Hegseth Campaigns For Pentagon Job As His Nomination Hangs In The Balance

Pete Hegseth went on the offense in Congress and in the media Wednesday, trying to salvage a nomination to lead the Pentagon that has been pushed to the precipice by allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking.

In private meetings with lawmakers, interviews and a combative social media post, Hegseth is waging what looks like an increasingly uphill battle to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of Defense.

His lawyer, meanwhile, is going on defense — rejecting allegations that the military veteran and Fox News host sexually assaulted a woman, abused alcohol and other misconduct.

“He is looking forward to the FBI investigation and he wants it to start now,” attorney Timothy Parlatore said in an interview with POLITICO.

It was unclear whether their joint efforts would be enough. Trump was still publicly supporting the nomination, but people close to the president-elect said he has been mulling contingency plans — including nominating his onetime rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the post.

Hegseth met with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor whose support will be crucial for his confirmation — though there was no sign that he had won her over. “It was a frank and thorough conversation,” she told reporters as she exited their meeting.

The nominee, in a lengthy interview on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” and in a post on X and elsewhere portrayed himself as a victim — a “textbook manufactured media takedown,” as he put it in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. He vowed to fight a blizzard of allegations, which include a woman’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her after a night of drinking at a Republican conference in Monterey, California, in 2017. He was never charged in the incident but paid a financial settlement with his accuser — and it’s unclear if he disclosed the fact of that payment to the Trump transition team.

Parlatore defended Hegseth’s communication with the Trump team.

“It’s not something that you would necessarily be expected to disclose,” the lawyer said. “‘Were you ever falsely accused of something that the police investigated and cleared you of?’ That’s not a question that comes up on any background check.”

He also pushed back on other allegations, including that employees at two veterans organizations where he had leadership roles claimed that he drank excessively, mismanaged funds and ignored the misconduct of other employees. Internal reports cited by The New Yorker described a drunken Hegseth having to be held back from climbing the stage at a strip club and leading a chant of “Kill all Muslims!” at a bar.

Parlatore insists his client wasn’t involved in either incident. A group of employees, he said, did go to a strip club together, and one of them tried to climb on stage — but Hegseth wasn’t on the outing.

The only “kernel of truth” to the allegations involved his drinking while leading Concerned Veterans for America, Hegseth’s attorney said.

“When you strip away all the falsities, what you have is a bunch of young combat veterans who got together, did a bunch of great work, and after work was done they went to the bar and drank too much occasionally,” he said. “That is not a scandal.”

The rape allegation is the most damaging. Parlatore, reiterating earlier remarks, said Hegseth had a consensual sexual encounter with the accuser and that no criminal charges were ever filed in the incident.

Hegseth, in a post on X, said he would fight to stay as nominee. “Our warriors never back down, & neither will I,” he wrote.

Two people close to Trump who were granted anonymity to discuss the nomination said Wednesday that they noted how Hegseth has aggressively pushed back on the claims, and that the president-elect has made clear he wants his team to fight for the nominee.

Parlatore said Hegseth looks forward to an FBI background check — a standard step for every nominee that has been delayed because the Trump team didn’t sign an agreement to allow the investigations until Dec. 3.

“Pete cannot wait for the FBI to investigate him because he believes that the FBI is going to do what — don’t take this personally — what the media failed to do, which is to actually do a full investigation, look at everything from both sides, and not just take anonymous uncorroborated statements and run with them,” he said.

While the allegations may have surprised the transition team at Mar-a-Lago, Hegseth has been aware of them — and disputed them.

In 2018, Parlatore sent a letter to a former employee of Concerned Veterans of America, where Hegseth served as CEO, accusing her of trying to get a reporter to publish lies about his client to damage his reputation and career prospects. Parlatore said his client would sue the woman if any news story was published and would conduct “intense electronic discovery efforts.” He also told her to get a lawyer. The story never ran.

But now that he has been nominated for one of the most powerful jobs in the country, claims about Hegseth’s background are becoming public. And behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, senators are questioning the nominee about those claims.

“Any questions that they have, he’s answering very directly,” Parlatore said.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R.-Miss.) told reporters the nominee promised to stop drinking if confirmed. And Hegseth told Megyn Kelly that his meetings with Senate Republicans had been encouraging — including discussions about his sexual history.

“You’d be surprised how little that has come up,” he said.

Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.