Speaking on Wednesday, December 4 about the campaign being carried out in the media to try to stop his nomination by bringing up allegations from his past, particularly regarding drinking and women, Pete Hegseth, who President-elect Donald Trump’s picked for defense secretary, doubled down and indicated he will keep fighting for his nomination.
Particularly, Hegseth speaking about his fight to secure his role as the media attempts to torpedo it with allegations regarding his past conduct and flurry of questions about his qualifications for the major role, Hegseth said that he would to “fight like hell” to help ensure senators know he is the right candidate for the job
That came when Hegseth spoke to the media about meeting with Senators and the Senate Armed Services Committee to work on getting his nomination through, saying it was a “wonderful process.” He added, speaking about his nomination, “That’s what Donald Trump asked me to do. Your job is to bring a war-fighting ethos back to the Pentagon. Your job is to make sure that it’s lethality, lethality, lethality!”
Further, Hegseth said that the various smears and accusations seem to be less important than might be thought, as the Senators with whom he spoke seemed to ignore them. He said, “Everything else is gone. Everything else that distracts from that shouldn’t be happening. That’s the message I’m hearing from Senators in that advise and consent process. It’s been a wonderful process.”
Senator Rick Scott, posting on X (formerly Twitter) about Hegseth’s nomination, said, “I just had a great meeting with @PeteHegseth , the next Secretary of Defense. I’ll tell you why I support him: I admire people who are willing to put on the uniform and lead troops into battle… When he goes in the Department of Defense, he will walk in with the mentality that he’s going to take care of our warfighters.”
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham seemed to support Hegseth, posting on X, “I read with great interest Pete Hegseth’s op-ed in the @WSJ concerning allegations being made by anonymous sources regarding the way he ran two veterans organizations. I have known Pete personally for many years. I met him once briefly in Afghanistan and received nothing but positive feedback about his service there.”
Sen. Graham continued, “I agree that no one should make a decision based on allegations from anonymous sources. Time will tell if there are people willing to substantiate these allegations under oath. Based on fundamental fairness, that would be required. While I have said Pete deserves a chance to defend himself, it is only fair that those making the allegations come forward and substantiate their claims under oath.” Watch Hegseth speak about meeting with the Senate here:
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Congressman Ronny Jackson, posting about Hegseth’s nomination on December 4, said, “BEWARE of all the leaked rumors of others replacing Pete Hegseth. Pete is and WILL BE President Trump’s nominee and future SecDef. If you hear differently you should question the source. A lot of people taking advantage of a high profile nomination fight to promote themselves. SHAMEFUL!”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video