By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2024-12-11 14:20:31 | Updated at 2024-12-22 19:17:42
1 week ago
Just one week ago, Trump Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s confirmation appeared doomed after a barrage of hit pieces. However, after launching an intense campaign to defend himself, he now appears to be on a path towards confirmation.
By last Monday, things did not look so good. No fewer than four hit pieces had dropped, one after another, just as Hegseth began to meet with senators responsible for confirming him. They were all based on anonymous allegations, some ten years old, but the pile-up became too much to ignore.
Republican senators began expressing doubts.
On Tuesday, December 3, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the allegations “very disturbing.”
Sensing blood in the water, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters that five to ten Republicans opposed Hegseth’s confirmation but were waiting for the right time to come out.
Indeed, a bipartisan group of senators on the Armed Services Committee — the panel responsible for advancing Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate — expressed doubts about Hegseth and began floating Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) as a potential alternative.
The Wall Street Journal reported that President-elect Donald Trump was considering replacing Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and called Wednesday a “make-or-break day” for Hegseth. Other corporate news media followed suit.
On Wednesday, December 4, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) issued a terse post on X after meeting with Hegseth, saying she appreciated his service and they had a “frank and thorough discussion.”
But Wednesday was also the day Hegseth began fighting back.
He began the morning telling reporters he had no plans to withdraw his nomination, that he spoke directly to Trump and that the president-elect told him he was with him “all the way.”
He also went on the Megyn Kelly Show podcast and addressed in detail every single anonymous allegation leveled at him.
At the same time, Hegseth’s former coworkers, friends, and supporters began rallying behind him, with several dozens going on the record o dispute the allegations.
His mother, Penelope Hegseth, also appeared on Fox & Friends to defend her son and retract an angry email she had sent him in 2018 as he was in the midst of divorce proceedings with the mother of three of her grandchildren, saying she wrote that email with “haste” and sent an apology two hours later.
The next day, Hegseth continued his meetings with senators and took his fight onto social media. He posted on X photos after meeting with each senator, publicly thanking them. Many of them posted their own photos with him and responded in kind, letting Trump supporters know where they stood.
Trump supporters simultaneously went after Ernst, who The Federalist reported had called Trump multiple times, “nagging” him to drop Hegseth. Ernst vigorously denied that she was behind a campaign to oust Hegseth amid rumors that she wanted the job herself and said she would meet again with Hegseth. However, the damage was already done.
Trump himself posted an op-ed on his Truth Social account defending Hegseth.
And incoming National Security Adviser Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) went on Fox News staunchly defending Hegseth, saying that Trump “absolutely” was standing by him.
By early Friday morning, political journalist Mark Halperin reported “changes as reflected in the evolving views of valued sources.”
“Earlier in the week, my sources made it clear that that they thought Pete Hegseth’s chances for getting confirmed were low or none. New developments, some in the last twenty-four hours, have altered the landscape,” he wrote in his newsletter.
Later that day, Ernst’s opposition began to break, particularly after calls for a Republican primary opponent began to mount and Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird — a potential contender — published an op-ed in Breitbart News calling for all of Trump’s nominees to be confirmed.
Similarly, Trump supporters also went after Graham, who also began walking back his opposition. Other Republican senators who initially expressed doubts about Hegseth — including Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) — began to fold.
By Friday’s end, Trump himself and a slew of close advisers voiced their unequivocal support for Hegseth.
Over the weekend, support continued mounting for Hegseth.
Veterans began registering their support, with more than 100 Navy SEALs, Gold Star family members, and prominent veterans signing on to march in Washington, DC, in January on the date of his confirmation hearing, as Breitbart News reported. A separate open letter in support of Hegseth also began circulating, collecting hundreds of signatures.
On Monday morning, as Hegseth was set to meet with Graham and Ernst again, photos of both of them from ten years ago with Hegseth — who was then CEO of Concerned Veterans for America — surfaced on X, a reminder that he had supported them in the past.
By Monday afternoon, both Ernst and Graham struck a different tune. Ernst issued a much more positive statement than her first, calling their conversations “encouraging.”
“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,” she said.
Graham, for his part, called his meeting with Hegseth “very positive, thorough and candid.”
By Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal — who was the first to report Hegseth’s demise — even changed its tone.
“Donald Trump’s supporters launched an intense pressure campaign to keep lawmakers in line behind the president-elect’s most controversial nominees. It appears to be working,” WSJ reported.
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