Sara Dorn is a Forbes news reporter who covers politics, with a focus on elections and Capitol Hill. She joined Forbes in 2022 and is based in New York.
Trump’s Cabinet And Key Jobs: Banking Executive Frank Bisignano To Lead Social Security Administration, Billy Long Picked For IRS ChiefSen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she’s not ready to support Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary on Thursday, a setback for Hegseth’s strained Senate confirmation battle—as Hegseth insisted President-elect Donald Trump is still in his corner despite allegations of concerning drinking habits and sexual misconduct.
Ernst told Fox News host Bill Hemmer, “I think you’re right,” when Hemmer said it “doesn’t sound in your answer that you got to a yes” on voting for Hegseth; Ernst—seen as adue to her status as a veteran and criticism of the military’s handling of sexual assault allegations—said “a number” of senators “want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared” in the interview Thursday, a day after she had what she described as a “frank and thorough” meeting with Hegseth.Hegseth told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill he spoke to Trump “just a few minutes ago” and the president-elect “supports us fully,” adding his meeting with Ernst was “constructive” and “candid.”Hegseth during an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” if he was “being Kavanaughed” , Hegseth said that is what people are trying to do, but noted “Kavanaugh stood up, and he fought and he won ... and Trump stood by him”—though just after that, Hegseth said there were “tiny kernels of truth” in what is being said that have been “blown up into a masquerade of a narrative.”he does not have a drinking problem and said if he is confirmed as secretary of defense he would stop drinking completely, adding it’s “not hard for me because it’s not a problem for me.” He continued: “This is the biggest deployment of my life, and there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it.”Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, told Fox News the 2018 email—in which she accused Hegseth of having “abused” women—was sent “in haste” and “with deep emotions” as Hegseth was going through a “very difficult divorce,” adding that she retracted it and apologized two hours later.Penelope Hegseth said she doesn’t believe the allegations against her son, who she said “is not that man he was seven years ago” and is “a new person” who “is redeemed, forgiven, changed,” insisting “he’s the man for the job” and he “doesn’t misuse women.”Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are the latest Republicans to express reservations about Hegseth, with Lummis tellingHegseth’s alleged drinking habits raised concerns more than a dozen occasions while he was a Fox News host between 2017 and last month, when he resigned after Trump nominated him,, citing three current and seven former unnamed Fox employees, including two who said they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air to co-host “Fox & Friends Weekend” .Hegseth stepped down as president of Concerned Veterans for America nearly a decade ago amid allegations of repeated drunkenness, including one instance in 2014 when he allegedly brought staff to a Louisiana strip club and had to be restrained from joining the dancers on stage, according to a seven-page whistleblower report obtained by; on another work trip, to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in May 2015, Hegseth drunkenly yelled “Kill All Muslims” while he was out partying late at a hotel bar, The New Yorker reported, citing a letter from a fellow staffer to a superior at the organization. Hegseth, who was married to his second wife while serving as president of the organization between 2013 and 2016, regularly tried to “‘hook up’ with women on the road,” according to an email one of the whistleblowers sent to a higher up that was obtained by The New Yorker .In 2018, Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, asked her son to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself” after “all the women you have abused in some way” by being a man that “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,”to an email obtained by the New York Times, though she told the outlet she immediately apologized for the accusation, which she said was written “in anger, with emotion.”the allegations he sexually assaulted a woman in a Monterey, Calif., hotel in 2017 were “a pretty big problem, given that we have . . . a sexual assault problem in our military,” adding the accusations demonstrate the need for background checks, and telling the network, “I’m not going to pre-judge him, but yeah, it’s a pretty concerning accusation.”onew details from Hegseth’s 2020 book, “American Crusade,” in which he criticizes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations, calling the UN a “fully globalist organization that aggressively advances an anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-freedom agenda,” while claiming NATO is a “relic and should be scrapped and remade,” questioning why “Islamist Turkey” is a member.said he was a good choice for Defense secretary, while 28% said he’s not a good pick and 39% said they haven’t heard enough about him.: Hegseth’s accuser told police in Monterey, Calif., she was at an afterparty for a conference of the California Federation of Republican Women, where Hegseth was a speaker, when she confronted Hegseth about his allegedly inappropriate behavior with other women at the conference, then ended up in a hotel room with him where she remembers him hovering over her shirtless and ejaculating on her stomach.The woman, identified as “Jane Doe” in the report, told police she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot” when she was with Hegseth in his room and that Hegseth “took her phone from her hands” then “blocked the door with his body” when she tried to leave, according to the report.Hegseth, who told police the two had consensual sex that night, according to the document, responding directly to the allegations for the first time, told reporters at the Capitol “as far as the media’s concerned, it’s very simple, the matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m going to leave it” when asked by a reporter if he sexually assaulted a woman in Monterey.: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to 335-0739 or sign upHegseth, or any cabinet nominee that requires Senate approval, can afford to lose only three Republican votes to be confirmed for the job as the GOP will hold a slim 53-47 majority beginning next year. Other GOP senators have expressed support for Hegseth, including Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., whoafter meeting with him that he is a “strong nominee” who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power—not the current administration’s woke political agenda.”in a memo sent to Trump’s transition team from a woman who said she was friends with the accuser. The memo was obtained by multiple news outlets several days after Hegseth was nominated by Trump on Nov. 12.Tuesday in which his former Fox News colleagues raised concerns about his drinking—with two of them saying they smelled alcohol on him at least a dozen times before he went on air—published an article Sunday alleging he had been intoxicated at work in the past. The article alleged there was a whistle-blower reporter from when Hegseth was president of Concerned Veterans for America that said he was “repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity,” and that he had to be restrained at least once. The whistle-blower report also mentioned an incident in which Hegseth allegedly drunkenly chanted “Kill All Muslims!” while on an official tour in Ohio. Three people with knowledge of Hegseth’s time at CVA told The New Yorker he was forced to step down from his role there in part because of his abuse of alcohol on the job.Hegseth has firmly denied the allegations through his lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, who said Hegseth paid the woman a settlement in 2020 as part of a nondisclosure agreement. Parlatore said Hegseth entered into the agreement when he learned the woman and her husband hired a lawyer and told other people she planned to file a lawsuit against him. Hegseth told police he was intoxicated that night and did not know why the accuser returned to his hotel room with him, but that they had consensual sex, according to the police report. He said the woman, who was staying at the hotel with her husband, “showed early signs of regret” the next morning, and he assured her that he would not tell anyone about the encounter, the report states.No. Police recommended the case to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review, but charges were never filed.Hegseth—who served in the National Guard—has intensely criticized military leadership, castigating their handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He has alsoin his 2020 book “American Crusade” that if President Joe Biden won the election, the military and police would be “forced to make a choice” and that there would be “some form of civil war.” Trump has previously suggested he would use the military to go after domestic political opponents, which he, Hegseth wrote that only men should serve in combat roles. “If we’re going to send our boys to fight—and it should be boys—we need to unleash them to win,” he wrote, adding they need “to be the most ruthless” and “the most uncompromising. The most overwhelmingly lethal as they can be.” Hegsethin a recent podcast, telling host Shawn Ryan on Nov. 7 “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective.”Trump called Hegseth a “warrior” and “a true believer in America First” in a statement announcing the nomination on Nov. 12. The statement touts his service in the Army National Guard and his deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, along with his eight years as a Fox News host. A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team told thein response to the police report being made public that it “corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.” The police report does not say whether officials made a determination about the allegations. New Sexual Assault Allegation Details Against Pete Hegseth Emerge: Here’s What To Know As Trump Defends Defense Secretary NomineeOur community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. 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