More extremely damning reporting about Pete Hegseth for Joni Ernst and Susan Collins to ignore
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Hegeth’s former sister-in-law said in a sworn affidavit that Hegseth is a domestic abuser:
An ex-sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth’s submitted a sworn statement to senators on Tuesday that accused Mr. Hegseth, President Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, of being so “abusive” toward his second wife that she once hid in a closet from him and had a safe word to call for help if she needed to get away from him.
In a Capitol Hill office on Tuesday afternoon, senators were reviewing the affidavit from Danielle Diettrich Hegseth, the former wife of Mr. Hegseth’s brother, which describes “erratic and aggressive” behavior by Pete Hegseth that caused his second wife to fear for her safety. According to a copy obtained by The Times, it also asserts that he frequently drank to excess both in public and private, including on one occasion she witnessed when he was wearing his military uniform.
The allegations, which Mr. Hegseth denied through his lawyer, surfaced as Republicans were working to speed him to confirmation, and could imperil that push. A handful of Republicans who have learned of the accusations in recent days have privately raised serious concerns about them, according to people familiar with the conversations, suggesting that the new information could potentially sap the necessary support for his approval by the Senate.
In her affidavit, reported earlier by NBC News, Danielle Hegseth said she had spoken with the F.B.I. about Pete Hegseth, and had come forward to Congress in the hopes that her account would persuade enough Republicans to block him. She said she was submitting her account at the request of Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
And yet further reporting confirming that Hegseth is a not-really-functioning alcoholic:
Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon, regularly abused alcohol to the point that he passed out at family gatherings, and once needed to be dragged out of a strip club while in uniform, according to an ex-relative’s account of his behavior that was given to U.S. lawmakers and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The sworn statement, submitted in response to a request from Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was signed by Hegseth’s former sister in law, Danielle Hegseth. It states that she was with Hegseth when he passed out from drunkenness in the bathroom of a bar in Minneapolis in about 2013. It also describes another night, when she said Hegseth drank so much at a restaurant in Minneapolis that the Uber driver had to pull over on Interstate 94 so he could throw up.
In her sworn statement, Danielle Hegseth said she personally observed erratic and aggressive behavior by Hegseth, witnessing him abusing alcohol multiple times over the years. One Christmas in 2008 or 2009, he drank so much that he threw up and passed out, she said.
The new allegations come a day after the armed services panel voted 14-13 along party lines to advance Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Defense Department. The full Senate is expected to vote on his confirmation later this week. At a contentious confirmation hearing last week, Hegseth conceded that he wasn’t perfect but dismissed questions about his character and qualifications as a “smear campaign” irrelevant to the job of running the U.S. military. He stressed that the allegations were from anonymous sources.
Jane Mayer reported earlier that in 2023 Hegseth had three stiff gin-and-tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting:
As recently as the spring of 2023, according to an account shared last week with The New Yorker, Hegseth ordered three gin-and-tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting with an acquaintance in Manhattan. “It was an extremely strange experience,” his companion that morning told me. “We met at Fox News in New York for breakfast, and he suggested we go across the street to a bar. It was, like, ten in the morning. Then he ordered two gin-and-tonics at the same time for himself. To be polite, I ordered one, too. But it was so strong I couldn’t drink it, so I ordered coffee. Then he had a third gin-and-tonic. I don’t know how he could pass a security clearance. But they’re trying to create a culture where whistle-blowers are uncomfortable coming forward.” Neither Hegseth’s lawyer nor a spokesman for Trump responded to requests for comment.
And apart from all of this, Hegseth is also completely unqualified on the professional merits!
The authoritarian paradox, alas, is that Hegseth being grotesquely unfit for the position makes it all the more urgent for Trump than he get confirmed. Getting Marco Rubio or someone else Mitt Romney might have nominated confirmed isn’t a show of domination. Making the Republican conference vote for a guy like this is, and all signs are still that it has no desire to stand up to Trump, even though voting ho down would entail no ideological sacrifice.