(The hill) – Republican senators are grumbling about the flood of sexual misconduct allegations against President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet members, which they fear will be the focus of next year’s Senate confirmation hearings.
Republicans in the Senate expressed his relief On Thursday, when former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) withdrew his name He was not considered to serve as attorney general due to allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug exploit.
But Republican lawmakers are already warning that Trump’s other controversial nominees, including Pete Hegseth, nominated to lead the Defense Department; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who will lead the Department of Health and Human Services; and Linda McMahon, who would lead the Department of Education, will also face challenging questions related to allegations of sexual misconduct or enabling sexual abuse.
Some Republican senators are secretly hoping that other candidates will follow Gaetz and drop out if their confirmation process threatens to embroil the novel administration in scandal in the first months of Trump’s term.
“That’s why the Constitution is important. It gives us the opportunity to advise and consent. We just have to make sure we do our jobs,” a Republican senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the allegations.
“A president should have a certain level of respect for those he or she wants in the positions around him, but that doesn’t mean it’s a free pass. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything,” the senator said.
“My expectation, not just my hope, is that some of these people will be weeded out in the process before they even get to a hearing,” the lawmaker added, referring to Trump’s recommendations.
A second Republican senator, who requested anonymity, said that with Gaetz no longer being considered for attorney general, colleagues would focus on the allegations facing other candidates like Hegseth and Kennedy.
“There are clear signals from my colleagues that there is more trouble than just with Gaetz,” the lawmaker said.
The senator warned that heated public hearings in which senators from both parties denounce nominees over sexual allegations would be a bad start to Trump’s second term as president.
“It would be terrible for the Senate and I don’t think it’s good for the country,” the lawmaker added.
The latest candidate to be rocked by an allegation of sexual misconduct is Hegseth, who was accused of locking a woman in his hotel room and assaulting her at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California, according to a police report released in 2020 2010 attracted a lot of attention last week.
The woman, whose name was not released, told medical staff that medication may have been slipped into her drink before she ended up in Hegseth’s room. She requested a sexual assault investigation and police confiscated her dress and underwear as evidence.
Hegseth, who met with senators to drum up support for his nomination, told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday that “the matter has been fully investigated and I have been fully cleared.”
Police forwarded their report on the incident to the Monterey County District Attorney, who declined to file charges, citing a lack of “evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hegseth’s nomination is sure to face intense scrutiny from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has made combating sexual assault in the military one of her top priorities in the Senate.
Gillibrand told Spectrum News’ “Capital Tonight” that Hegseth “has some serious challenges to overcome in his career.”
When asked about the allegations against Gaetz and Hegseth, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key voter in the Senate, said, “Any allegation of drug use and sexual misconduct or sex crimes is serious and the Senate will take a close look at it.” “
Collins said she was “glad” that Gaetz decided to withdraw his nomination.
Asked if she was concerned about the number of Trump nominees accused of sexual misconduct, Collins said, “I’m sure that will be explored in the hearings.”
“I don’t know the nominees. I know no criminal charges have been filed, so we’ll just have to wait and see,” she added.
Asked about the sexual assault allegation against Hegseth, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “There’s a lot going around out there.”
“We actually need to be able to visit him in person and I know the committee will do a thorough review,” she said.
Ernst said an FBI background check on Hegseth would be “helpful.”
The Trump transition team has not yet signed a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department to allow the FBI to conduct background checks on the candidates.
Kennedy, Trump’s nominee to lead the sprawling Health and Human Services Department, is accused by a former nanny of groping her when she was 23.
Eliza Cooney told USA Today that Kennedy once showed up in her bedroom shirtless and asked her to put lotion on him, and on another occasion began groping her in a kitchen closet and blocked her exit from the alcove.
A Lawsuit filed against McMahonTrump’s pick to head the Education Department has accused her of failing to stop child sexual abuse by an employee of World Wrestling Entertainment, the company she ran with her husband Vince McMahon.
The lawsuit was recently filed in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five anonymous plaintiffs who say they were between 13 and 15 years elderly at the time of the alleged abuse.
The lawsuit accuses Vince and Linda McMahon, as well as World Wrestling Entertainment and its parent company TKO Holdings, of allowing “open, rampant abuse” of ring boys who assisted ring announcer Melvin Phillips Jr., who died in 2012.
Jessica Rosenberg, an attorney representing Vince McMahon, says the allegations are “false.”
The wave of accusations of sexual misconduct or abuse against Trump’s nominees is giving ammunition to Democrats who say the pattern of allegations reflects the president-elect’s personal history of alleged sexual misconduct.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the charges against Hegseth are “troubling to say the least.”
“I would say it starts at the top with this type of behavior,” she said. “That’s why the FBI investigation is very important.”
“The first two questions I ask each candidate are whether they have ever been involved in this type of behavior, sexual harassment or sexual assault,” Hirono said. “We’ll have to see how they react.”
She said the trend may be that “this is a president who doesn’t see such behavior as concerning.”
Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
And another jury found Trump liable the same month for the 1996 sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her a $5 million verdict.
Trump has vigorously maintained his innocence in both cases and is appealing the verdicts in both cases.
