Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he thinks President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, former Fox News host and veteran Pete Hegseth,” is “being tried by anonymous sources.”
In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Graham said anyone with credible allegations against Hegseth should come forward but pledged not to let his nomination get derailed.
“Yeah. I’m in a good place with Pete, unless something I don’t know about comes out,” Graham said about whether there’s enough support to get confirmed.
“These allegations are disturbing, but they’re anonymous. 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.’
Graham said the person who made a sexual assault allegation against Hegseth “has the right to come forward to the committee,” adding that Hegseth told him that he would release the person from their non-disclosure agreement.
“But about mismanagement of money, about, you know, having a drinking problem and saying inappropriate things. All of these are anonymous allegations,” Graham continued. “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.
Graham invoked the intense confirmation process of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who similarly faced allegations of sexual assault before getting confirmed by the Senate.
“Remember Kavanaugh? Five people accused Justice Kavanaugh of misconduct. Three were outright lies. The other two, I think, we’re 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.
“If people have an allegation to make, come forward and make it, like they did in Kavanaugh. We’ll decide whether or not it’s credible. Right now, he’s being tried by anonymous sources. That will not stand,” Graham said.
