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.
www.vanityfair.com
For now,
Donald Trump is
reportedlystanding 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.)