Dem
47
GOP
53
The senators who will soon be asked to consider Pete Hegseth's nomination to lead the Pentagon got something new to chew on yesterday. At the request of Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth's former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted an affidavit detailing a long history of abusive behavior that she says she observed. This abusive behavior was largely directed toward the SOD-designate's second wife, Samantha Hegseth.
The claims made in the affidavit are, to say the least, hair-raising. Danielle says that Samantha was a regular target of verbal abuse and of threats, and that she often feared for her safety. Those fears were substantive enough that Samantha allegedly hid in a closet to escape her then-husband on at least one occasion, and also developed detailed escape plans in case they should be necessary. These escape plans were, according to Danielle, put into effect on at least one occasion.
Pete Hegseth denies everything, of course, and said yesterday that his former sister-in-law made it all up. Samantha, his ex-wife, has declined to confirm or deny the claims made by her former sister-in-law. She sent an e-mail to NBC News, which first reported the story, that read, in part: "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."
The fundamental problem faced by the Republican senators is very simple. They already know that Hegseth is not qualified to run the Pentagon, but that insight is not enough to cause them to withhold their votes, because the political blowback that would come from opposing Donald Trump (particularly if no other senator does so) would be too much. However, if Hegseth gets enmeshed in some scandal while serving, or if some other skeleton comes out of the closet, it could be ugly. For example, what if, in a couple of months, he is credibly accused of rape? The political blowback for senators who voted to approve Hegseth could be enormous. Donald Trump might be covered in seven layers of teflon, but the senators are not.
So the question is: How great is the risk of getting burned? Our guess is that the senators convince themselves that the risk is acceptable, and vote to confirm. But it's a very hard call, given how very many skeletons this fellow seems to have in his closet.
Another problem is that something could happen on the military front that requires the secretary to take charge. Suppose China attacks Taiwan. Suppose Iran successfully tests a nuclear weapon. There are plenty of known unknowns as well as unknown unknowns. Then Trump gives Hegseth an order and he completely botches it. During the fighting, the generals ask Hegseth what he wants them to do and he doesn't have a clue and it goes south—badly. Trump will then blame Hegseth but imagine the 2026 campaigns against senators who voted to confirm him despite knowing that he was totally incompetent and did it anyway. (Z)