Donald Trump will keep supporting former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, his pick for secretary of defense.. until he doesn’t, Nicolle Wallace said on Thursday.
“We know Donald Trump supports people like Pete Hegseth in these situations 100% of the time… right up until he does not at all,” Wallace said on MSNBC on Thursday evening.
Hegseth, who is facing both sexual assault allegations and charges of drinking on the job, has been courting Senate Republicans in Washington DC. Wallace reported that, per NBC News, “at least six” are “not comfortable supporting his bid to lead the Pentagon,” including Senator Joni Ernst of of Iowa.
“There are a lot of things about Pete Hegseth that Trump likes, the TV persona being one of them, I’m guessing, the toxic male aura, another one of them, ” Wallace said. Among the things that Trump doesn’t like is reporting from 10 sources at Fox News “about [Hegseth] being drunk and smelling of alcohol until moments before he went on the air.”
Panelist Vaughn Hillyard weighed in that Trump was “making decisions from his gut in haste, without consultation, without FBI background checks,” and is now “bearing the consequences of his judgment and his haste in which he made that decision [to nominate Hegseth].”
Speaking to media between meetings today, Hegseth said, “I appreciate the process… this is how the process works, not going to be tried out here. It’s going to be discussed inside the offices.”
He also told a group of reporters, “I don’t answer to anyone in this group. None of you, not to that camera at all. I answer to President Trump, who received 76 million votes on behalf and a mandate for change.”
As for the allegations against him, Hegseth said, “I’m a different man than I was years ago. That’s a redemption story that I think a lot of Americans appreciate. I will answer all of these senators questions, but this will not be a process tried in media.”
One of the names being floated to potentially take Hegseth’s place is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who ran his own GOP campaign for the presidency before dropping out in January.
Trump’s cabinet picks, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, have been controversial. None more so than that of Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from consideration as Attorney General amidst allegations of sexual misconduct.
