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WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump on Friday publicly expressed his support for Pete Hegseth, his controversial choice to lead the Defense Department, whose Senate confirmation is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of drinking excessively, sexual abuse and his vision of women in combat.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, National Guard major and combat veteran, spent much of the week on Capitol Hill trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination and privately reassure Republican senators that he is fit to lead Trump’s Pentagon. to lead.
“Pete Hegseth is doing very well,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “He will be a fantastic, energetic secretary of defense.” The president added: “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a taped interview Friday that he believes Hegseth will be confirmed and that he still has confidence in him.
“Pete is doing well now,” the president-elect said in a clip of the interview that aired Sunday. “I mean, people were a little concerned. He’s a young guy with a great track record.”
He said senators have called him to tell him Hegseth is great. Trump also cast doubt on reports of Hegseth’s alcohol abuse, saying he has spoken to people who know him well and has been assured Hegseth does not have a drinking problem.
The nomination battle over Hegseth is emerging not only as a debate over the best person to lead the Pentagon, but also at a key moment for a “Make America Great Again” movement that appears to be relishing a public fight over its hard line. pushing for a more masculine military and ending the “woke-ism” of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Trump’s allies are rallying strongly around the embattled Hegseth — the political arm of the Heritage Foundation pledges to spend $1 million to support his nomination — as he promises to stay in the fight as long as the president-elect wants him to.
“We are not abandoning this nomination,” Vice President-elect J.D. Vance said while touring after Hurricane North Carolina.
“Pete Hegseth is getting his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, not a mock hearing in front of the American media,” Vance said. He said he has spoken to Republican senators and he believes Hegseth will be confirmed. “We fully support him.”
The effort has become a test of Trump’s influence and the extent of loyalty to the president-elect among Republican senators concerned about his nominees. Two of Trump’s other picks have been pushed aside while under intense scrutiny: Former congressman Matt Gaetzhis first choice as attorney general, and Chad Chronistera Florida sheriff who was Trump’s first choice to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also showed his support for Hegseth on Friday, part of an entire MAGA presser.
“If you’re a Republican senator who voted for Lloyd Austin but criticizes @PeteHegseth, you may be in the wrong political party!” he wrote on X. referring to President Joe Biden’s secretary of defense.
Hegseth thanked the president-elect for the support, posting on social media: “Like you, we will never back down.”
Hegseth has pledged not to drink on the job and told lawmakers he has never engaged in sexual misconduct his professional view of female troops will also come under increased supervision. He said last month that women should not serve in combat “upright.”
He received a major endorsement from Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, whose support was seen as a potentially powerful counterbalance to the cooler reception Hegseth had received from Senator Joni Ernst, herself a former National Guard lieutenant colonel.
“Huge. Thanks to Katie for her leadership,” Vance posted on social media.
Ernst, who is also a sexual assault survivor, stopped short of making an endorsement after her meeting with Hegseth this week. On Friday, Ernst posted on X that she and Hegseth would continue to have “constructive conversations” as the trial progressed. She said she would meet him again next week.
“At the very least, we agree that he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our warfighters at a fair hearing,” she wrote.
Trump released the statement Friday in response to reports in which he said he had lost confidence in Hegseth, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The president-elect and his team are pleased to see that Hegseth has stepped up and his actions this week reiterate why he was elected, the person said. They think he can still be confirmed.
If Hegseth goes down, Trump’s team believes the defeat would allow others to spread what they proclaim as “cruel lies” against whichever candidate Trump chooses.
Still, Trump’s transition team has been looking at possible replacements if Hegseth’s nomination cannot move forward, including the former presidential rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis plans to attend the Army-Navy football game with Trump on Dec. 14, according to a person familiar with the Florida governor’s plans who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss them discuss before a public announcement.
And DeSantis and Trump had discussed the defense secretary post when they saw each other Tuesday at a memorial service for sheriff’s deputies in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to people familiar with the matter who said Trump was interested in DeSantis for the post, and the governor was receptive.
At the same time, DeSantis is also poised to select a replacement for the expected Senate vacancy that will be created by Marco Rubio becoming secretary of state, and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump seen as the preferred choice of those close to Trump.
Despite a week of private meetings on Capitol Hill, Hegseth is facing backlash from senators as reports have emerged about his past, including the revelation that he paid a settlement. after being accused of sexual abuse that he denies.
The New Yorker cited what it described as a whistleblower report and other documents about his time leading a veterans advocacy group, Concerned Veterans for America, alleging multiple incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement.
The New York Times obtained an email from his mother Penelope in 2018, in which she confronted him about assaulting women after impregnating his current wife while married to his second wife. She went on “Fox & Friends” this week to defend her son.
Trump ally Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said senators are “judging Pete by who he is today.”
In many ways, the increasingly heated battle resembles the political and cultural wars that erupted over Trump’s choice of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court during his first term in the White House.
Kavanaugh had also faced sexual assault allegations that he strongly denied, but Republicans rallied behind him, turning a wave of opposition into a more sympathetic portrayal of the Supreme Court nominee as the victim of a liberal-led smear campaign. He finally got confirmation.
While Hegseth was still fighting for votes in the Senate, he appeared to be making incremental progress with some Republicans who had expressed particular concern about reports of his drinking.
“I am not going to make any decision about Pete Hegseth’s nomination based on anonymous sources,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said of the allegations against Hegseth, “I have no more reason to doubt him than I have to believe anyone else.”
Still, Cramer indicated that he could still change his mind. A background check “will be informative.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said after meeting with Hegseth that he wanted to see how he does at a hearing, but that he “has come a long way” to get his support.
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Fariview, N.C.; Michelle L. Price in New York; Adriana Gomez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, FL; and Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
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