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Hegseth on 2017 sexual assault allegations: 'I was completely cleared'
Pete Hegseth, who arrived on Capitol Hill moments ago ahead of his visit with JD Vance and Republican senators, has repeated his denial of the 2017 sexual assault allegations against him.
Addressing reporters on Thursday morning, Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary said:
“As far as the media is concerned, it’s very simple. The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.”
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The New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit back at South Carolina’s Republican representative Nancy Mace over her attempts to ban trans people from using bathrooms on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity.
The Guardian’s Anna Betts reports:
The new restrictions, introduced by Republican representative Nancy Mace and supported by the GOP speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, bans transgender people, including congressional members, officers and employees, from using the single-sex bathrooms and other facilities in the Capitol and House office buildings that correspond to their gender identity.
The effort targets Democrat Sarah McBride, the first out transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives from Delaware, who is set to take office in January.
In a press interview on Wednesday evening, Ocasio-Cortez stood up for McBride and criticized Mace and the Republican lawmakers backing the bill, telling reporters that the proposed restrictions are “endangering all women and girls”.
For the full story, click here:
In an MSNBC interview set to air this weekend, former president Bill Clinton said the Democratic party has to “learn to talk to people in ways they can relate to.”
Speaking to the outlet following the Democrats’ loss to Donald Trump and the Republican party during presidential election, Clinton – who campaigned for Kamala Harris – said:
“Politics is the only business in which you can prove your authenticity by not knowing anything… I think that’s a problem and we’ll pay for it unless we get over it, but that’s a problem for the Democrats too.
We have to learn to talk to people in ways that they can relate to that explains that. That’s why…I did my best to help this time. I don’t want to go to any big rallies and big television things. I just wanted to get in the country.
Just go out and talk to people because I think that we’re behind in the sense that a lot of the small-town and rural people are now highly sophisticated and how they get their information. And there are zillions of new websites now all trying to advance their sort of conservative to right-wing radical cause. And a lot of times we’re not playing on the same field and we’re not even being heard. So I just said, send me out there and I’ll see if I can do some good. I have no idea if I did, but I tried.”
Illinois senator and army veteran Tammy Duckworth: Hegseth 'not qualified' to be defense secretary
Speaking to ABC, Illinois Democratic senator and retired army national guard lieutenant colonel Tammy Duckworth criticized Pete Hegseth’s belief that women should not play in a combat role.
Duckworth, who is a combat veteran of the Iraq war where she served as a army helicopter pilot before losing both legs during an attack in 2004, said:
“Obviously I have my personal opinions but as a US senator, my job will be to determine whether or not he is qualified to be secretary of defense, and frankly, it shows me that he’s not because he doesn’t understand the realities of modern warfare.
We’re not talking about the Revolutionary War, where there’s a line behind which … this is combat and that’s not combat. If you were in the green zone … Baghdad, you were in a combat zone, whether you were a helicopter pilot like myself or a truck driver, which, by the way, is a job that women have been doing since world war one. So it just showed me that he really doesn’t understand modern warfare and is therefore not qualified to be secretary of defense.”
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – heads of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency – have suggested that Donald Trump could require government employees to work in the office five days a week as part of reducing the federal workforce.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in a Wednesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Trump has tapped both men to lead the newly created department of government efficiency.
The two men, who have no prior experience in government, also suggested Trump would undertake “large-scale firings” and relocate government agencies outside of Washington.
Musk requires employees at SpaceX and Tesla to work in person and has described it as a moral issue.
“People should get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit,” he said in 2023.
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Trump transition team says 2017 report 'corroborates' what Hegseth attorneys have said
A spokesperson for Donald Trump’s transition said that the police report “corroborates what Mr [Pete] Hegseth’s attorney’s have said all along”, the Associated Press reports.
“The incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false,” the spokesperson said.
The report, however, does not state that Monterey police found the allegations to be false. The offence code in the report was listed as “rape: victim unconscious of the nature of the act”.
The report ended with the reporting police officer writing, “I recommend this case report be forwarded to the Monterey county district attorney’s office for review.”
According to the report, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, “stated she observed Pete Hegseth acting inappropriately” with women at the conference, adding that he told her she was a “nice guy”.
The report stated:
“Hegseth would rub the women on their legs and Jane Doe thought that his actions were inappropriate. Jane Doe had texted [redacted] that Hegseth was giving off a ‘creeper’ vibe. The women thought Hegseth was ‘dreamy’ and wanted pictures with Hegseth. Jane Doe stated she had also taken a picture with Hegseth, earlier in the day …”
The report went on to add:
“Jane Doe stated she remembered walking out of the bar and assumed Hegseth followed her because she argued with Hegseth near the pool. The argument was about Hegseth’s actions with the women at the conference. Jane Doe remembered Hegseth tell her that he was a nice guy.
Jane Doe stated the next memory she had was when she was in an unknown room. Jane Doe did not know where she was and how she got to the room. Hegseth was in the room with her. Jane Doe remembered having her phone and Hegseth inquired to whom Jane Doe was texting. Hegseth took her phone from her hands. Jane Doe stated she got up and tried to leave the room, but Hegseth blocked the door with his body. Jane Doe remembered saying ‘no’ a lot. Jane Doe stated she did not remember much else.”
The woman then recalled being on a bed or a couch with Hegseth over her, with his dog tags hovering over her shirt. She added that she saw Hegseth “fully nude” during this incident.
According to the woman, her next memory was when Hegseth ejaculated on her stomach before throwing a towel at her and asking, “Are you okay?”
The woman’s last memory is of her walking into her room. She told the police that she did not remember how she got back to her room.
Pete Hegseth to visit Capitol as details from 2017 sexual assault report emerge
Good morning,
The scrutiny around Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, grows as police unveiled an investigative report into the former Fox News host that further detailed the sexual assault allegations surrounding him.
The 22-page report released by police dates back to 12 October 2017. It includes allegations from a woman who told police that she was sexually assaulted by Hegseth after drinking at a hotel bar in Monterey, California following a Republican women’s event where Hegseth spoke. According to the report, Hegseth assaulted the woman after he took her phone, blocked the door to a hotel room and prevented her from leaving.
The police report’s release follows recent news of “a detailed memo” on the alleged assault which a friend of the accuser sent to the Trump transition team. Hegseth has insisted the encounter was consensual but paid the woman an unknown sum after she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Emerging details of the alleged assault come as Hegseth is set to visit Capitol Hill today. The former Fox host is expected to meet with JD Vance and Republican senators ahead of his confirmation process.
Here are other developments in US politics:
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The Senate has rejected Bernie Sanders’ effort to block arms sales to Israel which the Vermont senator introduced out of concerns over the mass killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza.
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Joe Biden is set to sign the Congenital Heart Futures Reauthorization Act today which will reauthorize the national research, surveillance and awareness program on heart disease.
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Trump is likely to choose Johns Hopkins surgeon Martin Makary – who raised concerns about various public health issues including opposing vaccine mandates – as head of the Food and Drug Administration.
