Salon - (archived: https://archive.ph/rHPlX ) "You will have to change how you see women": Why Trump fears Hegseth accusers

Hegseth's excuses for his misogyny contradict each other, but MAGA doesn't care

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published January 15, 2025 6:00AM (EST)

Pete Hegseth and his fellow Republicans can't decide if the abuse allegations against him are real or "fake news."

At the very top of the Fox News host's hearing to be Donald Trump's defense secretary, both Hegseth and his GOP defenders spun out two competing narratives: The stories about him aren't true, but if the evidence makes the stories undeniable, it doesn't matter, because he's a changed man. Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., kicked off the have-it-both-ways strategy in his introductory remarks to Hegseth's confirmation hearing Tuesday by acknowledging that "Mr. Hegseth has admitted to falling short" while insisting "the accusations leveled at Mr. Hegseth have come from anonymous sources."

Hegseth himself picked up the ball with a conspiracy theory that he was the victim of a "coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media," adding, "Our leftwing media in America today sadly doesn't care about the truth." Throughout the hearing, he kept harping on the word "anonymous," implying that the press made up the stories.

But, of course, the accusations against Hegseth aren't anonymous, and they certainly aren't fabricated by journalists. The woman who called the police in 2017, accusing Hegseth of rape, did so under her real name. The police have confirmed that the report is real. Her name has been redacted by the press, as is customary for sensitive crimes, but she was certainly not anonymous. The whistleblower report filed in 2015, which detailed alcohol abuse and sexual harassment, wasn't anonymous, either. As Jane Mayer of the New Yorker writes, it was compiled by several former members of Concerned Veterans for America, which he had been president of, and sent to senior management. It resulted in Hegseth being pressured to resign.

As Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. said, "We have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother." He was referring to a 2018 email sent to Hegseth from his mother, where she called him an "abuser of women" and denounced the way he cheated on and treated his first two wives. She has since tried to walk it back, but without actually denying any of the details, which have been corroborated by multiple other sources by reporters.

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