Within days of winning the election, Donald Trump tapped former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth to run the defense department. It was an immediately controversial pick given Hegseth’s total lack of experience beyond spewing right-wing bile on cable TV. But the nomination quickly became even more controversial when a rape allegation against Hegseth from an unnamed woman in 2017 emerged. Hegseth confirmed that he’d paid the woman to sign an NDA and privately settle the matter in 2017, but denied her allegations. No charges were filed against Hegseth.
Then, toward the end of last week, police released their initial report, which included a slew of increasingly dark allegations. The assault allegedly occurred in October 2017 when both Hegseth and the woman, called Jane Doe, attended a conference at a hotel in Northern California. During the convention, the woman texted her husband about her disgust with Hegseth, who was a speaker. The police report says that later in the evening, Doe served as a “crotch blocker” protecting another woman from Hegseth’s aggressive sexual advances. Then, at some point in the evening, a hotel employee found Hegseth and Doe loudly arguing by the pool after another guest reported their yelling. Hegseth told the employee that he didn't have to keep his noise level down because he had "freedom of speech."
At one point in the night, Doe texted her husband that she’d been drinking more than usual that day. According to the police report, she later told a forensic nurse that she believed her drink had been drugged. Her next memories include finding herself in Hegseth’s hotel room, where she alleged that he took her phone and stopped her from leaving. “JANE DOE remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said. “JANE DOE’s next memory was when she was on a bed or a couch and HEGSETH was over her.” The report shows Hegseth telling police that “there was 'always' conversation and 'always' consensual contact between the two of them." But he still conceded to police at the time that Doe "showed early signs of regret" afterward the encounter, without elaborating on what this meant. Following the alleged incident, Doe went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam, and the nurse reported this to the police. Last week, CNN contacted Doe and reported that she "became visibly distraught at the mention of Hegseth’s name but declined to be interviewed.”
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— Kylie Cheung (@kylietcheung.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 10:13 AM
Hegseth and Republicans have been defiant in the face of these allegations. "It’s very simple," Hegseth told a pool of reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. "The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared. And that’s where I’m gonna leave it." (The Monterey County District Attorney's office said that "no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” which is quite different from being “completely cleared.”) That same day, Trump’s transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt similarly defended Hegseth after the police report’s release: “This report corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated, and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”
Still, Senate Republicans, who will oversee Hegseth’s confirmation process, seem entirely unfazed by the allegations. Hegseth is "going to be in pretty good shape,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who is the likely next chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters last week. Another Senate Republican, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R.-Okla.), disturbingly wrote the allegation off entirely: “I think he can explain a lot of the situations. I think he’s going to be just fine. If you read [the police report], you can clearly see that it was two people flirting with each other.” Speaking to the Washington Post, Mullin doubled down: “I don’t think there’s any way in the world you can say that this is a sexual assault.”
GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska told the Post he sees Hegseth and Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Florida) nominations as a “strong” combination. (Trump nominated Rubio to run the State Department.) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) deflected from reporters’ questions about the allegations against Hegseth by raising the sexual assault allegation against President Biden. President-elect Trump, himself, faces dozens of sexual misconduct allegations and was found civilly liable for sexual abuse in 2023.
Republican senator on the Pete Hegseth rape allegation
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 22, 2024 at 12:28 AM
Nonetheless, the Wall Street Journal reports internal concerns and anxieties within Trump’s transition team. “This is another instance of people being blindsided, so I think there’s rising frustration there,” one source told the outlet. Trump continues to back Hegseth, but that support isn’t ironclad: “If this continues to be a drumbeat and the press coverage continues to be bad, particularly on TV, then I think there is a real chance that he loses Trump’s confidence.”
In addition to the rape allegation, Hegseth’s record includes very publicly criticizing the Geneva Conventions and claiming women don’t belong in combat roles. In college, Hegseth served as the publisher of Princeton University's conservative student newspaper and published a column that argued sex with an unconscious woman isn’t rape.
Over the last week, the disturbing allegations against Hegseth were overshadowed by allegations against the other men Trump has appointed to top positions in his cabinet. On Thursday, Matt Gaetz, Trump’s original pick for attorney general, withdrew from consideration, facing allegations that he sex trafficked and had several encounters with a 17-year-old girl in 2017. Other Trump picks who face sexual misconduct allegations include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump tapped to run the Health and Human Services Department, and Elon Musk, who allegedly sexually harassed a flight attendant in 2016.
As Hegseth’s nomination continues apace, it’s increasingly clear that Republicans didn’t reject Gaetz because of the sexual misconduct allegations he faces, but because they didn’t like him. Abuse allegations are clearly no dealbreaker for our incoming government.
