Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a senior Republican senator who is close to President-elect Trump, said the “anonymous” allegations against Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, “don’t count” if his accusers aren’t willing to step forward publicly.
“I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count,” he said of anonymous allegations against Hegseth and other Trump nominees. “I’ve heard everything about all these people. None of it counts, no rumors.
“If people do raise their right hand and claim something bad happened, I will listen to them,” Graham said. “It’s up to the nominee to go through the committee and answer hard questions. It’s my belief that presidents deserve their Cabinets unless there’s a good reason to say no.”
The South Carolina senator made his comments in a Wednesday evening interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Graham called the flood of allegations against Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon “a diversion.”
But he cautioned, “time will tell if there’s anything serious here.”
“Allegations that are anonymous don’t count,” he said.
Graham, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, compared the accusations against Hegseth to the allegations of sexual assault that faced Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
“I’ve seen this movie before,” he said. “They were trying to destroy Judge Kavanaugh’s life.”
Hegseth, who was accused of committing sexual assault against a woman at a Republican conference in Monterey, Calif., is coming under pressure to release his accuser from a non-disclosure agreement she signed as part of a financial settlement related to that incident.
Hegseth told the police who filed a report on it that it was a consensual encounter and Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said Hegseth “vigorously denies” any wrongdoing.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), another Trump ally in the Senate, told CNN in an interview that Hegseth should “absolutely not” release the conservative staffer who accused him of assault seven years ago from the non-disclosure agreement.
Scott told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “we know how many people sign non-disclosures just to eliminate something, not that they ever did anything wrong, and he was never, he was never, you know, never charged with anything.”
Tapper pressed Scott over that position by asking whether he wants CNN and other media outlets to get to the bottom of the allegations.
“I’m not going to suggest that somebody change a contract that they signed, but this is Trump’s nominee. He won,” Scott argued. “We have to make a change at the Department of Defense.”
“There was an investigation, he wasn’t charged, so he’s got– I mean, why don’t people respect these people that defend our freedom?” Scott said of Hegseth, emphasizing that the local district attorney who handled the police report about the sexual assault determined there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
Hegseth, a combat veteran, received two Bronze Stars, including a 2012 citation for meritorious service as a counterinsurgency instructor.
He previously served as executive director of the nonprofit group, Vets for Freedom, and CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch Network.
