Pete Hegseth made the rounds on Capitol Hill on Thursday to convince senators that he’s up for the job of defense secretary as he faces an allegation of sexual assault that could threaten his nomination.
Hegseth was well received by the lawmakers, including members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, but the allegation against him was a matter that the senators were especially interested in discussing. “Of course” it was a focus of his meeting with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, according to the senator.
“The biggest thing is how to get him confirmed,” Mullin said. “I think we can get him there. Obviously, there’s a lot of questions that have got to be answered, but I think we can get him there.”
His series of meetings wasn’t the biggest story on the Hill on Thursday — Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s first choice for attorney general, withdrew his nomination amid his own sexual misconduct scandal.
Hegseth is accused of sexually assaulting a woman after a Republican event in California in 2017, which The Washington Post first reported. He was never charged with a crime, and he denies any wrongdoing. His lawyer has said that Hegseth paid an undisclosed sum over the incident and the woman signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2020, according to The Washington Post.
His trip to the Hill, which included meetings with members of the Armed Services Committee, came the day after a police report was released with additional details about Hegseth’s encounter with the woman, whose identity is not publicly known, in Monterey, California.
“The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared,” Hegseth said Thursday after he met with senators, according to the Associated Press.
Some senators dismissed questions about the allegation on Thursday.
“We’re not going to try Pete Hegseth or Matt Gaetz based on press statements, so stop asking. We’ve got a process,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said when asked if the allegation is cause for concern.
Most Senate Republicans had similar answers to questions about the police report.
“We’re not going to confirm these people based on press reports,” Sen. John Cornyn said. After a reporter reminded him that it’s a police report, he added, “Oh, OK, well, that’s hearsay too.”
“We’re not going to decide based on pieces of the story. We want the whole story.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan had similar things to say. “Those are going to have to be addressed,” he said. “But we’re not going to try him in the press.”
Roger Wicker, the current senior Republican on the committee, was less forthcoming. When asked about the allegation leveled against Hegseth, he said that all the appointments should be done “by the numbers,” including FBI background checks. He said members of the committee were expected to have a “thorough and full interview and conversation” about any of their concerns.
“I’m sure members will be advised, also, to the fact that no charges were brought,” he said. “And that the allegations are in dispute.”
How much support he has among the Senate Republican conference is still unclear.
“It was a great meeting,” Mullin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters. He said he wasn’t worried about the allegation.
“As a father of three beautiful girls, believe me, I take something like that serious, and I’m very comfortable with his position, and I support him,” Mullin said.
When asked if they discussed the sexual assault allegation while leaving the meeting, Mullin said the police report was “self-explanatory” and added that there “was obviously a lot of flirting going on.”
Mullin said he “didn’t ask [Hegseth] directly” when the Trump team was made aware of the allegation. The Washington Post reported that someone who said she was the woman’s friend sent a memo to the transition team after Hegseth was announced as his defense secretary pick.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. But the team emailed a press release to reporters after the Hill visit saying Hegseth had “broad support” in Congress, alongside praise from some individual Republicans.
Even before the scandal came to light, Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, was a surprising pick for the cabinet role — though he is a National Guard veteran, he does not have extensive experience running a large organization and was not well-known to many on Capitol Hill until he was tapped for the job. His public commentary about the military suggests he’s focused on changing culture.
The Republicans who would vote on his nomination were openly supportive of his agenda.
“He’s going to bring a focus on lethality and none of this woke stuff,” Sullivan said. “I just retired out of the Marine Corps six months ago. I did almost 30 days a year, so I saw some of this right as a Marine colonel. I think our military is going to welcome a focus back on winning wars.”
The Armed Services Committee is responsible for oversight of the Department of Defense and can refer cabinet appointments to the full Senate. Many of the Republicans outside the committee have said they would follow the lead of their colleagues, trusting them to conduct thorough interviews and report back before a confirmation hearing.
“They got to pass that vote before they get mine,” Sen. Thom Tillis said. Sen. Ted Budd, another member of the committee, said Hegseth “wasn’t on the calendar yet” to meet with him, but he was supportive of his trip to the Capitol.
“I think Trump is likely to shake up Washington, D.C., and that’s the kind of picks he’s shooting for,” Budd told NOTUS. “You don’t want business as usual. It’s not about bureaucracy, it’s about results.”
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Tinashe Chingarande contributed reporting.