Republican senators appeared firm in their support of President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, despite even more damaging allegations coming to light over the weekend.
He headed to Capitol Hill Monday to shore up support for his embattled nomination—though Republicans who attended the meeting seemed to emerge from the sit-down still firmly in Hegseth’s camp.
“He’s clearly committed to making sure we have a lethal military that scares the crap out of our enemies,” Florida Sen. Rick Scott told Axios after he and about a dozen other GOP senators met with the former Fox News host.
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Sen. Ted Cruz told the outlet that Democrats are “highly incentivized” to make the confirmation hearing a spectacle, while Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis suggested the allegations were a distraction.
“We were embarrassed by our departure from Afghanistan, and we want to restore American confidence in our military,” she said. “All these other issues are side issues.”
Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault, and more recently of being drunk at work, according to records obtained by The New Yorker. That publication also got a hold of records from two nonprofit veterans advocacy groups that forced him to step down as leader.
Hegseth has denied these claims.
Additionally, The New York Times on Friday obtained an email to Hegseth from his mother, who admonished him for mistreating women.
“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote on April 30, 2018. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.”
At the time, Hegseth had just gotten divorced from his second wife. While married, he had been carrying out an affair with a fellow Fox News producer.
