Pete Hegseth tried to woo senators — and others — this week as he fought to remain Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary. He met with cautious and supportive lawmakers, his lawyer tried to dismiss allegations of wrongdoing and even his mother went on Fox to defend her son.
But his meetings with lawmakers Thursday were in many ways overshadowed by Sen. Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican who continued to express doubts about Hegseth’s nomination, and larger questions about his fitness to lead the nation’s armed forces.
Ernst has emerged as one of the key Republicans who could help sink his impending nomination. When Hegseth was at the first meeting of the day Thursday, a Fox reporter told Ernst that it sounded like she wasn’t entirely on board with supporting Hegseth.
“I think you’re right,” she replied.
Ernst met with Hegseth in her Senate office on Wednesday. The next day she said she had no plans to meet him for the rest of the week. Hegseth instead met Thursday with some of the remaining Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who are mostly Trump allies and appeared to support his Cabinet picks: Senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D. ), Tom Cotton (R-Ark), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Hegseth also met with Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
“I really see a path forward where he can be successful if he is accepted by the Senate for this position, but he still has more work to do,” Rounds said after meeting with Hegseth. Rounds previously raised concerns about former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first choice for attorney general, before withdrawing.
But without Ernst, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and is a veteran sexual assault survivor, along with other skeptical Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, Hegseth’s confirmation appears to be in jeopardy.
The veteran and former Fox News personality left the Capitol, telling reporters that he was answering only to Trump, God, his family and the 100 senators who voted on his nomination, and not to the media.
And he reaffirmed that he is not backing down: “As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I will be here in this fight,” he told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
Hegseth defended himself against a slew of accusations. In 2017, he was investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman, but was never formally charged. He later paid the woman an undisclosed sum to keep quiet about the incident, which he claimed was consensual. A recent story in The New Yorker reports that he has resigned from two nonprofits “facing serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety and personal misconduct.”
And NBC News reported that colleagues at Fox News were concerned he had a drinking problem.
Trump’s transition team had previously denied that Hegseth had a drinking problem, but he also said he would not drink alcohol if this was confirmed.
On Thursday, Hegseth said he had changed, adding that God, his family and his wife, who accompanied him to the Senate on Thursday, helped him get back on track.
“I’m a different man than I was years ago, and that’s a redemption story that I think a lot of Americans appreciate, and I know from fellow vets I’ve spent time with that they resonate with as well,” Hegseth says. said in response to the allegations. “You fight, you go and do hard things in hard places on behalf of your country, and sometimes that changes you a little bit.”
