Hegseth was already facing an uphill confirmation battle to become the Secretary of Defense given that he is best known as a Fox News host with no government experience.
The emergence of a disturbing sexual assault accusation against him from 2017 isn’t helping matters — and Trump’s team is pissed.
“Pete wasn’t interviewing for a job at McDonald’s; this is the fucking Pentagon!
“When we ask, ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ that is usually a good time to mention a police report,” a Trump adviser says.
This story has been updated to include a comment from the Trump campaign.
Even though Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration to be Donald Trump’s attorney general due to allegations of sexual misconduct, Pete Hegseth, the accused sexual abuser, is still attempting to convince Republican senators to confirm him to one of the most important government positions.
Given that Hegseth is best known as a Fox News host and has no prior government experience, he was already fighting an uphill confirmation battle to become Secretary of Defense. Not helping matters is the revelation of a troubling sexual assault accusation against him from 2017, and Trump’s team is furious.
Some top Trump transition officials and others close to the president-elect have expressed confusion, if not outrage, that Hegseth did not alert them to the accusations against him before they became public, particularly by publishing a police report about the alleged incident at a Monterey, California hotel, according to four people familiar with the matter.
According to a source close to Trump, “How did he not know? Why didn’t he tell us?”. Even if the accusations are false, it doesn’t matter because Pete wasn’t interviewing for a job at McDonald’s; this is the fucking Pentagon! He wasn’t supposed to tell us what we needed to know so we could be better prepared to defend him, not to find out about it from the media. “.”.
The sources claim that a screening procedure was conducted for the Hegseth selection, but it was neither particularly intrusive nor did it reveal these details. The Justice Department and the White House did not sign agreements with Trump’s transition team that would have permitted the FBI to run background checks on the president-elect’s nominees.
A Trump adviser claims that bringing up a police report is typically a good idea when asking, “Is there anything else we need to know about?”. Naturally, he recalled all of this, and I doubt that he could have imagined that once he was nominated, this wouldn’t come to light. “.”.
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According to a statement from the Trump campaign’s communications director, Steven Cheung, “Pete Hegseth dedicated his entire life as a warrior for the troops and for our country.”. “With Pete as our Secretary of Defense, America’s enemies are on notice and our military will be great again,” he continues. We eagerly await his confirmation and his appointment to the position of Secretary of Defense. “”.
According to one source, Mediate has also covered the Trump team’s ire at Hegseth for not providing more details about the accusation prior to Trump’s announcement of the selection earlier this month: “He told the campaign there’s no issues.”. “”.
Hegseth visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to reassure senators that he should be given command of the most potent military in the world, regardless of the accusations. When discussing Hegseth’s candidacy with the media, Republican lawmakers had differing opinions. While some dismissed the police report, which was released on Wednesday, as merely accusations, others, like Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N. D. NBC News reports that it is a “pretty big problem, given that we have, you know, we have a sexual assault problem in our military.”.
After his day in Congress, Hegseth told reporters, “I am going to leave it there. The matter was thoroughly investigated and I was completely cleared.”.
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Vice President-elect J. accompanied Hegseth. A. Vance, who is currently serving as a senator. On Tuesday, the day before the congressman-turned-cameo star pulled his name out of the running for attorney general, Vance also went with Gaetz to meet with senators.
The Trump campaign has added a comment to this story.
