Trump Doubles Down On Support Amid Confirmation Battle

December 6Vice President-elect JD Vance voiced his support alongside Trump, saying in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hegseth’s “fighting for” his nomination because he “will fight for our troops”; while Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke on Fox News, saying “there has never been a wavering in the optimism and the confidence from President Trump in Pete Hegseth.”

December 6Trump doubled down on the nomination in the Friday post, saying Hegseth “is doing very well” and has “strong and deep” support. The president-elect touted Hegseth’s academic background at Princeton and Harvard, called him a “fantastic, high energy” leader and said he’s a “WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

December 5 CBS News reported Hegseth accepted a six-figure severance payment and signed a non-disclosure agreement when he left the organization Concerned Veterans of America—where there were reports he was allegedly intoxicated on the job multiple times—in 2016, citing two unnamed sources with ties to the organization; Hegseth separately said he left CVA because of “an internal difference of opinion about its future” and that his departure was cordial.

December 5Ernst told Fox News host Bill Hemmer, “I think you’re right,” when Hemmer said it “doesn’t sound in your answer that you got to a yes” on voting for Hegseth; Ernst—seen as a key voice due to her status as a veteran and criticism of the military’s handling of sexual assault allegations—said “a number” of senators “want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared” in the interview Thursday, a day after she had what she described as a “frank and thorough” meeting with Hegseth.

December 5Hegseth told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill he spoke to Trump “just a few minutes ago” and the president-elect “supports us fully,” adding his meeting with Ernst was “constructive” and “candid.”

December 4When Megyn Kelly asked Hegseth during an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” if he was “being Kavanaughed” (referring to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who faced sexual assault allegations before being sworn in), Hegseth said that is what people are trying to do, but noted “Kavanaugh stood up, and he fought and he won … and Trump stood by him”—though just after that, Hegseth said there were “tiny kernels of truth” in what is being said that have been “blown up into a masquerade of a narrative.”

December 4 Hegseth also told Kelly he does not have a drinking problem and said if he is confirmed as secretary of defense he would stop drinking completely, adding it’s “not hard for me because it’s not a problem for me.” He continued: “This is the biggest deployment of my life, and there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it.”

December 4Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, told Fox News the 2018 email—in which she accused Hegseth of having “abused” women—was sent “in haste” and “with deep emotions” as Hegseth was going through a “very difficult divorce,” adding that she retracted it and apologized two hours later.

December 4Penelope Hegseth said she doesn’t believe the allegations against her son, who she said “is not that man he was seven years ago” and is “a new person” who “is redeemed, forgiven, changed,” insisting “he’s the man for the job” and he “doesn’t misuse women.”

December 3Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are the latest Republicans to express reservations about Hegseth, with Lummis telling Politico the allegations detailed in the New Yorker were a “surprise” to Trump and GOP senators, while Graham told CNN, “it’s going to be difficult” for Hegseth to defend himself against the accusations.

December 3Hegseth’s alleged drinking habits raised concerns more than a dozen occasions while he was a Fox News host between 2017 and last month, when he resigned after Trump nominated him, NBC reported, citing three current and seven former unnamed Fox employees, including two who said they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air to co-host “Fox & Friends Weekend” (a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team rejected the claims, calling them “disgusting” and “completely unfounded and false” in a statement to NBC; Fox did not comment).

December 2The New Yorker reported several troubling alleged incidents involving Hegseth while he was CVA president, including one instance in 2014 when he allegedly brought staff to a Louisiana strip club and had to be restrained from joining the dancers on stage, according to a seven-page whistleblower report obtained by the publication; on another work trip, to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in May 2015, Hegseth drunkenly yelled “Kill All Muslims” while he was out partying late at a hotel bar, The New Yorker reported, citing a letter from a fellow staffer to a superior at the organization.

Hegseth, who was married to his second wife while serving as president of the organization between 2013 and 2016, regularly tried to “‘hook up’ with women on the road,” according to an email one of the whistleblowers sent to a higher up that was obtained by The New Yorker (Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, provided the magazine with a statement from “an advisor” to Hegseth that called the claims “outlandish” and stemming from “a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate”).

November 29In 2018, Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, asked her son to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself” after “all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way” by being a man that “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” according to an email obtained by the New York Times, though she told the outlet she immediately apologized for the accusation, which she said was written “in anger, with emotion.”

November 25Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., was noncommittal about Hegseth’s nomination, telling NBC News the allegations he sexually assaulted a woman in a Monterey, Calif., hotel in 2017 were “a pretty big problem, given that we have . . . a sexual assault problem in our military,” adding the accusations demonstrate the need for background checks, and telling the network, “I’m not going to pre-judge him, but yeah, it’s a pretty concerning accusation.”

November 25The Guardian reported onew details from Hegseth’s 2020 book, “American Crusade,” in which he criticizes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations, calling the UN a “fully globalist organization that aggressively advances an anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-freedom agenda,” while claiming NATO is a “relic and should be scrapped and remade,” questioning why “Islamist Turkey” is a member.

November 24Despite the controversies surrounding Hegseth, a total of 33% of Americans polled by CBS/YouGov said he was a good choice for Defense secretary, while 28% said he’s not a good pick and 39% said they haven’t heard enough about him.

November 20New details from the 2017 assault allegations emerged in a police report: Hegseth’s accuser told police in Monterey, Calif., she was at an afterparty for a conference of the California Federation of Republican Women, where Hegseth was a speaker, when she confronted Hegseth about his allegedly inappropriate behavior with other women at the conference, then ended up in a hotel room with him where she remembers him hovering over her shirtless and ejaculating on her stomach.

November 21The woman, identified as “Jane Doe” in the report, told police she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot” when she was with Hegseth in his room and that Hegseth “took her phone from her hands” then “blocked the door with his body” when she tried to leave, according to the report.

November 21Hegseth, who told police the two had consensual sex that night, according to the document, responding directly to the allegations for the first time, told reporters at the Capitol “as far as the media’s concerned, it’s very simple, the matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m going to leave it” when asked by a reporter if he sexually assaulted a woman in Monterey.