Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says new Pentagon rules on reporting misconduct may 'silence people'

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual assault.

A Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said new rules outlined in a speech by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this week may make it harder to report misconduct.

"It will silence people who want to make sure if there's a rapist in the ranks or a sexual harasser in the ranks that somebody knows about it so that efforts can be made to protect other victims," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, said in an interview with Here & Now. 

Gillibrand has spent more than a decade working to combat sexual assault in the military.

What is your top-line reaction to Hegseth's comments this week?

"I think his comments were egregious and ones we do not expect from a secretary of defense. First of all, he denigrated the entire military. He said that this military isn't capable of winning wars. I've never heard a more absurd statement ever.

"And then to particularly talk about women somehow affecting whether our armed services are effective and lethal is also absurd. They are trained in combat. They're trained in lethality. They can be just as good sharpshooters as anybody else. So it's just not true what he says."

Sexual assault in the military is an issue you have worked on for a decade or more. The new guidance from the Pentagon says it is not allowing any more anonymous complaints and that investigations have to be expedited. If there is no credible evidence, they're dismissed in 30 days. What was your reaction when Secretary Hegseth described these changes as the “no more walking on eggshells” policy?

“First of all, Secretary Hegseth himself has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. So he's somebody who obviously feels that there shouldn't be a transparent and accountable process within the military to make sure that we don't have sexual assaults and sexual harassment.

"He also comes across as very unknowledgeable about the importance of being able to report either openly or anonymously. We call them restricted and unrestricted reports because many people want to tell authorities what's happening without necessarily going to trial about it, and not doing it openly. That information is essential to making sure that we keep the barracks safe, to make sure predators aren't committing crimes. And requiring people to report openly just means it will silence victims.

"It will silence people who want to make sure if there's a rapist in the ranks or a sexual harasser in the ranks that somebody knows about it so that efforts can be made to protect other victims."

Hegseth said that the rules on sexual harassment “will be ruthlessly enforced.” But I want to ask, even without these changes, how well does the military justice system work in the first place on these questions, regardless of who's the president, regardless of who the secretary is?

"Well, that's a very, very prescient question, because every secretary of defense for the last 40 years has said zero tolerance on sexual assault, zero tolerance on sexual harassment.

"However, the data from this last year is estimating there's 29,000 incidents of sexual assault in the military today. And the last data was over 8,000 reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment this past year. I can tell you the reason why we work so hard to create a new military justice system is that the conviction rate was at 1%. So these cases weren't ending in conviction, weren’t ending in people going to jail, weren't ending and sending a message that, in fact, there's zero tolerance for sexual assault and sexual harassment in the ranks.

"And so when Hegseth decides to unwind the ability to report incidents of bad behavior, incidents of assault and harassment, he's undermining the ability of the new criminal justice system that we've put in place to work well.

"During his confirmation process, we asked him specifically if you appoint a senior-level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and response, and he's still not done that. And so he pledged he would do it. He hasn't done it. And all he's done is dismantle some of the protections that we've put in place."

This interview was edited for clarity.

Jenna Griffiths and Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Scotto also produced it for the web.