Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said there is mounting concern among female officers at the Department of Defense following the nomination of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon.

“I don’t think it’s an understatement to say there is real stress on the horse right now, but there is a lot of power,” she told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “The secretary of defense is designed to be a very important job. So who we put in there is extremely, extremely critical to our security and who we are as a nation.”

Hegseth has faced backlash since President-elect Donald Trump announced him as the pick, particularly in response to his comments on diversity in the military. On a podcast earlier this month, he said that the military should not have women in combat roles, calling men more capable.

Slotkin, a former CIA and Department of Defense official, said that she visited the Pentagon on Thursday and saw “constant chatter and conversation and concern from senior women officers. But also I’ve heard from folks who I’ve recommended to service academies, young women just starting out their career saying, ‘Am I going to be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish here?’”

Part of Hegseth’s claim is that having only men serve in combat would be a return to the way it was, arguing that the military should acknowledge its base is “strong, normal men.”

“His idea of normal may be different,” Slotkin said. “We want a diverse force. The military is one of the most diverse institutions in the world. So the officer corps should reflect that diversity.”

According to a Pentagon report, women made up 17.3 percent of the active-duty military in 2021. That figure includes Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In addition to women, Hegseth has taken shots at anyone “involved in any of the DEI/woke shit,” most recently on Shawn Ryan’s podcast. When asked if she believed that Trump and Hegseth would attempt to fire top generals who they consider woke — or those close to former chairman Mark Milley who has criticized Trump — Slotkin said she doesn’t think there is much room to interpret otherwise.

“I think they have been very clear that they’re putting together some sort of panel that’s going to look at generals, people who have served their nation their entire lives, over multiple administrations, Democrat and Republican in combat,” she told Raddatz. “They are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court. You can imagine the stress in the Pentagon about that.”

She continued: “Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason, and I think we’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

Despite her reservations, Slotkin emphasized that she would meet with every nominee, including Hegseth, before voting on their confirmation.

“I’m a Senator-elect and advice and consent from the Senate is part of our constitutional process,” she said. “So I’m going to try and meet with everybody, hear them out, but I also am a former CIA officer and Defense Department official. I know just how important these jobs are not just for who gets what in Washington, but for the actual security of people in the United States.”