WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is in peril as Senate Republicans grow increasingly concerned over allegations of drinking and reports about his treatment of women.
As many as six Senate Republicans, perhaps more, are currently not comfortable supporting Hegseth's bid to lead the Pentagon as new revelations about his past continue to be made public, three Republican sources with direct knowledge of his nomination process said. Given Republicans' slim Senate majority in the next Congress, Hegseth, a former Fox News host, can afford to lose only three GOP votes, assuming all Democrats vote against him.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is on the Armed Services Committee, would not commit to support Hegseth's nomination and said she planned to grill him about news accounts of allegations of alcohol abuse, mistreatment of woman and financial mismanagement.
“We’re just going to have a really frank and thorough conversation,” Ernst said.
Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in California in 2017, according to a police report made public after Trump announced he would nominate him for defense secretary. Hegseth, who was not charged, denied the woman's allegations, saying the encounter was consensual, although he did pay an undisclosed amount as part of a settlement with her.
Separately, NBC News reported Tuesday that Hegseth's drinking concerned his colleagues at Fox News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees. Two of them said Hegseth smelled of alcohol before he went on air on more than a dozen occasions. Hegseth did not respond when he was asked for comment on those allegations Tuesday evening at the Capitol.
The initial allegations last month did not appear to put Hegseth’s planned nomination in danger. After his first round of meetings on Capitol Hill last month, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chair of the Armed Services Committee, said he expected Hegseth to be confirmed. On Tuesday, after a series of other reports about Hegseth’s past but before NBC News reported on allegations concerning drinking at Fox News, Wicker sounded more cautious.
“I think there are questions that some members have, and we’re going to be looking for an answer,” Wicker said.
The New Yorker published a story Sunday about a previously undisclosed 2015 whistleblower’s report from a veterans’ organization Hegseth ran, which claimed he was repeatedly intoxicated on the job. NBC News has not seen the report, which was shared with the nonprofit group’s leadership, and Hegseth's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment on the article Monday. In a statement the lawyer provided to The New Yorker, an unidentified Hegseth adviser called the claims “outlandish” and said they came from a “petty and jealous disgruntled former associate.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he is still open to supporting Hegseth and believes he deserves a fair vetting, but he said Tuesday that Hegseth must explain media reports about his past conduct in a way that would make senators comfortable voting to confirm him.
“We got a process where he can be asked questions. The articles I’ve read, yeah, some of them are concerning,” Graham said. “I don’t know if it's true or not, but he’ll go through the process. He’ll be asked about it. We’ll see what happens.”
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday meeting with multiple senators. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another Trump pick to fill out his Cabinet dropped out of contention last month amid opposition from Senate Republicans. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., had been Trump's choice for attorney general, but at least five Senate Republicans were prepared to vote against him, five people with direct knowledge told NBC News at the time, because of allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor (which Gaetz has denied and was not charged with).
Several Republican senators have continued to downplay the allegations, saying they support Trump’s prerogative to pick his own Cabinet.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., called the allegations a “side issue” on Monday, saying Hegseth "has earned a great deal of credibility."
"Are soldiers sometimes wild childs? Yeah, that can happen,” Lummis said when she was asked whether the allegations concern her. “But it is very clear that this guy is the guy who, at a time when Americans are losing confidence in their own military, in our ability to project strength around the world, that Pete Hegseth is the answer to that concern.”
Asked Tuesday to respond to the allegations of womanizing and alcohol abuse, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded: “That would not be novel in Washington, D.C."
