(WASHINGTON) — Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill Thursday to accompany President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, where they are meeting with Republican senators in hopes of helping his nomination process.
Hegseth met with Republican Sen. John Barrasso Thursday morning, after which Barasso called the former Fox News host a “strong nominee.”
“Pete pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power — not the current administration’s woke political agenda,” Barrasso said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee — which will manage the secretary of defense nomination and eventual hearing, met with Hegseth and Vance Thursday morning for about an hour.
After the meeting, Wicker said Hegseth would be in “pretty good shape” during his confirmation process.
Hegseth has also met with Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Hegseth, an Army veteran, could face a challenging road to confirmation and is speaking with Republican senators to in hopes of helping his nomination process.
Hegseth’s visit to Capitol Hill comes after new details emerged on the 2017 sexual assault claim against him.
The woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017 told police at the time that he took her phone and blocked her from leaving the room the night of the incident, according to a 22-page police report posted online overnight. Hegseth told police the encounter was consensual.
The woman told police she had drank “much more than normal” and could not remembers many details of the evening, but remembered saying “no” a lot during her encounter with Hegseth, according to the report.
Asked if the Hegseth allegations and police report came up in their conversation, Wicker said they didn’t get into specifics.
“We weren’t specific, but, ya know, since no charges were brought by the authorities, we have only press reports,” Wicker said.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said she believes an FBI background check into Hegseth would be “helpful” in knowing more about Trump’s pick.
Ernst, a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services committee, also said “there’s a lot floating around out there, we need to actually be able to visit with him face to face, and I know the committee will do a thorough vetting.”
Hegseth has been involved in other controversies as well. He has said in interviews before being named that he advocated a “frontal assault” on the DOD, including firing what he called “woke” generals and eliminating the Pentagon’s diversity goals. He also argued that the United States “should not have women in combat roles.”
Hegseth’s Capitol Hill visit comes just one day after Vance and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, met with senators to make his case for the role.
Gaetz’s meetings with senators took place the same day the House Ethics Committee decided against releasing the report into him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
Both Gaetz and Hegseth are among a handful of people nominated by Trump to serve in his cabinet who many senators said they believe will face an uphill battle to be confirmed. Many senators said they should still go through the nomination process and have a chance to defend themselves.
“My intention is to vote for all the president’s nominees,” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said of Gaetz on Wednesday. “I think for my colleagues who are — who have concerns about the attorney general nominee, my message would be, well, let’s have a hearing on this. You can ask whatever — if you’re a member of the committee, you can ask whatever question you want, give Gaetz the opportunity to answer questions, lay out his vision, answer concerns.”
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