President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is in peril as Senate Republicans grow increasingly concerned over reports about his alleged drinking and treatment of women.
As many as six Senate Republicans, perhaps more, are currently not comfortable supporting Hegseth's bid to lead the Pentagon as new revelations about the former Fox News anchor's past continue to be made public, three Republican sources with direct knowledge of his nomination process tell NBC News. Given Republicans' slim Senate majority in the next Congress, Hegseth can only afford to lose three GOP votes, assuming all Democrats vote against him.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who sits on the Armed Services Committee would not commit to supporting Hegseth's nomination and said she planned to grill the former cable news host about news accounts of his alleged alcohol abuse, mistreatment of woman and financial mismanagement.
“We’re just going to have a really frank and thorough conversation,” Ernst said of Hegseth’s nomination process.
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Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in California in 2017, according to a police report made public after Trump announced he would nominate the former Fox host for defense secretary. Hegseth was not charged and denied the woman's allegations, stating the encounter was consensual, although he did pay an undisclosed amount as part of a settlement with her.
Separately, NBC News reported on Tuesday that Hegseth's drinking concerned his colleagues at Fox News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees. Two of them said that Hegseth smelled of alcohol before he went on air on more than a dozen occasions. Hegseth did not respond when asked for comment on those allegations Tuesday evening at the Capitol.
The initial allegations against Hegseth last month did not appear to put his planned nomination in danger. 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 Hegesth to be confirmed. But on Tuesday, after a series of other reports about Hegseth’s past but before NBC News reported on allegations concerning drinking at Fox News, Wicker sounded more cautious.
“I think there are questions that some members have and we’re going to be looking for an answer,” Wicker said.
On Sunday, the New Yorker published a story on a previously undisclosed 2015 whistleblower report from a veterans’ organization Hegseth ran, which claimed he was repeatedly intoxicated on the job. NBC News has not seen that report, which was shared with the nonprofit’s leadership and Hegseth's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment on that story Monday. In a statement the lawyer provided to The New Yorker, an unidentified Hegseth adviser called the claims “outlandish” and said they came from a “petty and jealous disgruntled former associate.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is still open to supporting Hegseth and believes he deserves a fair vetting, but said Tuesday that Hegseth must explain media reports about his past conduct in a way that would make senators comfortable voting in favor of his confirmation.
“We got a process where he can be asked questions. The articles I’ve read, yeah, some of them are concerning,” Graham said. “I don’t know if it's true or not, but he’ll go through the process. He’ll be asked about it. We’ll see what happens.”
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Tuesday meeting with multiple senators. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another Trump pick to fill out his Cabinet dropped out of contention last month amid opposition from Senate Republicans. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., had been Trump's choice for attorney general but at least five Senate Republicans were prepared to vote against him, five people with direct knowledge told NBC News at the time, due to allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor (which Gaetz was not charged with and has denied).
Several Republican senators have continued to downplay the allegations against Hegseth, saying they support Trump’s prerogative to pick his own cabinet.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., on Monday called the allegations a “side issue," saying Hegseth "has earned a great deal of credibility."
"Are soldiers sometimes wild childs? Yeah, that can happen,” Lummis said when asked whether the allegations concern her. “But it is very clear that this guy is the guy who, at a time when Americans are losing confidence in their own military, in our ability to project strength around the world, that Pete Hegseth is the answer to that concern.”
Asked on Tuesday to respond to the allegations of womanizing and alcohol abuse, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded: “That would not be novel in Washington, D.C."
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