Three of President-elect Donald Trump’s high-profile picks to hitch his Cabinet have confronted critical allegations of sexual impropriety, complicating the calculus for Republican senators already weighing their skilled {qualifications} as they resolve whether or not to associate with their occasion chief on key authorities posts.
His selection for legal professional common, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is accused of getting intercourse with a 17-year-old and paying two different girls for intercourse. Trump’s choose for protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, was accused of sexual assault. And his choice for well being and human providers secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was accused this summer time of groping a former household babysitter.
Gaetz and Hegseth have denied the allegations. Kennedy responded to the allegation towards him over the summer time by saying: “I mentioned in my announcement speech that I’ve so many skeletons in my closet that if they might all vote, I may run for king of the world.” NBC News reported that he apologized to the lady over textual content messages this yr.
Trump himself has confronted numerous sexual misconduct allegations, which he has denied, although he was discovered liable final yr for sexual abuse in a civil trial over an alleged incident within the Nineteen Nineties that he additionally denies. Now, after having received the presidency once more, he’s spending early political capital to verify appointees who’ve confronted sexual misconduct allegations of their very own.
“I do assume it’s sensible politics for the president to select a struggle with Congress — he’s a change agent that individuals despatched to disrupt, and there are few establishments folks dislike greater than Congress. But he undercuts that message when he needs to have a struggle over Matt Gaetz,” mentioned Marc Short, an NBC News contributor who was former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of workers.
“From the final couple of many years we’ve gone from not disclosing funds for nannies as being disqualifying to now, I simply assume the folks across the president know he needs to see them struggle by means of unhealthy information cycles,” Short added.
The allegations towards Trump’s picks
Gaetz’s years of controversies have been thrust again into the highlight now that he’s up for a Cabinet put up. While one in all Gaetz’s former associates pleaded responsible to costs together with intercourse trafficking of a minor, the Justice Department ended its intercourse trafficking investigation into Gaetz, who resigned from Congress after Trump chosen him, and didn’t cost him with any crimes. Meanwhile, a House Ethics Committee investigation had been ongoing earlier than he resigned.
Some particulars from that investigation have grow to be public — on Monday, a lawyer representing two girls who testified in entrance of the Ethics Committee instructed NBC News that Gaetz paid them for intercourse on a number of events, together with at a small, invitation-only occasion in Florida. The lawyer additionally added that one girl noticed Gaetz having intercourse together with her 17-year-old good friend however added that she believed Gaetz didn’t notice she was a minor and that he ended their “sexual relationship” till she turned a authorized grownup.
Hegseth has been accused of sexually assaulting a lady in 2017, an allegation he denied by means of a lawyer who mentioned that the encounter was consensual and that the 2 entered right into a “civil confidential settlement settlement [even as Hegseth] maintains his innocence.”
NBC News hasn’t independently reviewed a memo that The Washington Post reported was despatched to the Trump transition crew by a good friend of the accuser. Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s legal professional, confirmed it was associated to the encounter.
And this yr, Vanity Fair printed a prolonged profile of Kennedy that included a dialog with one in all his household’s former nannies, who mentioned he groped her. Asked in regards to the allegation on a podcast this summer time, Kennedy responded by brushing it apart, saying: “I’m not a church boy.”
Short famous the tough political cross-pressures that Republican senators will face forward of, particularly, the Gaetz affirmation vote. While some GOP senators have agreed they wish to see the House Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz, none have dominated out voting for him.
Republican senators up for re-election in 2026 “are put in a extremely powerful spot, as a result of in the event that they oppose Trump’s nominee, the priority is that Trump will assist recruit a major opponent. But in the event that they assist someone like Matt Gaetz, you’re all however guaranteeing a tougher common election. You’re in a catch-22,” Short mentioned.
As Trump’s picks face scrutiny, a number of Cabinet hopefuls in the previous couple of many years have needed to step apart over accusations they employed undocumented family employees — together with a number of throughout Bill Clinton’s and George H.W. Bush’s administrations, though nominees throughout President Barack Obama’s tenure and Trump’s first time period have been, in some instances, capable of get by means of. Others have had points with their funds, in addition to accusations of private or skilled misconduct.
Trump’s previous picks haven’t been immune, both.
In 2017, Andy Puzder, Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, withdrew from his affirmation battle amid scrutiny of his enterprise document, issues he employed an undocumented family worker and the emergence of video of his ex-wife accusing him of home abuse. Puzder mentioned he was unaware the worker was an undocumented immigrant, and a spokesperson instructed Politico on the time that his ex-wife’s feedback have been “retracted 30-year-old allegations.”
In 2018, Trump performing Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan withdrew from consideration to guide the Pentagon in a everlasting capability after The Post reported on home violence incidents involving members of his household. (Shanahan claimed the reporting “painted an incomplete and due to this fact deceptive” image of the incidents.)
Also that yr, Dr. Ronny Jackson (then the White House doctor, who later turned a member of Congress) withdrew his identify from consideration to guide the Department of Veterans Affairs amid allegations {of professional} impropriety. (Jackson referred to as the allegations “utterly false and fabricated.”)
And on the finish of 2018, Trump made a direct attraction to younger males in attempting to discredit a sexual assault allegation raised towards Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who denied the allegation. Kavanaugh was confirmed.
“It’s a really scary time for younger males in America while you could be responsible of one thing that you could be not be responsible of,” Trump instructed reporters.
“You could be someone that was excellent your whole life, and someone may accuse you of one thing,” he mentioned.
Trump sticking together with his decisions
Now, crew Trump is standing by its picks and selecting up its efforts on Capitol Hill forward of subsequent yr’s affirmation hearings.
A transition official instructed NBC News that when Trump initially referred to as to tell Gaetz of his plan to appoint him for legal professional common, Gaetz instructed Trump, “This entire factor goes to be an uphill battle.” The official added that Trump replied that it was a battle he needed to struggle and mentioned Trump has been making calls to GOP senators himself.
Addressing the potential problem of getting a few of Trump’s controversial picks confirmed, one other transition official mentioned: “The president needs these nominees in his administration, and it’s our job to make that occur,” including that whereas “we all know this shall be arduous, we simply received an unprecedented election” and that Trump “needs this performed, and we are going to get it performed.”
Trump briefly instructed reporters Wednesday he isn’t reconsidering Gaetz’s nomination. And Vice President-elect JD Vance hit Capitol Hill this week to rearrange conferences for key GOP senators with Gaetz and Hegseth, a supply conversant in the plans mentioned.
Asked about each the substance of the allegations towards Gaetz, Hegseth and Kennedy and whether or not there are issues that might complicate their confirmations, Karoline Leavitt, a Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman who’s the incoming White House press secretary, mentioned in a press release that Trump’s election was a “resounding mandate from the American folks to vary the established order in Washington. That’s why he has chosen sensible and highly-respected outsiders to serve in his administration.”
“He will proceed to face behind them as they struggle towards all those that search to derail the MAGA agenda,” Leavitt added.