Sen. John Kennedy recently shut down a reporter from CBS News after she asked a pressing question about allegations brought against Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth. Since Trump tapped Hegseth to be in his cabinet, anonymous, unproven accusations have been hurled at him, conjuring up memories of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kanaugh’s confirmation process, where similar allegations were brought forward.
Most recently, Hegseth’s former sister-in-law sent an affidavit to Senators this week with new allegations against the nominee, claiming that he made his second wife fear for her safety. Hegseth has denied the accusations. The report asked Sen. Kennedy, “Do you have any concerns about the allegations made in the affidavit about Pete Hegseth from his former sister-in-law? Have you had a chance to review that?”
Kennedy responded, “I’ve seen this movie before. I saw it in the Kavanaugh letters.” Pointing out that the accuser did not appear in person, he added, “The author of the affidavit submitted the affidavit and said she wouldn’t take questions. I noticed that she didn’t present herself at the hearing to be examined, and Mr. Hegseth has denied it all.”
Samantha Hegseth, the second wife of the nominee, responded to NBC News on Monday, refusing to address her marriage. “First and foremost, I have not and will not comment on my marriage to Pete Hegseth. I do not have representatives speaking on my behalf, nor have I ever asked anyone to share or speak about the details of my marriage on my behalf, whether it be a reporter, a committee member, a transition team member, etc,” she said. “I do not believe your information to be accurate, and I have cc’d my lawyer.”
Pete Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, also denied the allegations. “Sam has never alleged that there was any abuse, she signed court documents acknowledging that there was no abuse and recently reaffirmed the same during her FBI interview. Belated claims by Danielle Dietrich, an anti-Trump far left Democrat who is divorced from Mr. Hegseth’s brother and never got along with the Hegseth family, do nothing to change that,” he said.
In the same interview, Kennedy addressed the Trump move to place federal DEI employees on leave. I think the American people have spoken very clearly that the best way to stop discriminating against people on the basis of race or gender is to stop discriminating against people on the basis of race and gender. The truth is, the American people don’t think about race or gender merely as much as some folks in Washington want to pretend,” he said.
The senator continued, “They think more about that merit they think about character. They understand that souls have no color. And most Americans approach race and gender in a common sense way. They think to a bear we all taste like chicken. In the past, I personally don’t believe that race or gender should be used to either help a person or to harm a person.” He added, “Past four years under President Biden it was the exact opposite, and I think what you’re going to see under President Trump reacting to the feelings of the American people is to go back to a race neutral, gender neutral system based on marriage.”
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Watch Kennedy below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.