Amid reports that Donald Trump‘s transition team is quietly looking for an alternative for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary to-be, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough confirmed on his show Wednesday that Trump indeed is concerned over the sexual offence allegation against Hegseth. Scarborough and his co-host, wife Mika Brzezinski went to Mar-a-Lago to patch things up with Trump and spoke over a number of issues which they revealed on their Wednesday show.
Pete Hegseth is a military veteran and a former Fox News host who was infamous for his problematic opinions. But his record was otherwise clean. After his nomination, it emerged that he paid off a woman in 2017 who accused him of sexual assault. This is not like the allegation against Matt Haetz but the Trump team was caught off guard here and they believe they were not told everything by Hegseth.
Joe Scarborough said he and Mika spoke to Donald Trump on the “shocking” cabinet picks.
“On background—in our conversation, on background—there were a couple of things that surprised us. One of them was, when his name came up, there was, not a flinch, but a noticeable ‘We’ve got problems here,’” Scarborough said on the Wednesday edition of the MSNBC show. “Those weren’t the words, but I will just tell you, that was the takeaway.”
“Obviously, everybody knows Gaetz is a problem. But I think there must be more there [with Hegseth], or I think they were just shocked, maybe they were blindsided,” Scarborough said speculating that the lack of vetting process for Hegseth led to more anxiety for Trump’s team.
What is the sexual offence complaint against Pete Hegseth?
Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017 when he spoke at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California. But no charges were filed. Pete Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore clarified that the sexual encounter was consensual and the woman who made the police complaint was the aggressor. The lawyer said it was true the woman was paid because she blackmailed Hegseth into paying. The payment was made as part of a confidential settlement because Hegset at that time feared that he might lose his Fox News job.