Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Defense, and his wife Jennifer Rauchet walk through the Russell Senate Office building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 3, 2024.
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is facing major headwinds in his quest to get Senate approval to get the job, bogged down by an avalanche of bad headlines.
Hegseth is struggling to build the necessary votes for Senate confirmation. While no GOP Senator has explicitly said they will vote no, more than four — the number who could sink his nomination — have publicly expressed concerns.
Several Republicans want to see more information in the form of a background check, talk to Hegseth directly about concerns, or see Hegseth respond to concerns in a public hearing.
He was slated to meet on Wednesday with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, according to a source familiar with the meetings but not authorized to speak on the record.
Hegseth told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump had encouraged him to stick with it. “I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said, ‘Keep going. Keep fighting, behind you all the way,'” Hegseth said.
What Hegseth’s mom said on Fox News
On Wednesday, his mom Penelope Hegseth took the unusual step of going on “Fox & Friends” to make a plea for her son, speaking directly to the camera, saying she wanted to set the record straight about a damning email she sent to her son about his treatment of women.
It just one in a series of negative reports about Hegseth, including that he secured a nondisclosure agreement and paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault after a 2017 incident. Hegseth has denied the allegations, but his attorney confirmed that he reached a settlement with the woman.
The pick of Hegseth, 44, has also been scrutinized because of his relative lack of experience. The post is usually filled by people who have served on Capitol Hill, industry or the highest ranks of the officer corps.
The New York Times reported on Friday that Penelope Hegseth had called her son “an abuser of women” in an email she sent to him in 2018 while he was going through an acrimonious divorce with his second wife,
“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years),” she said in that email, as published by The Times.
In her Fox News interview, Hegseth didn’t dispute the veracity of the email, but she said it was sent in a fit of anger and that within hours she had retracted it and apologized to her son.
“It was a very emotional time,” Hegseth said. “There’s emotions. We say things, and I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emotions. I wrote that as a parent.”
It was friendly territory. Until getting the nod, Hegseth had been a host of “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Hegseth said she had asked to appear on the program to send a message to Trump — and to the senators in Washington who her son was meeting with this week.
“He’s a changed man and I just hope people will get to know who Pete is today, especially our dear female senators, that you would listen to him,” she said in the interview.
Some of Trump’s other picks are also facing scrutiny
Last month, Trump said he would nominate Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. But that pick ran into a firestorm of criticism. After insisting that meetings with senators had gone well, he withdrew his name. Trump replaced him with Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General who had served on his first impeachment defense team.
Tuesday night, Trump’s pick to head the Drug Enforcement Administration — Hillsborough County, Fla. Sheriff Chad Chronister — announced he had withdrawn from the process, saying that “as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in” he concluded he must step aside.
Trump said on social media on Wednesday that he had pulled Chronister’s nomination because of an outcry from his supporters, and angrily pushed back against the idea that it represented a setback.
Hegseth continued meeting with senators on Wednesday, including incoming Senate majority leader John Thune, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and North Dakota Sen Kevin Cramer, according to a source familiar with the meetings but not authorized to speak on the record.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday that he introduced Hegseth to Thune and said they “are having very good conversation” while he stepped out to vote. Pressed about whether he asked Hegseth about the negative reports, Hagerty said, “all you’re talking about are allegations.”
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