Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon, will face his greatest hurdle yet as he takes his turn in the hot seat for his confirmation hearing before a key Senate panel on Tuesday, in which Democrats intend to grill him over his past conduct, beliefs, and qualifications.

The former Fox News host will be forced to comment publicly on several controversies in detail for the first time. He is facing accusations of sexual assault stemming from a 2017 incident that he said was consensual. He is also facing allegations involving alcohol abuse and claims that he mismanaged two conservative veterans’ groups. 

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Hegseth’s testimony on Tuesday will be arguably the most high profile of several nomination hearings this week that have been scheduled in an effort to get Trump’s nominees ready for a vote by the time he is sworn in on Jan. 20 or shortly thereafter. Pam Bondi, nominated to become the next attorney general, will testify before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 15, and Thursday, Jan. 16.

Other high-profile nominees, such as Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), chosen to become the next secretary of state, and John Ratcliffe, nominated to be head of the CIA, will take their turns in the spotlight for hearings on Wednesday, Jan. 15.

A month ago, the Army National Guard veteran’s nomination appeared to be on life support, but since then, signs point to him winning confirmation thanks to those in Trump’s orbit fighting for him behind the scenes, as well as increasing the public pressure on Republican senators.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has privately told Trump that he believes Hegseth will have the votes to be confirmed as secretary of state, CBS News reported, citing three sources. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also believes Hegseth will have enough votes to ascend to the job.

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“There’s not one single Republican that has come out against him,” Mullin said on Thursday. 

Mullin believes Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who had been skeptical of Hegseth’s nomination, has already made up her mind to support him after meeting with him multiple times. 

“I think she already went through that process, asking some pretty tough questions, personal questions,” Mullin said. “I can’t answer how she’s gonna address it, but I know that he’s already addressed her concerns.”

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Democrats are preparing to dial up the pressure on Hegseth. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has instructed members to “hold Trump nominees’ feet to the fire and hold them accountable for Trump’s agenda,” according to a Senate Democratic source.

“Our approach will be this: We will use these hearings to show the contrast between Donald Trump’s agenda of helping the special interests, especially the very wealthy, and Democrats’ agenda to fight for working Americans,” Schumer said, speaking on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon.

The New York Democrat called Hegseth’s background “deeply troubling” and previewed the topics his members will likely be focusing on during their questioning on Tuesday.

“We all have read reports about his radical views, his alleged excessive drinking, the allegations about sexual assault, and his failures in the financial stewardship of multiple organizations,” Schumer said. “He can expect his hearing to be tough but respectful, candid, but fair.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a decorated combat veteran and a member of the panel, said Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the committee, will likely be the only Democrat who had the chance to meet with Hegseth before the hearing.

“I have many questions for him, more questions than I can fit into the mere seven minutes each senator will be given during the hearing,” Duckworth said during a press call on Friday.

“The manager of the average Applebee’s has probably managed more people than Hegseth,” she added. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) believes Republicans are “hiding evidence” of Hegseth not being qualified to lead the Department of Defense. 

Blumenthal sent a letter to Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) demanding more information about Hegseth ahead of the hearing. 

“There is an immense amount of information about his abjectly failed and perhaps improper mismanagement of the two veterans organizations that he ran into the ground,” Blumenthal said, speaking to the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “There have been allegations of self-dealing. I want to see the credit card transaction record as well as other documents that reflect that mismanagement so I can ask him about it.”

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The Connecticut senator said he feels like the Republican-led committee is “stonewalling” them and has not provided the information that he and others on the panel have asked for, such as the FBI report, documents detailing his involvement with two veterans groups, and information about his alleged alcohol abuse.

“We’re being slow-walked and stonewalled. This information has not been provided, and I doubt that it will be before the hearing, which is when we have the opportunity, the only opportunity, to ask him about these issues,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal called it “unusual” not to have access to the FBI report so close to the hearing.

“It’s certainly unusual and, in fact, totally unacceptable with a nominee that has this many problems and issues relating to his background that involves sexual impropriety, alcohol use, and financial mismanagement,” he said.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher because this is our only opening to ask about issues that could defeat him as a nominee — we are at a loss to bring out the facts here if we don’t have the documents that enable us to ask intelligent questions.”

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Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a Navy combat pilot and astronaut, said he was still reviewing Hegseth’s questionnaire that the committee has access to ahead of the hearing. 

“I was just reviewing a bunch of his answers, and the personal stuff aside, right — it’s a hard job. I think it’s one of the hardest jobs on the planet, and I’m very interested in hearing what he has to say about his experience in his adult, you know, life, in his career that has prepared him for this position,” Kelly said, speaking to the Washington Examiner. 

Kelly said he has not had access to Hegseth’s FBI report but feels it is necessary for all members of the committee to be able to review it ahead of the hearing.

“The deal with the White House transition team is only the chairman or the ranking member see it, so they’re going to see it. There have been exceptions made in the past, and I think this is a situation where there should be an exception,” he said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), another member of the Armed Services Committee, sent Hegseth a letter at the beginning of the week asking him to answer more than 70 questions, which could give a window into how Democrats intend to interrogate him in the hearing.

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Warren poses questions tapping into the allegations of sexual misconduct, remarks that suggest women in the military should play a more limited role, accusations of heavy drinking, and the financial mismanagement of the veterans’ organizations he once led. Hegseth has denied claims of wrongdoing. 

“I am deeply concerned by the many ways in which your behavior and rhetoric indicates that you are unfit to lead the Department of Defense,” Warren noted in the letter. “Your confirmation as Secretary of Defense would be detrimental to our national security and disrespect a diverse array of service members who are willing to sacrifice for our country.” 

Mullin has been part of “mock hearings” with Hegseth over the last couple of days and said he is doing everything they can to prepare for what many expect to be a “contentious hearing.”

“I know the Dems are going to come after him in questioning. Pete is going to do just fine. There has not been a nominee more engaged in day-to-day meetings,” Mullin explained. 

“When we do these mock hearings, we do the whole hearing, we sit there for two hours, we set the timer, we don’t pull any punches, we have a chair, we have a ranking member. We have the name tags out there and the mics. He’s not the only one. We are doing that with all the nominees, just so they understand how it’s going to work so they are not surprised,” he added.

The Oklahoma senator said his questions will likely attempt to “clean up,” which could be needed after testy questioning from Democrats.

“To be quite frank with you, I think my role is going to be batting the cleanup,” Mullin said. “My role is just — if there’s any cleanup that needs to happen, that’s what we will do.”

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Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), another prominent member of the panel, said he’s confident that Hegseth’s nomination will advance following the hearing. 

“We have a role to play. We’ll play that role. But you provide the president with the benefit of the doubt on his nominees, they still have to go through the open hearings process, and they have to maintain the president’s confidence in them as they go through those open hearings. So we’ll see how it goes,” Rounds said.

Rounds said he doesn’t expect to “pull punches” but that he expects Hegseth to be “a very capable nominee.”

“We’ll ask good questions, but I have a real comfort level that he is going to be a very capable nominee in front of the committee,” he said. “I thought he did a very nice job when we were in private talking — I’m leaning to ‘yes,’ and we always give the president the benefit of the doubt, so that’s where we are going to start.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said he is also still working on his questions but indicated he is “all for Pete.”

“I’m just getting a little nervous — we got to get him in, we’ve got to get him in,” Tuberville said, speaking to the Washington Examiner. “You just never know how people are gonna vote. … On the Armed Services Committee, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs in the last month.”

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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is not a member of the panel, said he has been giving Trump nominees some tips on how to deal with questioning from Democrats during the hearings.

“A really good answer to most questions is ‘if confirmed, I’d love to work with you on that, Senator,’” he said with a laugh. “If you can say that about 25 times during your confirmation, I think you’ve done a pretty good job.”