President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense pick Pete Hegseth is comparing vicious media reports about his alleged sexual misconduct to what Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh endured during the jurist’s heated confirmation process in 2018.
Hegseth, 44, first likened his nomination fight to Kavanaugh’s on Wednesday morning in a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) told The Post.
“I think his point was, you know, a lot of anonymous sources can say anything,” the congresswoman said after emerging from the closed-door session with the Republican Study Committee, the largest House GOP caucus. “That was one example that he said.”
“What we’re hearing from all of [the] folks who he’s working with for 18 years is, this is an honest, good guy,” she affirmed.
Anonymous accusers and whistleblowers at vet nonprofits Hegseth headed up have come out against the defense secretary-designee in recent weeks, claiming that in the 2010s the Army vet often drank on the job and made inappropriate sexual advances — including an alleged assault.
Hegseth, who is on his third marriage, has vehemently denied the allegations, along with two former senior employees who worked alongside him at the advocacy nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America, who called the claims “false” and completely “insane.”
Though he was confirmed, Kavanaugh himself faced accusations of sexual assault — as well as lurid falsehoods about having participated in “gang rapes” with male classmates at parties.
Christine Blasey Ford claimed that the future judge assaulted her at a high school party in 1982 — but several witnesses dispute her account, including her high school friend Leland Keyser, who later said, “I don’t have any confidence in the story.”
Hegseth also told podcast host Megyn Kelly in an interview Wednesday that he borrowed the Kavanaugh comparison from another member of Congress in a prior meeting.
“Do you think you’re being Kavanaugh’ed right now?” Kelly asked him on her show.
“I had a member, not 45 minutes ago, look me in the eye in private, just he and I and say, ‘That’s what they’re trying to do to you,’” Hegseth quoted the lawmaker as having said. “‘That’s their playbook. Get ready for more.’”
“You’re a threat to them, you’re a threat to their system,” he said the member of Congress also told him.
Hegseth went on: “Kavanaugh stood up and he won. And hopefully Republicans have learned that lesson. And Trump stood by him.”
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to The Post the former president and Hegseth spoke on the phone Wednesday morning and that Trump said he was “with” him.
Hegseth told Kelly his meetings with senators so far have been “fantastic” and that no Republican has told him they would not be voting for him in the confirmation process.
He said Trump also told him, “Pete I got your back,” and that he would not be suspending his bid — despite reports that the incoming president was eyeing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a replacement nominee, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Post spoke with House GOPers and staffers in both chambers on the Hill, all of whom said they supported his nomination.
But only four senators would need to oppose the Pentagon nominee to torpedo the confirmation.
Among lawmakers backing him, there was a general frustration that the accusers were staying anonymous.
“Bring forward the people accusing him. No more anonymity,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) contended.
“He [Hegseth] has a great record of combat leadership in both Afghanistan and Iraq,” Rep Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said. “Let’s be honest: Going with old generals has not made the Department of Defense run better.”
Issa also claimed that Hegseth committed to having a “full legitimate audit” of the Pentagon’s spending during the RSC meeting.
Earlier this month, the DOD failed its seventh audit in a row.
