly be “yes.”

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