Alex Brandon/AP
It took nearly two hours into Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday for Democrats to effectively underscore the deeply alarming allegations surrounding the former Fox News host as he attempts to get confirmed as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. But when they finally did, Democrats came out swinging.
As for Hegseth, it was his refusal to answer key questions related to those accusations—whether domestic abuse is a disqualifying factor for the job or if he’d resign if he reneged on a drinking pledge— that proved equally damning.
“Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature?” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked, alluding to allegations of sexual assault against Hegseth. “Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct?”
“The fact is that your own lawyer said that you paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint.”
“Senator, I was falsely accused in October of 2016 and I was fully investigated and I was completely cleared.”
“I don’t think ‘completely cleared’ is accurate,” Sen. Hirono quickly replied, alluding to a payment Hegseth made, as part of a non-disclosure agreement, to a woman after she filed a police report accusing him of sexual assault. “The fact is that your own lawyer said that you paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint. Moving on.” (Indeed, Timothy Parlatore, an attorney for Hegseth, confirmed this to the Washington Post amid mounting concerns about Hegseth’s conduct and qualifications as Trump’s pick for defense secretary.)
Hirono did not stop there, swiftly moving to the next allegation: excessive drinking.
“I have read multiple reports of you regularly being drunk at work, including by people who worked with you at Fox News. Do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the UCMJ?”
Wow — Hegseth steamrolls Hirono as she tries to ask him about accusations of being drunk on the job. He then dodges a question about if he’ll commit to resign as sec def if he drinks on the job pic.twitter.com/bd6uo5QQPY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 14, 2025
Though Hirono appeared to be the first to underscore, at least effectively, the absurdity of confirming a nominee plagued by allegations, she wasn’t the last. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) built on this questioning by laying out a timeline of Hegseth’s personal conduct during his second marriage. He started by returning to the alleged sexual assault in Monterey, California.
“At that time, you were still married to your second wife, correct?”
“I believe so,” Hegseth responded.
“And you had just fathered a child by a woman who would later become your third wife, correct?”
Hegseth, once again, dodged the question and claimed to have been “completely cleared.”
Kaine replied, “You had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife. I am shocked that you would stand here and say you were completely cleared.”
“Can you so casually cheat on a second wife?” the senator continued. “And cheat on the mother of a child who had been born two months before. And you tell us you were completely cleared.”
“The child’s name is Gwendolyn Hope Hegseth,” Hegseth replied without apologizing for his multiple infidelities, “and she’s a child of God.”
Kaine went on to press Hegseth to say whether committing domestic abuse would be disqualifying behavior for a nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth, who denied having ever physically abused any of his three wives, repeatedly declined to answer that question.
Kaine continued.
“You didn’t reveal any of this to President Trump or the transition team as they were considering you to be nominated for Secretary of Defense. You didn’t reveal the action, the criminal complaint. You didn’t reveal the criminal investigation, you didn’t reveal the settlement. You didn’t reveal the cash payment.”
The senator then posed a critical question: What else could Hegseth be trying to conceal?
“Are there any other important facts that you chose not to reveal to the president-elect and his team?”
Together, the moments appeared to neatly and harrowingly encapsulate the unique dangers of Hegseth’s nomination in a way that has evaporated, at least among Republicans, since the accusations against Hegseth first emerged. Would they be enough to convince Republicans to reject him? It seems like that decision has already been made.
