Megyn Slams Sen. Tim Kaine’s Hypocritical Questions to Pete Hegseth About Infidelity and More

The Senate confirmation hearings of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees kicked off on Tuesday with secretary of defense pick Pete Hegseth appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

During the nearly five-hour event, Hegseth faced contentious questioning – mostly from Democratic senators – over allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking, and financial mismanagement, all of which he has denied and continued to. 

While those questions were expected given the weeks of reporting on the topic, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) took his inquiries in a different direction when he presented Hegseth with a bizarre hypothetical about domestic violence. 

Megyn was in Washington, DC, for the hearing (you can read more about her experience here) and called Kaine’s behavior “disgusting.” On Tuesday’s show, she was joined by The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles to discuss the hypocrisy of Kaine’s performance. 

Kaine’s Questions

Each senator on the Armed Services Committee was given seven minutes to question Hegseth. Kaine seemed determined to use his time to cast doubt on the combat veteran’s character, peppering him with series of questions and hypotheticals about his history of infidelity, reports of drunkenness, and, inexplicably, domestic violence.

The Virginia senator first zeroed in on Hegseth’s sexual encounter with a woman at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, CA, in 2017. Law enforcement investigated the sexual assault allegation by the anonymous accuser and brought no charges against Hegseth.

“At that time, you were still married to your second wife, correct,” Kaine asked. “And you had just fathered a child by a woman who would later become your third wife, correct?”

“Senator, I was falsely charged, fully investigated, and completely cleared,” Hegseth responded.

Kaine took issue with Hegseth’s use of the term “completely cleared” and asked Hegseth if he had committed a sexual assault and whether that would be disqualifying to serving as secretary of defense. The nominee refused to answer the hypothetical. “That was a false claim, talking about a hypothetical,” he said.

The senator then pivoted to the infidelity angle, asking Hegseth if he had taken “oaths” in his marriages to remain faithful – just as he would have to pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution as the head of the Pentagon. Hegseth acknowledged his past mistakes: “I have failed in things in my life and thankfully I’m redeemed by my lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

That is when things took a turn. Kaine then asked if the nominee had ever “engaged in any acts of physical violence against” one of his wives. Hegseth emphatically declared “absolutely not,” but the senator continued to press.

KAINE: But you would agree with me that if somebody had committed physical violence against a spouse that would be disqualifying as secretary of defense, correct?

HEGSETH: Senator, absolutely not have I ever done that.

KAINE: You would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?

HEGSETH: Senator, you are talking about a hypothetical.

KAINE: I don’t think it’s a hypothetical. Violence against spouses occurs every day, and if you as a leader are not capable of saying that physical violence against a spouse should be a disqualifying fact for being secretary of the most powerful nation in the world, you are demonstrating an astonishing lack of judgement.

The senator also raised the allegations of excessive drinking that Hegseth has denied and made the surprising claim that he is privy to the identity of those making the claims even though they have not publicly been disclosed. 

The Hypocrisy

Megyn was critical of the majority of Democratic senators on the committee, but she said Kaine was in a league of his own. “He literally pulled out the old ‘how long have you been beating your wife?’ I mean, it was stunning,” she said. “We know the allegations against Pete. We know that Pete has been a serial cheater on his wives… so that is fair game… But [this] was so below the belt.”

Meanwhile, Megyn said Kaine’s seemingly deep concern for the sanctity of marriage rings a bit hollow when you consider his history. “This guy with his holier-than-thou attitude on cheating… was Hillary Clinton’s running mate [in 2016],” she pointed out. “This man, who wants us to believe any extra-marital activity is abhorrent to him… was fine with Bill Clinton… who is accused of sexual assault or rape by how many women? How many affairs has he had on Hillary Clinton?”

What’s more? Kaine campaigned the election cycle with outgoing Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who was forced to admit to cheating on his first wife, in addition to facing an allegation of slapping an ex-girlfriend.

Why Democrats Failed

While Knowles admitted Kaine’s “attack” on Hegseth’s personal life was “by far the strongest” of any of the similar attacks from his fellow Democrats, he does not believe it did any real damage. “The fact that Kaine’s was the strongest shows you just how weak it was,” he said. “I am actually surprised because knowing that Pete’s was going to be the first confirmation hearing… I expected the Democrats to make this [Supreme Court Justice Brett] Kavanaugh 2.0.”

But he believes they did not succeed at least in part because of how Hegseth was perceived. “Pete Hegseth had a real advantage going into this hearing,” Knowles explained. “Because he is a good looking guy who smiles well and did a morning TV show, people thought that he was kind of dumb or incompetent.”

In reality, he is anything but. “They failed to look at his resume… to realize he is extremely educated, he has served his country honorably, he has been under fire literally… and he was not going to be pushed around by Kirsten Gillibrand, or Elizabeth Warren, or certainly not Tim Kaine,” Knowles concluded. “From the perspective of Pete, it looked like he was shooting fish in a barrel.”

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Knowles by tuning in to episode 982 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.