A key Republican who sits on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees is defending Donald Trump’s embattled nomination of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense amid a flurry of allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, on-the-job use of alcohol and “aggressive drunkenness,” mistreatment of women — an accusation by his own mother — an affinity for Christian nationalism, and financial mismanagement of two veterans’ charities.

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), who has an extensive résumé in the U.S. Armed Forces and is a medical doctor, says he and his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill were “told” that the allegations against Hegseth were “anonymous,” that Hegseth himself does not know who made the allegations, and that Hegseth is “saying to us … ‘it’s an empty allegation of an anonymous tip.’ ”

But Hegseth has admitted to the sexual encounter, although he has “maintained that their encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyer,” The Washington Post has reported. In addition to the statement from his attorney, The Post also cites “other documents” it has obtained.

The sexual assault allegation involves a married woman who was attending a Republican conference with her husband and two children in 2017. She has accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her. She reportedly had no memory of how she got to his room, where, she alleged, he prevented her from leaving.

“Her next memory was when she was on the bed or couch and ‘Hegseth was over her,’ barechested, his dog tags ‘hovering over her face,’ the [police] report said,” according to The Independent. “After ejaculating on her stomach, Hegseth ‘threw a towel at her and asked her ‘are you ok?’ ‘ the police report said.”

Hegseth denies the assault allegations but did come to a financial settlement with her, which required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

“A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public,” The Guardian reported last month. “The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleged to have transpired – one that is at odds with Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth.”

The details appear to be in conflict with the narrative the Trump campaign and Trump’s and Hegseth’s allies have claimed.

“A spokesperson for the Trump transition said … that the ‘report corroborates what Mr Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false,'” The Guardian reported, before disputing that claim.

“The report does not say that police found the allegations were false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey county district attorney’s office for review.”

The Guardian also explained that a nurse, and not the alleged victim, had contacted police.

“Investigators were first alerted to the alleged assault, the report said, by a nurse who called them after a patient requested a sexual assault exam. The patient told medical personnel she believed she was assaulted five days earlier but could not remember much about what had happened. She reported something may have been slipped into her drink before ending up in the hotel room where she said the assault occurred.”

USA Today reported last month that “Hegseth’s statement to police directly conflicts with a 2017 witness account − and with recent statements by Hegseth’s attorney, who said he was visibly intoxicated on the night in question and that his alleged victim was ‘the aggressor in the encounter.'”

But on Wednesday, Congressman McCormick told C-SPAN the allegations against Hegseth were “anonymous tips.”

Hegseth, McCormick said, has done “a really good job of showing up against those accusations, which are anonymous, which nobody at Fox will say anything.”

“They’re like, ‘I don’t know what he’s talking — I don’t know what they’re talking about when they they talk about these anonymous complaints.’ He doesn’t know what’s talking about. His wife doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“We’re all, they’re all kind of like, ‘just show me who it is, and and let’s address it, because, I don’t know who it is,'” McCormick said.

“Okay,” the C-SPAN host responded, “but he paid a settlement, so he does know who it is.”

“No,” McCormick insisted, “he didn’t know who it is, and and he saying to us, ‘it’s an empty, it’s an empty allegation of an anonymous tip.’ That’s that’s not the same thing. And and so that’s that’s why I heard the same thing as you, and I had my concerns. But that’s not what we were told in conference. We were told, ‘no, these are anonymous tips. We don’t know where they came from.'”

Watch the video below or at this link.

REP. RICH McCORMICK: I don’t know what they’re talking about when they talk about these anonymous complaints. Pete Hegseth doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

C-SPAN HOST: You’re talking about the accusations of sexual assault? He paid a settlement so he does know who it is pic.twitter.com/6nVxevxu4q

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2024

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Kimberly Guilfoyle, officially his eldest son’s fiancée, as Ambassador to Greece is drawing outrage as she becomes the latest in a line of what some are likening to cronyism and nepotism appointments of Trump allies with little relevant experience for the posts. Others are noting her reported history of alleged sexual harassment, and some are questioning the timing after reports that her engagement to Donald Trump Jr. may be over.

Guilfoyle, 55, was head of a Trump 2020 campaign fundraising operation that came under fire for alleged mismanagement and “irresponsible” spending. A former Fox News host, she was “forced” out, according to The New Yorker, after a sexual harassment investigation, and “abruptly” left the right-wing network.

“Guilfoyle, however, may not be an ideal emissary,” reported Jane Mayer at The New Yorker, one month before the 2020 presidential election Trump lost, referring to her status as one of several “female stars in the Republican Party” Trump was promoting.

The former assistant who filed the sexual harassment complaint against Guilfoyle, The New Yorker reported, “was hired in 2015, just out of college, to work as an assistant for Guilfoyle and another former Fox host, Eric Bolling. According to a dozen well-informed sources familiar with her complaints, the assistant alleged that Guilfoyle, her direct supervisor, subjected her frequently to degrading, abusive, and sexually inappropriate behavior; among other things, she said that she was frequently required to work at Guilfoyle’s New York apartment while the Fox host displayed herself naked, and was shown photographs of the genitalia of men with whom Guilfoyle had had sexual relations.”

READ MORE: ‘Pay-to-Play’: Trump Offers ‘Fully Expedited’ Approvals for $1 Billion Investments

“The draft complaint also alleged that Guilfoyle spoke incessantly and luridly about her sex life, and on one occasion demanded a massage of her bare thighs; other times, she said, Guilfoyle told her to submit to a Fox employee’s demands for sexual favors, encouraged her to sleep with wealthy and powerful men, asked her to critique her naked body, demanded that she share a room with her on business trips, required her to sleep over at her apartment, and exposed herself to her, making her feel deeply uncomfortable.”

On Tuesday evening, the President-elect wrote, “I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Kimberly Guilfoyle as the United States Ambassador to Greece. For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally. Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad.”

Trump described her as “perfectly suited to foster strong bilateral relations with Greece, advancing our interests on issues ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.”

Guilfoyle was praised by the President-elect’s eldest son.

“I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” he wrote, not mentioning their relationship.

But The New York Times did, and extensively.

The timing of the announcement of Guilfoyle’s nomination “would have been unremarkable except for what preceded it: rumors that the president-elect’s eldest son was dating a socialite, Bettina Anderson.”

“The new relationship was seemingly documented in a series of photos published earlier on Tuesday by the British tabloid The Daily Mail, which described them as ‘incontrovertible proof the soon-to-be First Son has moved on’ with a ‘stunning ‘it girl.’ “

“The suggestions of a love triangle have been swirling for several months, including in July, at the Republican National Convention, where Ms. Anderson was spotted sitting behind Mr. Trump — and Ms. Guilfoyle — in a red dress,” The Times reports, noting that “speculation about Ms. Anderson’s closeness with the president-elect’s son intensified in September, with reports that the pair were seen kissing during a brunch not long before. (Adding a layer of intrigue were various reports that Ms. Anderson was a friend of his ex-wife, Vanessa Trump, with whom he shares five children.)”

The Times also reports that “Guilfoyle did not appear in a post-election family portrait, which did feature Vanessa Trump and their children. (Melania Trump — the once and future first lady — was also absent, though the photo did feature Elon Musk.)”

READ MORE: ‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report

Critics are blasting the nomination of Guilfoyle, likening it to nepotism, and noting Trump has already nominated other family members to his incoming administration. During his first term Trump appointed his daughter and son-in-law to top White House advisory posts.

“Nepotism concerns notwithstanding, shipping someone overseas to live in a taxpayer-funded villa is an admittedly elegant solution for getting a potential ex out of sight and out of mind. The Greek ambassador’s residence even has a pool,” The Daily Beast reports.

“Sending Guilfoyle to Greece is an amazing twofer: sort of nepotism, but also doing your son a solid by sending his loud ex-girlfriend to another continent,” snarked Professor of Public Policy Don Moynihan.

“The disgusting cronyism (arguably nepotism) continues: insurrectionist Trump family member Kimberly Guilfoyle is nominated by her future father-in-law to be Ambassador to Greece. She has no qualifications for the position,” claimed attorney and journalist Seth Abramson.

“With Charles Kushner to France, Kimberly Guilfoyle to Greece and Massad Boulos as Senior Advisor on Middle Eastern Affairs, that makes three Trump extended family members with plum government jobs,” notes Democratic strategist Max Burns.

“Ambassadors are supposed to have some connection to (or at least deep knowledge of) the country to which they are appointed. Trainwreck Kimberly Guilfoyle? Is her qualification that she once visited the Greek Islands on vacation? What a joke,” exclaimed A.J. Delgado, an attorney and political commentator who worked as a senior advisor on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Some also noted Guilfoyle’s involvement in the January 6, 2021 “Save America” rally at the Ellipse, where she and other Trump allies spoke ahead of Donald Trump’s infamous speech declaring they would “walk to the Capitol.”

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Goddess of the January 6 Insurrection, may become the ambassador to Greece, the birthplace of democracy! There’s a deranged irony in this. pic.twitter.com/xZYhxugwJb

— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) December 11, 2024

Media Matters’ senior fellow Matthew Gertz noted that “Trump has picked 13 former Foxers to staff his next administration — so far,” naming them, including Guilfoyle.

He also adds some background on Guilfoyle’s commentary on Greek politics:

When the Greek public voted down a bailout offer from European creditors in a July 2015 referendum, Kimberly Guilfoyle called them “freeloaders” who need to “suck it up” and stop “retiring too early.” She also suggested they should be punished like a dog who pees on the rug. pic.twitter.com/shDtheGan1

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) December 11, 2024

READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’

Image via Shutterstock

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to fast-track permits and tamp down regulations, including environmental, for any entity that wants to invest $1 billion or more in America, while offering no specifics or parameters, including how the federal government could arbitrarily overrule state and local laws.

“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

During the campaign, Trump told oil and gas executives and lobbyists at a closed-door Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that if they invested $1 billion in his campaign, he would scale back or remove environmental regulations.

READ MORE: ‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report

“Attendees included executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry,” The New York Times had reported in May. “The event was organized by the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who has for years helped to shape Republican energy policies.”

Trump has announced his nominee for Secretary of the Interior will be North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

“Under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Forbes reports, “the federal government is required to conduct environmental reviews before approving energy production plans, infrastructure builds and other projects.
​ How Trump will help investors get around regulations isn’t clear, but Trump has vowed to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, projects that are often stymied or killed in the regulatory process.”

Critics blasted Trump’s statement.

314Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office,” wrote: “To tackle the climate crisis, Congress needs to pass and enforce bold, evidence-based legislation. However, Donald Trump doesn’t believe that billionaires should have to follow the law. In his world, they can pay-to-play and bypass crucial environmental protections. That’s why we’ll always fight to #ElectScientists who will fight back against his anti-science agenda and hold these bad actors accountable.”

“A government of oligarchs that will exist to solely serve the interests of oligarchs while distracting working people with culture wars. Foreign corporations & persons can loot & pollute the US and bypass regs that protect the health of Americans as long as they got lots of cash,” observed MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.

Journalist David Leavitt asked, “How many animals will go extinct because of this? How much quicker will this hasten the destruction of our planet?”

READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’

Image via Shutterstock