WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is in jeopardy as Senate Republicans grow increasingly concerned about alcohol allegations and reports of his treatment of women.
As many as six Senate Republicans, perhaps more, are currently uncomfortable supporting Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon as new revelations about his past continue to be made public, according to three Republican sources with direct knowledge its appointment process. Given Republicans’ narrow Senate majority in the next Congress, Hegseth, a former Fox News host, can afford to lose just three Republican votes, assuming all Democrats vote against him.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, would not support Hegseth’s nomination, saying she planned to grill him over news reports of allegations of alcohol abuse, assault on women and financial mismanagement.
“We’re just going to have a very 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 as defense secretary. Hegseth, who was not charged, denied the woman’s allegations and said the encounter was consensual, although he did pay an undisclosed sum as part of a settlement with her.
Separately, NBC News reported Tuesday that Hegseth’s drinking was worrying his colleagues at Fox News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees. Two of them said Hegseth smelled of alcohol more than a dozen times before he went on air. Hegseth did not respond when asked for comment on those allegations at the Capitol on Tuesday evening.
The initial allegations last month did not appear to jeopardize Hegseth’s planned appointment. After his first round of meetings on Capitol Hill last month, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chairman 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 binge-drinking allegations at Fox News, Wicker sounded more cautious.
“I think some members have questions, and we’re going to look for an answer,” Wicker said.
The New Yorker published a story Sunday about a previously undisclosed 2015 whistleblower report from a veterans organization Hegseth led, alleging he repeatedly got drunk on the job. NBC News has not seen the report, which was shared with the nonprofit’s leadership, and Hegseth’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the article on 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 employee.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he is still open to supporting Hegseth and believes he deserves a fair assessment, but he said Tuesday that Hegseth should explain media reports about his past behavior in a way that ensures that senators can comfortably vote to confirm him.
“We have a process where he can be asked questions. The articles I’ve read, yes, 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 will be asked about it. We’ll see what happens.”
Hegseth met with several senators on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another of Trump’s picks to fill his Cabinet dropped out last month due to opposition from Republicans in the Senate. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., had been Trump’s pick 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, over sexual assault allegations misconduct with a minor (which Gaetz has denied and has not been charged).
Several Republican senators have continued to downplay the allegations, saying they support Trump’s prerogative to choose his own Cabinet.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., on Monday called the allegations a “sideshow” and said Hegseth “has earned a lot of credibility.”
‘Are soldiers sometimes wild children? Yes, that can happen,” Lummis said when asked if the allegations concern her. “But it is very clear that this man is the man who, at a time when Americans are losing confidence in their country, in our own military, in our ability to project power around the world, that Pete Hegseth is the answer to that concern .”
When asked Tuesday to respond to the allegations of womanizing and alcohol abuse, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded: “That wouldn’t be new in Washington, D.C.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
