Pete Hegseth is looking to win over a pair of key Republican moderates as he tries to keep his hopes of leading the Defense Department from being derailed.
The former Fox News host huddled with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Tuesday and is set to do the same on Wednesday with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), two votes who are considered among the toughest for him to nab.
The meetings will not single-handedly decide Hegseth’s fate. He can lose up to three Republican votes and still win confirmation to lead the Pentagon. But Republicans say the sit-downs will go a long way toward determining the outcome.
“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.) said. “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 office on Tuesday afternoon and told reporters afterward that it was an “excellent” meeting.
However, Murkowski wasn’t as glowing. She repeatedly declined to divulge details from their discussion.
“I had a meeting with Pete Hegseth and I appreciated the opportunity for the exchange of conversation,” Murkowski told reporters twice, adding only that it was a “good exchange.”
She indicated that she does not have plans to meet with him again.
Collins, meanwhile, told The Hill that she has a lengthy list of questions on deck for President-elect Trump’s Pentagon choice about numerous aspects of defense policy, including the sizes of the Air Force 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 said, noting her past role on the Senate Armed Services Committee and her current one as top Republican on the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations.
“I certainly am going to ask him about defense policy as well,” she added.
Collins and Murkowski have long served as key moderate votes in the Senate GOP conference and have proved a tough hill for some nominees to climb in recent years.
Murkowski voted against Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court while Collins ended up providing the crucial vote to put him over the finish line.
The Hegseth situation adds yet another layer, as he was accused of sexual assault stemming from a 2017 encounter that was only revealed after his nomination was rolled out. He says the encounter was consensual.
He has also faced questions, most notably from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), about sexual assault in the military and his past comments opposing women in combat roles.
The meetings come amid a full-on blitz by Hegseth to reverse his fortunes after he appeared to be faltering last week in the face of ongoing questions from members.
His efforts have included a renewed push to win over Ernst, an Armed Services Committee member who is also a retired Iowa National Guard lieutenant colonel and the Senate’s first female combat veteran. Ernst indicated in a statement that she is warming to his nomination after he made several commitments during multiple recent meetings.
But winning over Collins and Murkowski might be a taller task, with members urging Hegseth to come ready for comprehensive discussions.
“Those two members are two of the most prepared members of the U.S. Senate,” Tillis said. “They do their homework — and they carry a binder with them.”
