Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, said Wednesday he is continuing his fight to win Senate confirmation, even as news accounts say Trump is considering whether to name someone else.
The nomination of Hegseth, a 44-year-old decorated military officer and Fox News talk show host, to lead the Pentagon has run into headwinds in the Senate, which must confirm his nomination, as he faces questions about allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking.
With no history of managing a large organization, either in the military or corporate world, Hegseth is an unconventional choice to oversee the country’s nearly 2.9 million active duty and reserve troops across the world, along with another 700,000 civilians who work for the military.
But Hegseth said he is not backing down, even as several U.S. news accounts say Trump is reconsidering the appointment, possibly in favor of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a former military officer. DeSantis is a Navy veteran who unsuccessfully ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before withdrawing in January.
On social media platform X, Hegseth said, “I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of @realDonaldTrump — and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I.”
At the U.S. Capitol, as he headed to meet with senators faced with deciding whether to confirm him, Hegseth told reporters, “I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said, ‘Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.’ … Why would I back down?”
NBC News reported Tuesday that 10 current and former Fox employees told the network that Hegseth’s co-workers at Fox had been concerned by his alcohol consumption, including occasions when he showed up at work smelling of alcohol and talking about being hung over. Other news accounts have raised questions about Hegseth’s partying and drinking at veterans’ groups he oversaw.
Hegseth is also facing questions about a 2017 encounter at a Republican women’s conference in California where a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her after extensive drinking. He told police investigating her claim that the encounter was consensual, and no charges were filed.
A couple of years later, however, Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed amount to keep her from filing a lawsuit that Hegseth feared would get him fired from his weekend show at Fox.
One Trump ally, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, on Tuesday called the allegations against Hegseth “very disturbing,” and he said that some of them are “going to be difficult” for some senators considering his nomination.
Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the incoming Senate majority leader, said Hegseth must address the troubling allegations he faces.
“There are hard questions being raised, so he’ll have to answer those,” Thune said.
Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate in January, meaning Hegseth can lose the support of no more than three Republicans, with Vice President-elect JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, if necessary. Hegseth is unlikely to win any Democratic support.
In other presidential transition news, Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser in his first White House term, to be his senior counsel for trade and manufacturing when he is inaugurated January 20.
Navarro served four months in prison earlier this year for defying a congressional subpoena investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol as about 2,000 Trump supporters tried to block lawmakers from certifying that Trump had lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump described Navarro, 75, as “a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it.”
The president-elect also named Daniel Driscoll, a former soldier and Iraq war veteran, as secretary of the Army. Additionally, Trump plans to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees securities markets and investments.
So far, two of Trump’s choices for top-level jobs — Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration and Matt Gaetz for U.S. attorney general — have dropped out.
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