After claiming a mandate from his first-ever popular vote win — about half of Hillary Clinton’s margin in 2016, when she lost — President-elect Donald Trump immediately went out and demonstrated his hubris, the 78-year-old Republican selecting people to lead the country’s most important institutions based largely on their personal loyalty and on-air presence. It’s a display of raw power and unchecked impulses, forcing senators in his own party to either praise their leader’s genius or risk his wrath on social media.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, is testing just how far (or low) Senate Republicans are willing to go in terms of their collective moral decline. A veteran of the Iraq war, Hegseth was plucked from the studios of Fox News to serve in the second Trump administration, which does not appear to mind that he has insulted women in the military and was flagged for possible extremist, white nationalist views while serving in the National Guard.
Hegseth has no experience that suggests he could lead a department with more than three million workers. The actual deal breaker, though, may be his sordid personal life.
In a world where an alleged pedophile is a serious contender for attorney general, it may be too much to ask the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm another man accused of a sex crime. In 2017, police in Monterey, California, investigated Hegseth for an “alleged sexual assault,” a fact that only came to light a day after he was nominated for Defense secretary. The investigation stemmed from a sexual encounter with a married woman at a conference in the city hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women: Hegseth, whose first two marriages dissolved after he was accused of infidelity, insists the encounter was consensual, but the alleged victim — who had bruises on her right thigh — told police she was coerced after escorting the accused back to his room from the hotel bar, where other guests allegedly described him as intoxicated.
No charges were ever filed, but Hegseth did pay an undisclosed sum to the woman, buying her silence. Today his lawyer insists he was the victim of “extortion.”
The Trump transition team has responded to the disclosure with its characteristic bravado, insisting that Hegseth did nothing wrong and will indeed be confirmed by the Senate.; this, despite the fact that incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was blindsided by the allegation of misconduct, according to Vanity Fair.
Now, though, there is whispering of a back-up plan. Tuesday night, Vanity Fair reported that the transition team “is quietly preparing a lists of alternative defense secretary candidates should Trump abandon Hegseth,” citing two sources close to the president-elect. “It’s becoming a real possibility,” one source said; “The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest,” said the other.
The Senate may not be the only consideration. The preference is surely for Trump’s nominees to be confirmed by the upper chamber, but if that’s not possible the president-elect is reportedly considering a dubious scheme to bypass the legislature with recess appointments, possibly by forcibly adjourning Congress. The mere threat of that — of publicly and explicitly neutering the Senate — could be enough for the GOP caucus to get in line.
Already, elected Republicans are deploying their favorite trick from the first Trump presidency: claiming they simply haven’t seen the horrible thing reporters are asking about.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, claimed Tuesday that he just hasn’t had time to look into the claim that the next man in line to lead the Pentagon is a rapist.
“Let me say this: I have asked to read the allegations and I honestly have not had time to look at it, so I just can’t comment,” Wicker told reporters. He did not seem to perturbed, however, adding: “I am looking to be very supportive of his nomination.”
"Let's remember," Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., another member of the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday, "Donald Trump was elected to shake up Washington as is, and I think that's one of the reasons why he chose Pete Hegseth."
