President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, spent another day courting support from Republican senators on Capitol Hill and taking a few questions from reporters while he was at it.
The military vet turned ‘Fox & Friends’ co-host met with senators Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Sen.-elect Jim Banks, R-Ind., Thursday.
The meetings followed others Hegseth held earlier in the week with GOP senators, including Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who will be the next chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Hegseth has been facing a mountain of criticism with accusations against him ranging from fiscal mismanagement to alcoholism to sexual misconduct. Nevertheless, Hegseth said Thursday while walking between meetings on Capitol Hill that Trump supports him ‘fully.’
‘I’ll tell you why I support him,’ Scott told reporters after his meeting Thursday with Hegseth. ‘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.’
Scott added that he will do ‘everything’ he can to ensure Hegseth is confirmed.
‘Pete Hegseth won’t back down from the media or the Pentagon bureaucracy,’ Banks added after his own one-on-one meeting with the defense nominee. ‘And he won’t back down from China, Russia or Iran. He will help President Trump make America strong again.’
Between meetings on Capitol Hill Thursday, Hegseth was pressed about his meeting a day earlier with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. Ernst said earlier Thursday morning she was not yet willing to throw her support behind him.
‘Productive meeting. Excellent,’ Hegseth said of his meeting with Ernst as he was peppered with questions during his meeting with Rounds.
‘Constructive, candid. It was great,’ Hegseth told a different reporter.
When asked if the allegations about him were a topic of his conversation with Ernst, Hegseth declined to comment further, citing the private nature of their conversation.
‘It’s been a wonderful process,’ Hegseth told reporters Thursday. ‘There’s an incredible amount of knowledge in the U.S. Senate — in the Senate Armed Services Committee — men and women who have studied these issues, have invested their lives in it. And as someone who is hoping to earn their support as the nominee for secretary of defense, I welcome that knowledge, I welcome that advice. And that’s why we’re here in all these meetings.’
Hegseth’s meetings Thursday coincided with visits to Capitol Hill by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The pair convened on Capitol Hill to discuss their new role running President-elect Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency with Thune.
