Pete Hegseth’s nomination to function secretary of Protection seems doomed regardless of his fiery declaration that he’s “not going anywhere,” Republicans on Capitol Hill informed The Hill on Thursday.
“I think most people do not expect Hegseth to make it,” mentioned one Republican senator. “There’s seven or eight [Republican] votes against him. It’s a matter of time.”
“It’s on the death watch,” the senator added.
GOP senators say that President-elect Trump is letting Hegseth twist within the wind and even appeared to undermine his nomination by floating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as a attainable substitute nominee to go the Pentagon.
Republican senators say that Trump isn’t making calls to GOP senators to save lots of Hegseth’s floundering nomination and as an alternative is throwing extra ballast onto a sinking ship by floating DeSantis as a substitute.
DeSantis, a Navy choose advocate normal who’s a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, would simply win affirmation, the GOP supply mentioned.
“Where is all of this stuff about DeSantis coming from? That’s all coming out of Mar-a-Lago,” the primary GOP senator who spoke to The Hill mentioned.
A second Republican senator mentioned that Trump floated DeSantis’s title for the secretary of Protection to a bunch of individuals over the weekend.
A 3rd Republican senator mentioned Hegseth’s nomination is “trending” within the unsuitable course.
A Senate Republican aide mentioned as many as eight Republican senators are ready to vote in opposition to Hegseth, however most of them will not be keen to name publicly for Hegseth to resign as a result of they don’t need to be criticized by Trump’s MAGA allies.
Hegseth can solely afford three Republican “no” votes in subsequent yr’s 53-seat Senate Republican majority and nonetheless be confirmed, assuming all Democrats vote in opposition to him.
Conservative activists are already threatening on the social platform X to major “RINOs” — brief for “Republicans in name only” — who oppose Hegseth. However it’s removed from clear there’ll ever be a vote on the nomination.
Hegseth met Thursday with Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) together with Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.) to shore up help throughout the GOP convention.
Ernst informed co-anchor Invoice Hemmer that she’s not able to help Hegseth and needs to totally assessment his background and allegations of misconduct earlier than making a choice.
Pressed by Hemmer, who noticed that she hasn’t “gotten to a yes,” Ernst replied: “I think you are right.”
“I think for a number of our senators they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” she mentioned.
Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault, has made cracking down on sexual assault within the army a prime precedence. She co-sponsored laws in 2021 to maneuver selections over whether or not to prosecute allegations of sexual assault exterior the chain of command to impartial army prosecutors.
That makes Hegseth’s nomination probably problematic for her on condition that he was accused of sexually assaulting a 30-year-old workers member at a Republican girls’s convention in 2017.
Hegseth, who vigorously denies any wrongdoing, says the 2017 encounter was consensual. The native district lawyer didn’t file a cost in opposition to him, citing an absence of ample proof.
One other bombshell dropped Sunday when The New Yorker journal reported on a whistleblower report on Hegseth’s time as president of Involved Veterans of America (CVA) from 2013 to 2016 that described him as being repeatedly intoxicated whereas performing in an official capability.
Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that his relationship with alcohol is a matter of significant concern to GOP senators by pledging Wednesday in conferences on Capitol Hill that he would cease ingesting if confirmed to function Protection secretary.
The New Yorker report additionally claimed that Hegseth sexually pursued feminine staffers on the group.
“I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count,” Graham mentioned.
However Graham additionally warned that “if people do raise their right hand and claim something bad happened, I will listen to them,” indicating he would take critically any testimony Hegseth’s accusers can be keen to provide earlier than the Senate Armed Companies Committee.
Incoming Senate Armed Companies Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) informed reporters Thursday that Hegseth will endure an FBI background verify.
“He’s as a matter of fact eager for it,” Wicker mentioned of the background verify.
Hegseth has adamantly denied the sexual assault cost in addition to the allegations within the whistleblower report from his time at CVA that he was continuously drunk whereas on obligation.
That might make the FBI’s investigation of Hegseth’s background essential, particularly if the people who’ve accused him of misconduct decline to testify earlier than the Senate.
The girl who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 signed a nondisclosure settlement as a part of a monetary settlement that Hegseth paid to her.
Scott, the Florida senator, informed CNN’s Jake Tapper in a latest interview that Hegseth ought to “absolutely not” launch that individual from the nondisclosure settlement.
“We know how many people sign nondisclosures just to eliminate something, not that they ever did anything wrong, and he was never, he was never, you know, never charged with anything,” Scott mentioned.
Rounds, who met with Hegseth on Thursday morning, informed the nominee that he might want to communicate out at size publicly in response to the allegations dealing with him.
“I asked him to be in a position to respond publicly to the allegations that have been made,” he mentioned. “While it’s difficult and it’s uncomfortable, it’s a necessary part of this process.”
Rounds mentioned Hegseth wants to reply publicly to every allegation.
Hegseth has responded broadly to the allegations by claiming he’s the sufferer of a “manufactured media takedown.”
“The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown,” he wrote in a Wall Avenue Journal op-ed.
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