Hegseth soldiers on with meeting GOP senators

Briana Reilly, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 5, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Pete Hegseth returned to Capitol Hill for another round of meetings with Republican senators Thursday as he worked to gain support for his selection to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of Defense, a bid that appeared increasingly tenuous.

Meanwhile, a leading Democratic defense authorizer pressured top Armed Services lawmakers to seek records tied to Hegseth’s prior leadership at two veterans advocacy groups after allegations of financial mismanagement (which Hegseth has denied) came to light earlier this week.

As Hegseth seeks to defuse those accusations — as well as allegations of excessive drinking and sexual impropriety, which he has also denied — most GOP senators remained publicly bullish on his chances of confirmation.

“I believe he has a path forward,” South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters Thursday following a one-on-one meeting with the Army veteran and longtime Fox News host.

Hegseth also met with Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Rick Scott of Florida and Sen.-elect Jim Banks of Indiana, who offered a full endorsement of Hegseth and promised the nominee “won’t back down.”

“He won’t back down from the media, or from the bureaucracy and he won’t back down from China, Iran or Russia,” Banks said in a statement. “He’s going to make America strong again and our enemies fear us again.”

But Hegseth may be fighting for the nomination without vocal advocacy from Trump. Media reports published Thursday, citing anonymous sources, claimed Trump has not been working the phones to shore up support for Hegseth.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee that would hold Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, declined to answer a question about whether Trump has called him directly to discuss Hegseth, saying only: “I speak to the president.”

The Mississippi Republican underscored Thursday he’s “quite supportive” of Hegseth and “eager to provide more information to my colleagues.”

Records requested

As scrutiny builds, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote to Wicker and current Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., urging them to ensure financial records from two nonprofit groups Hegseth used to lead are available for panel members to review.

Blumenthal in his Wednesday letter made the case for demanding that the groups Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America “preserve and produce” credit card records, tax filings, revenue reports and more from the time of Hegseth’s employment at both nonprofits.

In a brief interview Thursday, Blumenthal said he wants to use the documents to “see more about the inner workings and administration of those two organizations and why they became so mired in debt and disorganization, apparently, from what we know in public reports.”

More meetings on tap

Two key GOP senators are set to sit down with Hegseth next week: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.

Collins, the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations panel, told reporters Wednesday night that she has “a host of questions” for Hegseth, “ranging from his views on Ukraine and the size of our Navy to the allegations that have been lodged against him.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a member of the Armed Services Committee with whom Hegseth met on Wednesday, pointedly declined to publicly endorse his selection, simply describing their meeting as a “frank and thorough conversation.” Speaking Thursday morning on Fox News, Ernst again did not signal support for Hegseth, and instead stressed the importance of the confirmation process.

“I think for a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” she said.

Thus far, Hegseth has not met with any Senate Democrats, a decision Blumenthal criticized Thursday. Assuming all Democrats oppose him, Hegseth can only lose three GOP votes to still win confirmation.

Past nominees to lead the Pentagon have been confirmed with widespread bipartisan support; current Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was approved 93-2, while James Mattis, Trump’s first DOD secretary, was confirmed 98-1. The Senate confirmed Mark Esper, who Trump later nominated to helm the department, on a 90-8 vote.

“I think their failure or refusal to meet with Democrats reflects something really flawed about this nomination, which is that they’re making it a matter of partisan loyalty rather than merit,” Blumenthal said of Hegseth. “And that’s really a disservice to our men and women in uniform.”

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