Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker he is “in a good place” with Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, “unless somebody is willing to come forward” publicly to sway him otherwise.
“These allegations are disturbing, but they’re anonymous,” Graham said. “I asked him point blank, ‘Were you drunk in a bar and got up and said, ‘Let’s kill all the Muslims?’ He said no.”
“There’s one allegation of a police report about sexual assault, that person has the right to come forward to the committee. But about mismanagement of money, about having a drinking problem and saying inappropriate things — all of these are anonymous allegations.”
In October, an unidentified woman told authorities she was assaulted by Hegseth in 2017. Hegseth is accused of having taken the woman’s phone and blocking the door so she could not leave.
“He’s given me his side of the story. It makes sense to me. I believe him. Unless somebody is willing to come forward, I think he’s going to get through. Remember Kavanaugh,” Graham continued. “Five people accused Justice Kavanaugh of misconduct. Three were outright lies. The other two, I think, were not credible. So we’re not going to let that happen to Pete. You’re not going to destroy his nomination based on anonymous sources. People have to come forward and make credible allegations, and we’ll see if they do.”
The National Women’s Law Center reported in 2021 that after Dr. Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez came forward with allegations against Kavanaugh, the FBI received more than 4,500 tips to help with their investigation into the Supreme Court Justice. The bureau “has never indicated that it followed up on any of the tips that came through the hotline.”
In September 2018, the Department of Justice confirmed the FBI never reached a conclusion on the accusations against Kavanaugh. “The FBI does not make any judgment about the credibility or significance of any allegation,” the DOJ said in a statement. “The purpose of a background investigation is to determine whether the nominee could pose a risk to the national security of the United States. The allegation does not involve any potential federal crime. The FBI’s role in such matters is to provide information for the use of the decision makers.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Graham said that he does not agree with Trump that members of the Jan. 6 committee should be jailed. When asked, he replied to Welker with a flat, “No.”
You can watch the interview with Graham in the video above.
