AMNA NAWAZ: The nominations came fast and with some fury last night and today from the president-elect, three picks to lead the bulk of the expansive American security and diplomatic apparatus.

GEOFF BENNETT: A senator, a soldier turned television host, and a former member of Congress have been chosen by Donald Trump to lead, respectively, the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Directorate of National Intelligence.

For a look at who they are and what they may do if they're confirmed, we turn now to Nick Schifrin.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It is the largest bureaucracy in the country and the most expensive military in the world.

And president-elect Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, says the department's policies are all wrong.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Defense Secretary Nominee: Well, first of all, you got to fire -- you got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and you got to fire this -- I mean, obviously you're going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke (EXPLETIVE DELETED) it's got to go.

GENERAL C.Q.

BROWN, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: I'm thinking about my mentors and how rarely I had a mentor that looked like me.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In 2020, before he became Joints Chief chairman, General C.Q.

Brown acknowledged the racism he suffered.

That year, the department redesigned military education to teach implicit bias, and, under the Biden administration, diversity programs have expanded.

PETE HEGSETH: There's a reason we're not -- people don't want to serve, because they don't trust that their senior leaders are going to have their best interest in mind in combat.

That trust is broken.

And you have to reestablish that trust by putting in no-nonsense war fighters in those positions who aren't going to cater to the socially correct garbage.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hegseth also opposes an Obama era decision to allow women to serve in combat.

PETE HEGSETH: I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.

It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In 2019, Hegseth helped convince then-President Trump to pardon two Army soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians and reversed the demotion of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, convicted of posing for photographs with a deceased Iraqi civilian.

PETE HEGSETH: So let's just be honest about it and unleash our war fighters to fight.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Long before Hegseth became a FOX News co-host, he was a major in the Army National Guard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and won two Bronze Stars.

As a soldier and veteran, he sent messages to his supporters advocating for the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That was then.

PETE HEGSETH: I have been a recovering neocon for six years now.

Like, the foolishness with which we ricocheted around the world, intervening, thinking it was in our best interest, when really we just overturned the table and created something worse in almost every single scenario, has led to almost -- I mean, the hubris of the Pentagon is that they want to now tell other countries how to do counterinsurgency based on what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Are you kidding me?

NICK SCHIFRIN: On the Hill today, Hegseth's nomination produced a bipartisan split.

New York Democrat Dan Goldman: REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): This person is going to be far more loyal to Donald Trump than the Constitution, and that's really dangerous.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Florida Republican and House Armed Services Committee member Carlos Gimenez: REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Served in the military and definitely has ideas of how the military or the Defense Department needs to be shaken up.

As a member of HASC, I will tell you, it needs to be shaken up.

NICK SCHIFRIN: There's also expected to be a fight over Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence.

Gabbard is a former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman who would oversee 18 intelligence agencies.

In 2017, she visited Syria and met President Bashar al-Assad and for years has trumpeted Syria's and Russia's arguments that all of Assad's opponents are terrorists.

FMR.

REP. TULSI GABBARD (HI): Why is it that the United States, its allies in other countries are providing support, are providing arms to terrorist groups?

Assad is not the enemy of the United States because the United -- Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Russia's R.T. channel often celebrates her, and she calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an authoritarian.

FMR.

REP. TULSI GABBARD: So the real reason Zelenskyy has outlawed elections is to stop any who dare to criticize the rampant corruption in Ukraine or the war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, today, there was bipartisan support for Florida Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

Rubio has long been an advocate for Ukraine, in part because it's a test of U.S. alliances, as he argued last September.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): If the United States tomorrow announced we're not doing anything more with Ukraine, we're gone, the impact wouldn't just be felt in Ukraine.

Every alliance -- our entire alliance system would be put into doubt.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, recently, Rubio has emphasized Trump's position, that the war must end.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I think the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and strong in standing up to Russia, but at the end of the day what we are funding here is a stalemate war, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion.