WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday offered a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, whose confirmation by the Senate is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
Hegseth, a former Fox News Host, Army National Guard major and combat veteran, spent much of the week on Capitol Hill trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination and privately reassure Republican senators that he is fit to lead Trump’s Pentagon.
“Pete Hegseth is doing very well,” Trump posted on his social media site. “He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense.” The president added, “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview recorded Friday that he believes Hegseth will be confirmed and that he still has confidence in him.
“Pete is doing well now,” the president-elect said in an excerpt of the interview set to air Sunday. “I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy with a tremendous track record.”
He said senators have called him to tell him that Hegseth is fantastic. Trump also cast doubt on reports of alcohol misuse by Hegseth, saying he has spoken to people who know him well and has been assured Hegseth doesn’t have a drinking problem.
The pitched nomination battle over Hegseth is emerging not only as a debate about the best person to lead the Pentagon, but also at a key moment for a “Make America Great Again” movement that appears to be relishing a public fight over its hard-line push for a more masculine military and an end to the “woke-ism” of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Trump’s allies are forcefully rallying around the embattled Hegseth — the Heritage Foundation’s political arm is promising to spend $1 million to shore up his nomination — as he vows to stay in the fight, as long as the president-elect wants him to.
“We’re not abandoning this nomination,” Vice-President-elect JD Vance said as he toured post-hurricane North Carolina.
“Pete Hegseth is going to get his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, not a sham hearing before the American media,” Vance said. He said he had spoken with GOP senators and he believes Hegseth will be confirmed. “We are completely behind him.”
The effort has become a test of Trump’s clout and of how far loyalty for the president-elect goes with Republican senators who have concerns about his nominees. Two of Trump’s other choices have stepped aside as they faced intense scrutiny: former congressman Matt Gaetz, his first choice for attorney general, and Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff who was Trump’s first choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. also made a show of support for Hegseth on Friday, part of a full-court MAGA press.
“If you’re a GOP Senator who voted for Lloyd Austin, but criticize @PeteHegseth, then maybe you’re in the wrong political party!” he wrote on X. referring to President Joe Biden’s defense secretary.
Thanking the president-elect for the support, Hegseth posted on social media, “Like you, we will never back down.”
Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job and told lawmakers he never engaged in sexual misconduct, even as his professional views on female troops have also come under intensifying scrutiny. He said as recently as last month that women “straight up” should not serve in combat.
He picked up one important endorsement from Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, whose support was seen as a potentially powerful counterweight to the cooler reception Hegseth had received from Sen. Joni Ernst, herself a former Army National Guard lieutenant colonel.
“Huge. Thanks to Katie for her leadership,” Vance posted on social media.
Ernst, who is also a sexual assault survivor, stopped short of an endorsement after her meeting with Hegseth this week. On Friday, Ernst posted on X that she and Hegseth would continue having “constructive conversations” as the process moves forward. She said she would meet with him again next week.
“At a minimum, we agree that he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our warfighters at a fair hearing,” she wrote.
Trump put out the statement Friday in response to coverage saying he had lost faith in Hegseth, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The president-elect and his team have been pleased to see Hegseth putting up a fight and his performance this week reiterates why he was chosen, the person said. They believe he can still be confirmed.
If Hegseth goes down, Trump’s team believes the defeat would empower others to spread what they cast as “vicious lies” against every candidate Trump chooses.
Still, Trump’s transition team has been looking at potential replacements if Hegseth’s nomination cannot move forward, including former presidential rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis plans to attend the Army-Navy football game with Trump on Dec. 14, according to a person familiar with the Florida governor’s plans who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss them before a public announcement.
And DeSantis and Trump had spoken about the defense secretary post when they saw each other Tuesday at a memorial service for sheriff deputies in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to people familiar with the matter who said Trump was interested in DeSantis for the post, and the governor was receptive.
At the same time, DeSantis also is poised to select a replacement for the expected Senate vacancy to be created by Marco Rubio becoming secretary of state, and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump is seen as the preferred choice by those in Trump’s orbit.
Despite a weeklong push of private Capitol Hill meetings, Hegseth is facing resistance from senators as reports have emerged about his past, including the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies.
The New Yorker cited what it described as a whistleblower report and other documents about his time leading a veterans advocacy group, Concerned Veterans for America, that alleged multiple incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement.
The New York Times obtained an email from his mother Penelope from 2018, in which she confronted him about mistreating women after he impregnated his current wife while he was married to his second wife. She went on “Fox & Friends” this week to defend her son.
Trump ally Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said senators are judging “Pete for who he is today.”
In many ways the increasingly pitched battle resembles the political and culture wars that exploded over Trump’s pick of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court during his first term at the White House.
Kavanaugh had also faced allegations of sexual assault that he strenuously denied, but Republicans rallied to his side and turned a tide of opposition into a more sympathetic view of the Supreme Court nominee as the victim of a liberal-led smear campaign. He eventually won confirmation.
While Hegseth was still fighting for votes in the Senate, he did appear to make incremental progress with some Republicans who had expressed concerns about the reports of his drinking, in particular.
“I’m not going to make any decision regarding Pete Hegseth’s nomination based on anonymous sources,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said of the allegations against Hegseth, “I have no reason to doubt him any more than believe somebody else.”
Still, Cramer indicated he could still change his mind. A background check “will be informative.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said after meeting with Hegseth that he wanted to see how he does in a hearing but “he went a long way” toward getting his support.
___
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Fariview, N.C., Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
