Sen. Lindsey Graham has heard the allegations against former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, but the South Carolina Republican suggested he views the case against Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon as flawed. De Heuvel reported:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a senior Republican senator close to President-elect Trump, said the “anonymous” allegations against Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “don’t count” if his accusers aren’t. willing to come forward publicly.
“I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count,” the senator told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Graham also described the allegations against Hegseth, who denied any wrongdoing, as “rumors.”
“If people raise their right hand and claim something bad happened, I will listen to them,” the Republican added, concluding: “Allegations that are anonymous don’t count.”
There are a handful of dimensions worth keeping in mind. As my MSNBC colleague Lisa Rubin explained, there were immediate anonymous accusations absolute count.
Furthermore, the idea that Graham and his party necessarily take allegations from said sources seriously is at odds with recent history. For example, Christine Blasey Ford, to use the senator’s phrasing, raised her right hand and made an accusation, and Graham ignored her claims and threw his weight behind then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh anyway. Similarly, E. Jean Carroll raised her right hand and made an accusation, though few in Republican politics took her claims — or a jury’s findings on those claims — particularly seriously.
But what was most striking about Graham’s on-air comments was the extent to which — and the speed at which — the senator changed his mind about the seriousness of the allegations surrounding the potential nominee.
The South Carolinian’s “allegations that are anonymous don’t count” were aired during a live interview Wednesday night. Literally a day earlier, Graham officially spoke to Capitol Hill journalists and admitted that the recent reporting on Hegseth was “very disturbing.”
The senator added Tuesday that accusations against the president-elect’s choice to lead the Defense Department would be “difficult” to overcome.
What changed for Graham between Tuesday and Wednesday? He has not yet made a public statement, although it is worth emphasizing that the Republican faced significant conservative backlash following his comments on Tuesday. Moreover, Graham will be up for re-election in just two years, and there is already discussion about the incumbent lawmaker facing a potential primary rival.
As Graham weighs what to do with some of Trump’s most controversial personnel choices, it’s a dynamic worth keeping in mind.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
