Vanity Fair - (archived: https://archive.ph/gar30 ) Pete Hegseth Scandal Is Rattling Trumpworld: “​​People Are Upset About the Distraction”

GOP sources say there are doubts within the Trump transition as to whether the defense secretary nominee will be able to hang on following revelations of a 2017 sexual assault claim.

By Gabriel Sherman
November 19, 2024

For now, Donald Trump is reportedly standing by Pete Hegseth, his embattled pick for defense secretary, but some Trump transition officials are beginning to doubt whether the Fox News host can survive the controversy. According to two Republicans close to Trump, the transition team is quietly preparing a list of alternative defense secretary candidates should Trump abandon Hegseth. “It’s becoming a real possibility,” one of the sources says. The second source tells me that transition members are frustrated that Hegseth failed to disclose he had paid a financial settlement to a woman who alleged he raped her at a Republican women’s event in 2017. “People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest,” the second source says. (Hegseth, through his attorney Timothy Parlatore, strenuously denies his accuser’s allegation.)

Hegseth, a thrice-married, 44-year-old Army veteran turned conservative media personality, faces a difficult confirmation battle. He has a long back catalogue of extreme statements: He’s expressed opposition to women serving in combat roles and labeled the political left “domestic enemies.” On Thursday, I reported that Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was made aware of an allegation that Hegseth committed sexual misconduct with a woman at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California, about seven years ago (The Monterey Police Department confirmed it had investigated the alleged sexual assault and that the woman had reported suffering “contusions to right thigh.” No charges were filed).

Over the next several days, journalists uncovered other troubling information about Hegseth. The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that a friend of the alleged victim sent the transition team a memo that detailed what she said transpired at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey. Hegseth’s lawyer told Breitbart News that the alleged victim’s settlement contained confidentiality agreements that were breached when the allegation became public.

Meanwhile, Mother Jones has reported that Hegseth has ties to a controversial group of Christian nationalists called the TheoBros. The group’s unofficial leader, an Idaho pastor named Doug Wilson, said in an interview last month that he believes women should not have the right to vote; Hegseth has previously said he studied Wilson’s book My Life for Yours. Judd Legum, who writes the “Popular Information” substack, reported Monday that Hegseth published a column in college claiming that having sex with an unconcious woman is not rape because the woman experiences “no duress.” (Hegseth’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the column or his alleged ties to the TheoBros.)

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