Pete Hegseth is seeking to win over a pair of key Republican moderates as he tries to maintain his hopes of main the Protection Division from being derailed.
The previous Fox Information host huddled with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Tuesday and is ready to do the identical on Wednesday with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), two votes who’re thought of among the many hardest for him to nab.
The conferences won’t single-handedly resolve Hegseth’s destiny. He can lose as much as three Republican votes and nonetheless win affirmation to guide the Pentagon. However Republicans say the sit-downs will go a good distance towards figuring out the end result.
“What he needs to do is lay the groundwork for how he’s going to address some of the questions that are inevitably going to come up in the committee hearing,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) stated. “They need to address head-on the strategy that I think the Democrats are going to carry against him and have a really good, credible response. That’s the key.”
“They’re very discerning people, but I go back to the Kavanaugh hearing where it took a lot of time and a supplemental background investigation to get one of those two to actually vote for Kavanaugh,” Tillis continued. “So there’s work to be done.”
Hegseth sat down with the Alaska centrist in her workplace on Tuesday afternoon and advised reporters afterward that it was an “excellent” assembly.
Nonetheless, Murkowski wasn’t as glowing. She repeatedly declined to reveal particulars from their dialogue.
“I had a meeting with Pete Hegseth and I appreciated the opportunity for the exchange of conversation,” Murkowski advised reporters twice, including solely that it was a “good exchange.”
She indicated that she doesn’t have plans to satisfy with him once more.
Collins, in the meantime, advised The Hill that she has a prolonged checklist of questions on deck for President-elect Trump’s Pentagon alternative about quite a few features of protection coverage, together with the sizes of the Air Power and the Navy.
“I want to hear his views on those issues — on aid to Ukraine, on sexual assault in the military, on comments he’s made about women in combat, as well as ask him about the allegations against him,” Collins stated, noting her previous position on the Senate Armed Providers Committee and her present one as prime Republican on the Protection Subcommittee on Appropriations.
“I certainly am going to ask him about defense policy as well,” she added.
Collins and Murkowski have lengthy served as key average votes within the Senate GOP convention and have proved a troublesome hill for some nominees to climb lately.
Murkowski voted in opposition to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court docket whereas Collins ended up offering the essential vote to place him over the end line.
The Hegseth state of affairs provides yet one more layer, as he was accused of sexual assault stemming from a 2017 encounter that was solely revealed after his nomination was rolled out. He says the encounter was consensual.
He has additionally confronted questions, most notably from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), about sexual assault within the army and his previous feedback opposing girls in fight roles.
The conferences come amid a full-on blitz by Hegseth to reverse his fortunes after he seemed to be faltering final week within the face of ongoing questions from members.
His efforts have included a renewed push to win over Ernst, an Armed Providers Committee member who can be a retired Iowa Nationwide Guard lieutenant colonel and the Senate’s first feminine fight veteran. Ernst indicated in a press release that she is warming to his nomination after he made a number of commitments throughout a number of latest conferences.
However successful over Collins and Murkowski is likely to be a taller activity, with members urging Hegseth to return prepared for complete discussions.
“Those two members are two of the most prepared members of the U.S. Senate,” Tillis stated. “They do their homework — and they carry a binder with them.”
