The fight over Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Defense advanced to its next stage on Tuesday, as CNN’s top congressional correspondent met with Senate Republicans who were keen to steer clear of the latest allegations against him. On Monday, The New Yorker published an article featuring claims from a former employee that Hegseth had been ousted from several prominent veterans’ charities due to alcohol abuse and for categorizing female employees into “party girls” and “not party girls,” among other provocative accusations.
Through his attorney, Tim Parlatore, the former Fox News anchor firmly denied these allegations and criticized the liberal magazine for relying on a “disgruntled” anonymous source. The ensuing controversy was largely avoided in the hallways of the Capitol on Tuesday, as Republican senators either dodged questions or pretended to be unaware of the story.
“The Pentagon needs a serious course correction, so I’m going to have a lot of questions for him,” Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said about Hegseth, “but I think he’s the kind of guy who can do that.” Asked by reporter Manu Raju if he planned to question Hegseth about the latest round of allegations, Sullivan demurred: “There’s a process for that. Sometimes you’ve gotta take these allegations seriously. Sometimes, even when you take ’em seriously, they turn out to be inaccurate.”
In his report, Raju noted that Hegseth has also met with Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) as he navigates behind-the-scenes efforts toward a full confirmation hearing in the Senate. The vote is not expected to take place until at least January, following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and the seating and swearing-in of the new Senate. Tuberville told the CNN correspondent that the New Yorker allegations were not discussed during their meeting and stated that he would “support Hegseth’s nomination going forward.”
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After already facing the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz’s nomination, President-elect Trump can only afford defections from three more Senate Republicans to secure Hegseth’s confirmation, with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance acting as the deciding vote. Last month, Senate Republicans largely remained silent when a New York Times article alleged that Hegseth’s mother had criticized him decades ago for being an “abuser of women.” She has since retracted those statements.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is seen as key to most confirmation battles, said at the time, “Clearly, we’re going to have to have a full background check and Senate committee investigation and public hearings, which is standard.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), another moderate and senior colleague to Sullivan, told The Hill she is “going to do what everybody should do on all of these [nominations] is, let’s see what the incoming brings.”
