Pete Hegseth spent this week attempting to woo senators — and others — as he fought to remain Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense. He met with wary and supportive lawmakers, his lawyer tried to shoot down misconduct allegations 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 still expressing doubts over Hegseth’s nomination, and larger questions about his suitability to lead the nation’s armed forces.
Ernst has emerged as one of the key Republicans who could help sink his looming nomination. As Hegseth was in the first meeting of the day on Thursday, a Fox reporter told Ernst it sounded like she was not fully on board with supporting Hegseth.
“I think you are right,” she responded.
Ernst met with Hegseth on Wednesday in her Senate office. The next day, she said she had no plans to meet with him the rest of the week. Hegseth on Thursday instead met with some of the remaining Republicans on the Senate Armed Services committee, who are mostly Trump allies and appeared supportive of his Cabinet picks: Sens. 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 do see a path forward for him to be successful in being accepted by the Senate for this position, but he’s got more work to do,” Rounds said after his meeting with Hegseth. Rounds previously expressed concerns about former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick for attorney general, before he withdrew.
But without Ernst, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and is a veteran and sexual assault survivor, along with other skeptical Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, Hegseth’s confirmation appears in jeopardy.
The veteran and former Fox News personality left the Capitol telling reporters he answers to only Trump, God, his family and the 100 senators voting on his confirmation, not the media.
And he reaffirmed that he is not dropping out: “As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I’m going to be standing right here in this fight,” he said to reporters on Thursday afternoon.
Hegseth defended himself against a slew of allegations. 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 stay quiet about the incident, which he claimed was consensual. A recent story in The New Yorker reported he stepped down from two nonprofits “in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.”
And NBC News reported that colleagues at Fox News were concerned that he had a drinking problem.
Trump’s transition team had previously denied that Hegseth had a drinking problem, but he also said he wouldn’t drink alcohol if confirmed.
On Thursday, Hegseth said he had changed and added that God, his family and his wife, who accompanied him to the Senate on Thursday, helped get 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 that I’ve spent time with, they resonate with that as well,” Hegseth said in response to the allegations. “You fight, you go do tough things in tough places on behalf of your country, and sometimes that changes you a little bit.”
