Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, is back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to continue meeting with Republican senators. This time, the embattled nominee is branching out beyond the Trump-allied GOP senators to some who aren’t yet committed.
Hegseth is set to meet with at least three Republicans this afternoon: Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
Budd and Schmitt both sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee that will handle the nomination and have expressed support for Hegseth. But Risch, who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hasn’t yet committed to supporting him.
Hegseth will have two Washington insiders with him when he meets with lawmakers: Eric Ueland, a former Senate aide who served as Trump’s legislative affairs director, and former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, a lobbyist who represented Minnesota from 2003 to 2009.
Early Senate meetings for Hegseth, who has faced allegations of sexual assault and alcohol abuse, have focused on staunch Trump allies who have defended the Army veteran and former Fox News personality with no Pentagon experience. Those allies have so far argued Hegseth is an outsider who’ll shake up the Defense Department.
Hegseth met Monday with another Trump ally, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), as well as vocal defense hawk Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Tuberville said his meeting with Hegseth was focused on his priorities, such as military recruiting, Pentagon waste and defense assets in Alabama.
“He’s got to continue to do this. He’s going to have to answer a lot of questions … to people that are going to either possibly give him a confirmation vote or not give him a confirmation vote,” Tuberville told reporters.
Late Monday, Hegseth also met with a group of roughly 10 Republican senators, where he was accompanied by his wife and did not address the misconduct allegations against him, several senators said afterward. Hegseth did defend his lack of DOD experience.
“He said, ‘Look, what I lack in terms of knowledge of the E-ring of the Pentagon, I will more than make up for by surrounding myself with the best and the brightest people who are familiar with what goes where,’” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told reporters.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) waved off the allegations of impropriety, citing Fox News news host Megyn Kelly’s defense of Hegseth, who argued that combat veterans can have difficulty navigating their personal lives.
“Are soldiers sometimes wild childs? Yeah, that can happen, but it is very clear that this guy is the guy who, at a time when Americans were losing confidence in their own military, in our ability to project strength around the world, Pete Hegseth is the answer to that concern.”