Hegseth says Trump ‘supports us fully’ as he arrives on Capitol Hill
As the defense secretary pick arrived on Capitol Hill this morning for more meetings with Republican senators who will decide his fate, Pete Hegseth told reporters he has Donald Trump’s full backing.
“I spoke to Trump this morning, just a few minutes ago. He supports us fully,” Hegseth said.
Asked about his meeting yesterday with senator Joni Ernst, Hegseth said it was “constructive” and “candid”, but did not elaborate. The Iowa lawmaker and combat veteran’s support is seen as vital to Hegseth’s prospects of confirmation, but Ernst has said little about their meeting yesterday.
Key events
The New York Times also heard from two former employees of conservative group Concerned Veterans for America, which Hegseth led around 2015 as it struggled financially.
The former employees told the Times they remembered Hegseth as a good boss. The Times also reported that even though the group was in debt, Hegseth did not have full control over its spending:
Although he was listed as the chief executive officer, Mr. Hegseth did not have sole control over its finances. The organization was supported by a network of donors and operatives led by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch, and people familiar with it said its finances were overseen at least partly by officials at that network’s umbrella organization at the time, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.
Two former employees said they remembered Mr. Hegseth as a powerful voice for the organization who spoke emphatically about veterans’ issues and encouraged his audiences to vote.
Mark Lucas, who took over running of the nonprofit briefly after Mr. Hegseth left, said he found a well-run organization with knowledgeable and well-connected staff. “I didn’t inherit anything from Hegseth that was a problem,” he said.
Matt Schuck, who booked some of Mr. Hegseth’s media appearances in late 2013 and early 2014, said he was a good boss. “I never saw anything out of the ordinary. I never saw him drinking heavily.”
Hegseth ‘upset’ after husband of woman he was having affair with showed up at Fox News party – report
Fox News human resources investigated Pete Hegseth after the husband of a woman he was having an affair with attended an employees-only Christmas party held by the network eight years ago, the New York Times reported.
Hegseth would go on to marry the woman, Jennifer Rauchet, who at the time of the incident was a producer on the show Fox & Friends. The episode threatens to be yet another troubling incident that could sour Republican senators on his candidacy for defense secretary.
Here’s more about what happened, from the Times:
The “Fox & Friends” Christmas party at a New York bowling arcade in 2016 was a low point. Mr. Hegseth, who was married to his second wife, with whom he had three children, was having an affair with Ms. Rauchet, a producer on the show.
Her husband, suspecting an affair, showed up at the party even though the event was limited to Fox News employees, and Mr. Hegseth, who had been drinking, was upset to see him, according to people with knowledge of the incident.
Employees reported that Mr. Hegseth caused a disturbance, a complaint that the human resources department addressed directly with him, according to one of the people with knowledge of the situation. After Mr. Hegseth and Ms. Rauchet disclosed their relationship to Fox News in late 2016, Ms. Rauchet was transferred to a comparable job within Fox News.
The Times also reported on an incident where Hegseth was so intoxicated at a Fox News colleague’s wedding that his friends had to get him a ride home so he could make it to work on time:
The following December, Mr. Hegseth got so drunk at a wedding of a Fox News producer that he struggled to stand upright in a men’s bathroom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the episode who declined to be named for fear of retribution. Friends asked a producer who was there to get Mr. Hegseth a ride home so he could make it to the set by 6 a.m., they said.
Timothy Parlatore, Mr. Hegseth’s lawyer, said that “neither of these allegations are true.”
Fate of Hegseth nomination rests with key senator as more details of bad behavior emerge
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, will be back once again on Capitol Hill today to try to convince Republican senators that he’s the right man to lead the Pentagon. Reports of excessive drinking, financial mismanagement and poor treatment of women, as well as a sexual assault allegation, have dogged his nomination over the past days, with several conservative lawmakers expressing doubts over approving him for the job. But the most important voice in determining his fate has not piped up yet: Iowa’s Republican senator Joni Ernst. The army veteran and sexual assault survivor met with Hegseth yesterday but said little publicly about their talk. Her views on him will be pivotal in determining whether the former Fox News host’s nomination advances, or goes the way of Matt Gaetz.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has uncovered more details of incidents Hegseth was involved in while employed by the conservative network. These include another story of him drinking to excess, as well as an incident at a Christmas party eight years ago that led to an investigation from Fox News’s human resources department. We’ll see what Republican senators have to say about that throughout today.
Here’s what else is going on:
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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be together in public again at 6pm ET to light the national Christmas tree outside the White House. The pair have not been seen together much since Harris lost last month’s presidential election to Trump.
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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are heading to the Capitol today to promote the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”, their unorthodox, Trump-sanctioned idea to cut spending and downsize Washington’s federal organs.
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The House committee investigating the attempted assassination of Trump will hear testimony from acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe Jr, and will also mark up its final report.
