Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth, who was nominated by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of defense, was previously investigated for sexual assault, Vanity Fair first reported Thursday.
Susie Wiles (who has been tapped to be Trump’s next chief of staff) was briefed on the allegations Wednesday night. Hegseth allegedly acted inappropriately with a woman in Monterey, California, in 2017, two sources told Vanity Fair.
The allegations were serious enough that Wiles and Trump’s lawyers approached Hegseth about them Thursday, one transition source told Vanity Fair.
Hegseth assured Wiles that the interaction had been consensual. and testimony that said otherwise was he said, she said, the transition source said.
Before the meeting on Thursday, one high-level MAGA insider familiar with the allegation opined that Hegseth “wasn’t vetted.” A senior transition source denied that claim. “Hegseth was vetted, but this alleged incident didn’t come up,” they said.
News of Hegseth’s alleged misconduct comes on the heels of Trump nominating Matt Gaetz, who has been the subject of investigations into alleged sexual misconduct and sex trafficking, as his next attorney general. Gaetz’s nomination was reportedly the result of one conversation on Trump’s plane Wednesday morning. The Florida Republican’s nomination was announced later that day.
Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, responded to the allegation against his client on Thursday. “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it,” he said, per Vanity Fair.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung released a statement addressing the claims about Hegseth. “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again.”
Since being appointed, the 44-year-old television host has been criticized for his lack of high-level military experience, his blatant misogyny, extremist Islamophobic rhetoric, and his spate of tattoos with white nationalist connotations.
Even America’s most spineless senator doesn’t want Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.
In a Thursday Newsmax appearance, Texas Republican Ted Cruz was asked for his thoughts on President-elect Trump’s potential nomination of the loathed and embattled MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general.
The senator initially dodged the question, instead accusing Joe Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department and “infecting” it with partisan bias. He eventually addressed Gaetz, avoiding any advocacy of the nominee.
“I will say that was a pick that was, I think, very surprising to the entirety of the Senate. And so we’ll assess the nominee on the merits, said Cruz. “But there is a process that will unfold that examines a particular nominee’s background, their experience, and their suitability for a role.”
Cruz was much warmer to the idea of his “dear friend” Senator Mike Lee as the attorney general pick, and reiterated the seriousness of the position.
“I don’t know that there’s a more important position in this Trump administration than the attorney general,” said Cruz. “And so I think it’s critical to have someone there who will follow the law, who has integrity, who is a constitutionalist, and who has the courage to root out the incredible partisanship and weaponization that has infested this DOJ.”
Gaetz grew unpopular within the Republican Party’s elected leadership after his destabilizing ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy. His attorney general nomination is currently jeopardized by a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of trafficking and having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a drug-fueled party in 2017. Gaetz resigned from Congress in an effort to end the investigation, but it is expected to be leaked in the coming days.
Elon Musk is apparently trying to broker some kind of agreement between the United States and Iran.
The tech mogul and world’s richest man met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York on Monday, The New York Times reports, citing two anonymous Iranian officials. The meeting, held in a secret location, reportedly focused on how to defuse tensions between the two countries and lasted for over an hour.
The two officials said the meeting was “positive” and “good news,” according to the Times. Neither Donald Trump’s campaign nor Musk commented on the meeting. In the past week, Musk has been spending a lot of time with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and also traveled to Washington with him.
This raises the question of whether Musk was meeting with Iranian officials on Trump’s orders. According to the Times, Musk requested the meeting and the ambassador picked the location. The president-elect included the tech CEO on a phone call last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy only hours after Trump won the election, so it wouldn’t be Musk’s first dip into Trump’s foreign policy communications.
Musk has reportedly engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Wall Street Journal report last month, and Russia is allied with Iran. Trump also has a worrying relationship with Putin and Russia, which raises questions about whether Musk’s Monday meeting also has to do with Russia.
The meeting could also signal a change in tone between Iran and the United States. Relations between the two........