As Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard are some of the candidates who may find it difficult to get confirmed by the Senate, Vivek Ramaswamythe co-chief of the Department of Government Efficiency, sent a message to Republicans who are trying to stall Trump’s picks. “President Trump won by a massive margin with a historic mandate & he deserved the Cabinet he desires to govern,” Ramaswamy issued a sweeping statement.
Pete Hegseth is fighting mounting allegations against him starting from sexual abuse to alcohol abuse. Under similar circumstances, Donald Trump’s earlier pick as attorney general Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination and Trump nominated Pam Bondi. But Trump has made it clear that Hegseth will not be replaced.
“It looks like Pete is doing well now,” Trump said in an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” Moderator Kristen Welker that will air Sunday. “I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy, with a tremendous track record actually. He went to Princeton and went to Harvard. He was a good student at both. But he loves the military and I think people are starting to see it so we’ll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others.”
Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman and also paying him. His lawyers said the encounter was consensual and he was blackmailed into paying the woman as part of a settlement. His former colleagues accused him of drunken brawls but Pete said he never suffered from alcohol abuse. He said his drinking was normal like any other war person when they are not deployed and he is ready to quit drinking once he heads the Pentagon.
Trump too commented on Pete Hegseth’s “drinking problem” and said: “But I’ve spoken to people that know him very well and they say he does not have a drinking problem.”
The vetting of nomination traditionally includes an FBI background check but Republican senators are torn on whether an FBI background check would be 100 per cent necessary for confirmation.
