Will Pete Hegseth answer questions about his history with women — or will he take the other option?
Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary is looking increasingly tenuous as new revelations about the ex-Fox host’s past history with women come to light.
Almost certain to face unified Democratic resistance, Hegseth can only afford three defections from his own party. The question now: Will the same senators who tanked Matt Gaetz’s nomination with their “implacable” resistance to his selection be the ones to take Hegseth down?
To date, the former cable news talking head has already criticized two of them: Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. The centrist Alaska and Maine senators were among the handful thought to have been unmovable against Gaetz. Hegseth, in comments on Fox News, derided them both as divorced from the realities of working Americans after they voted to protect the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) from a Republican repeal effort.
Both senators have dismissed Hegseth’s criticism in statements made since his nomination was announced. Collins, however, said that she intended to look at character and judgment when deciding how to vote on such picks — a remark that hints at a possible lack of traction for Trump’s choice for Pentagon leader.
“If I look and see a pattern that causes me to think the person would not be a good leader and doesn’t have character or the impartiality — if it’s a judge, for example — that would concern me,” Collins told reporters.
On that front, Hegseth took a one-two punch this week.
A letter written by his mother in which she referred to him as an “abuser of women” for whom she had “no respect” drew gasps across the political media spectrum. Penelope Hegseth’s acidic denunciation of her son was published by The New York Times. In a follow-up letter she apologized; she did so as well in an interview with the Times, saying that her tone in the letter had been angry and emotional because of a particularly trying time in the family. But what she did not do was invalidate the content of the letter, wherein she said her son “lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his power and ego”.
Apology or not, it’s a letter that will generate further discussion around the allegations of sexual assault Hegseth faces from a woman who says he trapped her in a hotel room. He firmly denies these allegations, and says that the encounter was entirely consensual. Hegseth reached a financial settlement with the woman after authorities declined to charge him.
Hegseth’s relationship-busting child that he fathered with a producer who worked at Fox while he was still married to his second wife will also, no doubt, continue to generate discussions about his character.
President-elect Donald Trump has done little to defend Hegseth in recent days, a possible sign of where things are headed. Recent statements from the presidential transition team have instead centered around praise for Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI during his second term. Patel, a loyalist who has echoed calls to shut down the law enforcement agency entirely, represents another hard pill to swallow for many in the Senate Republican caucus.
At the bare minimum, Hegseth is headed for one of the most uncomfortable and public grillings by a Senate panel in recent memory. There’s little sign he’s doing anything to avert it — including meeting with some of the Republicans who will likely do the grilling.
But Hegseth’s alleged problematic treatment of women is now just one of his issues. The second is the fog of questions emerging around his use or abuse of alcohol, and his conduct in such situations.
His management of a major veterans’ group, Concerned Veterans for America, is now under the microscope. According to a whistleblower report obtained by The New Yorker, the group Hegseth once lead was forced to institute a “no drinking” policy at events in 2014 as a direct response to his behavior.
“I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary,” one CVA figure told The New Yorker.
