Trump mulls new defense pick as allegations of heavy drinking and sexual improprieties dog Hegseth

WASHINGTON — Pete Hegseth tried to shore up GOP support on Capitol Hill for his nomination as secretary of defense as President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a different candidate — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

With visits to key GOP senators this week, Hegseth tried to rein in the damage to his nomination and reputation provoked by new media reports about out-of-control drinking and his ouster from two veterans’ organizations amid allegations of mismanagement and sexual improprieties.

But the nomination appears to be in danger because several Republican senators are wavering in their support of the embattled nominee. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report late Tuesday, based on anonymous sources, that Trump is considering former political rival DeSantis or another candidate to replace Hegseth.

In a posting on X on Wednesday morning, Hegseth vowed he would not drop out of contention, calling the new allegations against him a “smear” based on “fake, anonymous sources & BS stories.”

The most damaging revelations came from a New Yorker story that cited a whistleblower report on Hegseth’s time as president of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013 to 2016 and describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated and sometimes needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. 

A native Minnesotan and graduate of Forest Lake Area High School, Hegseth was tapped by Trump to run the Pentagon, with its 3 million employees and an annual budget of more than $850 billion. Hegseth is a National Guard veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

But recent damning media reports have thrown doubts about his ability to secure enough GOP votes in the U.S. Senate to be confirmed.

Besides the bombshell New Yorker piece, those reports include a New York Times story about an email his mother wrote Hegseth in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women and displayed a lack of character and an NBC story that said the nominee drank in ways that concerned his colleagues at Fox News, where he worked as a weekend host until about a month ago.

After his first round of meetings on Capitol Hill last month, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chair of the Armed Services Committee, said he expected Hegseth to be confirmed. 

But that was not clear after the recent spate of media reports about his past. 

Hegseth is seeking to tamp down concerns about his nomination by making the rounds of Senate offices this week to enlist GOP support. Most, if not all, Senate Democrats are expected to oppose his nomination. And as of  Tuesday, reactions to the recent reports about Hegseth among GOP senators were mixed.

Centrist Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters she has adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

“I believe that we need an FBI background check to evaluate the allegations,” Collins said. “We need to have the normal committee process … and questionnaires about his background, and we also need to have a public hearing.”

Hegseth has visited the offices of Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will vet his nomination as a priority.

Those senators include Joni Ernst of Iowa — herself a military veteran and survivor of sexual assault — who is considered a possible replacement for Hegseth if his nomination is derailed.  

Ernst told reporters that when she meets with Hegseth, “we’re hopefully going to have a really frank and thorough conversation.” She declined to say whether she thought Hegseth would survive the Senate confirmation process.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told CBS News that it will be “difficult” for Hegseth to be confirmed.

“I think some of these articles are very disturbing,” Graham said. “He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but with some of this stuff  it’s going to be difficult …”

As Hegseth made his way through the Senate office buildings en route to his meetings Tuesday, he dodged reporter’s questions.

But he posted photos on X of his visits with Senate supporters.

“Had a productive meeting with @SenTedBuddNC, discussing priorities like DoD recruitment crisis, acquisition reform and the defense of our homeland,” Hegseth posted. “Thankful for the senator’s advice in this process.”

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, declined to answer MinnPost’s questions about several of the most recent allegations.

Those allegations follow an earlier disclosure that a woman alleged that Hegseth sexually assaulted her after he prevented her from leaving a hotel room following a California Federation of Republican Women convention in October 2017.

Hegseth denies the allegation, saying the encounter was consensual. But he has admitted to paying the woman and her husband a settlement to avoid a lawsuit.

As a member of the Army National Guard, Hegseth came under scrutiny for several tattoos, especially one on his arm that bears the Latin phrase “Deus Vult,” or “God Wills It,” which has its origin in the Crusades and is popular among right-wing extremist groups.

Jason Miller, a Trump-Vance transition team adviser, defended Hegseth during a Tuesday appearance on FOX.

“There’s a reason why Trump picked Pete Hegseth to lead the DOD,” Miller said, citing Hegseth’s two Bronze stars and the “Ivy League pedigree” of the Harvard graduate.

“You want someone there, leading the DOD, who has served in combat, who knows what it’s like to be shot at,” Miller said.

Ana Radelat

Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.

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