Category: Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday she isn’t ready to support Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary.

“Well, I did have a very long, lengthy discussion with Pete yesterday, and I do appreciate his service to the nation. I also am a combat veteran. So, we talked about a number of those issues, and we will continue with the vetting process. I think that is incredibly important,” Ernst told Fox News. “So, again, all I’m saying is we had a very frank and productive discussion, and I know that we will continue to have conversations for months.”

Pressed by host Bill Hemmer that it “doesn’t sound in your answer that you got to a yes,” Ernst replied, “I think you are right.”

Hegseth continues to make the rounds on Capitol Hill to try to convince senators that he’s up to the job amid allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and mismanagement of finances. He denies the allegations.

He met Wednesday with Ernst, a key Republican member of the Armed Services committee and herself a survivor of sexual assault.

Upon leaving the meeting, Hegseth told reporters that he and Ernst had an “engaging and instructive conversation.”

Ernst later posted, “I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s service to our country, something we both share. Today, as part of the confirmation process, we had a frank and thorough conversation.”

ABC News has previously reported Ernst to be on a growing list of candidates emerging to possibly replace Hegseth as Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense.

When asked Wednesday if there was any chance she was being considered to replace Hegseth, she merely responded, “Mr. Hegseth is the nominee.” She was tight-lipped over whether their meeting alleviated any concerns she might have.

Ernst is the first female combat veteran in the Senate. She also has a long record of supporting legislation aimed at addressing sexual assault and harassment in the military, and has been outspoken about her own experiences with sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence.

Notably, Hegseth has said that women should not serve in combat roles in the military, and he continues to face his own allegations of sexual misconduct and impropriety.

Hegseth has denied the sexual assault allegations. On Wednesday, he told the Megyn Kelly show “absolutely not” in regards to rape accusations, and he denied many of the claims that he mistreated women.

All eyes will be on Ernst as Hegseth’s confirmation process plays out. Last month, Ernst told ABC News that an FBI background check into Hegseth would be “helpful.”

In an interview with Bloomberg News in 2019, Ernst first disclosed the details of her rape as a college student at Iowa State University, in which she tearfully retold being in a “physically and sexually abusive” relationship with someone who raped her.

During her college years, she volunteered at a safe house for battered and abused women and children.

While speaking to Bloomberg, Ernst also alleged that her ex-husband, Gail Ernst, had physically abused her in an incident in which he “grabbed [her] by the throat” before he “threw [her]” on the ground and “pounded [her] head.” Gail Ernst declined to comment on the allegations at the time.

Ernst also claimed to have endured sexual harassment in the military, which she described to Time Magazine in 2014.

“I had comments, passes, things like that,” Ernst said. “These were some things where I was able to say stop and it simply stopped but there are other circumstances both for women and for men where they don’t stop and they may be afraid to report it.”

“Sexual assault has no place in our military — or anywhere else — and it’s far past time we take more steps toward preventing and reducing these heart-wrenching crimes,” Ernst said in a statement after introducing a bipartisan bill in 2021 to prevent military sexual assault.

Ernst was a member of Iowa State University’s ROTC program at 20 years old before joining the U.S. Army Reserve. She later served as a company commander of an Iowa National Guard transportation unit in Kuwait.

She spent 23 years in the National Guard and Army Reserve and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Ernst has been vocal about her support for Trump, despite him also having been accused of sexual assault by multiple women — which he has repeatedly denied. Ernst was even a contender to be his running mate in the 2016 election.

“I would encourage women to stand up and say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to put up with his nonsense, but I do agree with him on this policy,'” Ernst said in a 2016 interview with WHO. “Sometimes we have to look beyond certain aspects of a person and figure out do we agree.”

She also told Bloomberg that it was “outrageous to suggest that anyone who has been the victim of sexual assault should therefore be a Hillary Clinton supporter.”

Ernst became the first woman to represent Iowa in either house of Congress when she was elected to the Senate in 2014.

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(WASHINGTON) — Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and Republican Texas Congressman Pat Fallon got into a screaming match Thursday at a House panel investigating the assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump.

Fallon yelled about Rowe’s attendance at the 9/11 memorial. He accused Rowe of putting the President’s Secret Service detail out of position so he could sit behind him during the 9/11 remembrance ceremony.

“Congressman, what you’re not seeing is the [lack] of the detail off out of the picture’s view. And that is the day where we remember more than 3000 people that have died on 911,” Rowe said Thursday. “I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center. I was there at Fresh Kills..”

Fallon yelled at Rowe, asking if he was the special agent in charge.

“I was there to show respect for members that died on 9/11,” Rowe yelled back his finger pointing at Fallon. “Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes,” Rowe shouted.

“Oh I am not,” Fallon responded.

“You are sir,” Rowe yelled back. “And you are out of line!”

“I am an elected member of Congress, and I’m asking you a serious question,” Fallon said.

“I am a public servant who has served,” Rowe yelled back.

Fallon accused the acting director of putting the life of the vice president in jeopardy to audition for the job.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was back on Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with Republican lawmakers as misconduct allegations continued to cloud his selection to lead the Pentagon.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s political team is focused on figuring out where female Republican senators stand on Hegseth, according to two people involved in the conversations. Trump’s advisers are fully aware that with such a thin GOP Senate majority, Hegseth’s fate could all come down to the women in the conference.

Sen. Joni Ernst, a key Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold his confirmation hearings, notably declined to voice support for Hegseth after meeting with him on Wednesday and then again on Thursday on Fox News, which Trump is known to watch.

Ernst told Fox News host Bill Hemmer she had a “very frank” and “productive” discussion with Hegseth. When pressed by Hemmer that that didn’t sound as if she had gotten to a yes on his confirmation, she replied, “I think you are right.”

Ernst is the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate and a sexual assault survivor herself. Hegseth has faced allegations of sexual assault (which he’s denied) and previously said that women should not serve in ground combat roles in the military.

ABC News was told Trump has expressed to those close to him that Hegseth should have been more honest and forthcoming about the challenges he could face getting through the confirmation process given his history.

Trump, who is considering other options (a list that includes Ernst) for the role, has not been working the phones for Hegseth — as he did for Matt Gaetz.

Gaetz was Trump’s original pick for attorney general but said he withdrew his name from consideration as he faced his own allegations of sexual misconduct. Trump has since tapped former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to head up the Justice Department, pending Senate confirmation.

Hegseth has told senators his mother has been making calls to senators on his behalf, according to sources familiar with the matter. He has also told senators he is open to a background check, according to multiple sources.

During Wednesday’s meetings with GOP senators, Hegseth promised some he would not drink alcohol if confirmed.

“The allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times and so the questions that every member will be asking him led to his statement,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, current ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and expected to take over the chairmanship in January — presiding over Hegseth’s confirmation hearings.

Hegseth on Thursday was expected to meet with Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Jim Banks of Indiana, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Hegseth told reporters as he walked through the Capitol that he’d spoken with Trump on Thursday morning.

“He is behind us all the way,” Hegseth said when asked by ABC News’ Jay O’Brien what Trump had told him during their conversation.

When asked if he thought he had the votes to be confirmed, Hegseth dodged the question but said he was continuing to work his way through the process.

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(WASHINGTON) — Accountability for the members of the Secret Service who were at fault for the July 13 assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump is “occurring,” acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe told a House task force investigating the incident on Thursday.

“All disciplinary measures are imposed to promote the efficiency of the Secret Service and to encourage behaviors and principles that ensure the success of the agency’s mission,” he testified.

“Employees receiving proposals of discipline will be provided due process under agency policy as well as any applicable laws and regulations. But, let me be clear, there will be accountability, and that accountability is occurring. Consistent with applicable laws and regulations, I cannot comment further on specific disciplinary actions underway or being considered.”

At the same time, he said, the agency should not be defined by one failure.

Suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting Trump in the ear, killing one spectator and wounding two others.

A Secret Service Mission Assurance report was released earlier in the year, along with a Department of Homeland Security independent review and a Senate report.

Rowe testified that since becoming director he has focused on preventing another July 13 shooting from happening again.

In his memo, he said the Secret Service increased its staffing levels on the president-elect’s detail, expanding the use of drones at venues, expanding counter-drone technology at venues, addressing the faulty radio issue by working with the Defense Department, using other federal law enforcement agencies to help with protective visits and expanding the ballistic countermeasures at Secret Service protected events.

At the president-elect’s residences, the Secret Service has worked with state and local partners to bolster security and use cutting-edge technology to do so.

“My goal is to improve our mission effectiveness and rebuild public trust,” Rowe said. “One of the key systemic changes was the directive to mandate a unified command in a singular location for all protective sites, something that was not done on July 13th in Butler. This co-location enhances our communications and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with state, local and federal partners to better anticipate threats and respond to them more swiftly.”

Rowe testified that he has also prioritized the mental health of agents, adding a chief wellness officer just this week.

“While I cannot undo the harm that has been done, I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure that the Secret Service never has a failure like this again.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and his senior aides are discussing possible preemptive pardons for people who might be targeted by the incoming Trump administration, according to a source close to the president.

Possible names include current and former officials such as retired Gen. Mark Milley, former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen.-elect Adam Schiff and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Politico was first to report the news.

The consideration comes after Biden issued a full pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on Dec. 1. The move sparked backlash from Republicans and criticism from many Democrats.

The White House said Biden did so, despite his past pledges not to pardon his son, because “it didn’t seem his political opponents would let go of it.”

Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to exact “retribution” on his political enemies.

Milley, who retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year, has long been a target of Republican attacks over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

He also stoked Trump’s ire over a report that Milley secretly called his Chinese counterpart before and after the 2020 election to dispel China’s fears Trump was not planning an attack. Trump accused Milley of “treason” after the report.

Cheney and Schiff have also long been criticized by Trump over their investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The two were part of the House Jan. 6 committee’s yearlong probe, which concluded with the recommendation of criminal charges against Trump. Schiff also was the lead House prosecutor in Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial.

Cheney lost her reelection bid in 2022 to a Trump-backed Republican challenger. Cheney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump, and appeared with Harris several times on the campaign trail.

Schiff is now the senator-elect from California after winning the seat held by late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November.

Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, faced intense scrutiny over the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He’s been called to Capitol Hill to testify on school shutdowns, the virus’ origins and more by House Republicans since retiring in 2022.

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(WASHINGTON) — Since becoming President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard’s rosy posture toward Moscow has prompted some Democratic critics to suggest that she could be “compromised,” or perhaps even a “Russian asset” — claims the ex-Hawaii representative and Army officer has forcefully denied.

But former advisers to Gabbard suggest that her views on Russia and its polarizing leader, Vladimir Putin, have been shaped not by some covert intelligence recruitment as far as they know — but instead by her unorthodox media consumption habits.

Three former aides said Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, regularly read and shared articles from the Russian news site RT — formerly known as Russia Today — which the U.S. intelligence community characterized in 2017 as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.”

While it was not clear to those former staffers whether or when she stopped frequenting the site, one former aide said Gabbard continued to circulate articles from RT “long after” she was advised that the outlet was not a credible source of information.

Doug London, a retired 34-year veteran intelligence officer, said Gabbard’s alleged penchant to rely at least in part on outlets like RT to shape her view of the world reflects poorly on her suitability to fulfill the responsibilities of a director of national intelligence.

“That Gabbard’s views mirror Russia’s narrative and disinformation themes can but suggest naïveté, collusion, or politically opportunistic sycophancy to echo whatever she believes Trump wants to hear,” London said, adding, “none of which bodes well for the president’s principal intelligence adviser responsible for enabling the [U.S. intelligence community] to inform decision-making by telling it like it is.”

Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said in a statement to ABC News that “this is false and nothing but a few former, conveniently anonymous, disgruntled staffers.”

“Lt. Col. Gabbard’s views on foreign policy have been shaped by her military service and multiple deployments to war zones where she’s seen the cost of war and who ultimately pays the price,” Henning said.

‘The Russian playbook’

Former congressional and campaign advisers said it was unclear to what extent Gabbard’s views were shaped by what she read in RT — and they emphasized that she would consume news from a wide range of outlets, including left-wing and right-wing blogs.

But over the past decade, Gabbard’s views on Russian aggression in Europe have evolved in a particularly dramatic fashion.

In 2014, when Russian troops annexed Crimea, Gabbard — then a first-term Democratic U.S. representative from Hawaii — released a statement advocating for “meaningful American military assistance for Ukrainian forces” and for the U.S. to invoke “stiffer, more painful economic sanctions for Russia.”

“The consequences of standing idly by while Russia continues to degrade the territorial integrity of Ukraine are clear,” she wrote at the time. “We have to act in a way that takes seriously the threat of Russian aggression against its peaceful, sovereign neighbor.”

By 2017, however, her tune had changed. In a lengthy memo to campaign staff laying out her views on foreign policy, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, Gabbard blamed the U.S. and NATO for provoking Russian aggression and bemoaned the United States’ “hostility toward Putin.”

“There certainly isn’t any guarantee to Putin that we won’t try to overthrow Russia’s government,” she wrote in the memo from May 2017, titled “fodder for fundraising emails / social media.”

“In fact, I’m pretty sure there are American politicians who would love to do that,” she wrote.

She also condemned the very sanctions she had previously supported, writing that, “historically, the U.S. has always wanted Russia to be a poor country.”

“It’s a matter of respect,” she wrote. “The Russian people are a proud people and they don’t want the U.S. and our allies trying to control them and their government.”

Gabbard’s sentiment in the 2017 memo is “basically the Russian playbook,” said Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration.

“It’s dangerous,” said Daalder. “That strain of thinking is not unique to Tulsi Gabbard, but it is certainly not where you would think a major figure in any administration would like to be, intellectually.”

By 2022, at the outset of the latest Russia-Ukraine conflict, Gabbard suggested on X that Russia’s invasion was justified by Ukraine’s potential bid to join NATO, “which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border” — a narrative perpetuated by Russian propaganda channels, including RT, and denounced by the U.S. and NATO as “false.”

Gabbard’s messaging has at times aligned so closely with Kremlin talking points that at least one commentator on Kremlin state media has referred to her as “Russia’s girlfriend.”

A ‘nefarious effort’

The U.S. government first called out RT as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Kremlin in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, three years after Gabbard was elected to Congress.

This past September, the State Department wrote that it had evidence that “RT moved beyond being simply a media outlet and has been an entity with cyber capabilities.” The U.S. also issued fresh sanctions against executives at RT, including its editor-in-chief, who the U.S. accused of engaging in a “nefarious effort to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers in support of their malign influence campaign.”

The Justice Department also indicted two RT employees in September for their alleged role in what the DOJ called a scheme to pay right-wing social media influencers nearly $10 million to “disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”

In the decade since Gabbard arrived in Washington, experts say she has regularly promoted views consistent with those espoused in RT and other Russian propaganda channels.

In its 2017 assessment, for example, the U.S. intelligence community wrote that RT “has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks” and “routinely gives [WikiLeaks founder Julian] Assange sympathetic coverage and provides him a platform to denounce the United States.”

Gabbard has long been an outspoken supporter of Assange, arguing in a June 2024 appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” that “[Assange’s] prosecution, the charges against him, are one of the biggest attacks on freedom of the press, that we’ve seen, and freedom of speech.”

In Congress, Gabbard also co-sponsored a resolution calling on the federal government to “drop all charges against Edward Snowden,” the former contractor for the National Security Agency who supplied WikiLeaks with secret documents in order to expose what he called “horrifying” U.S. government surveillance capabilities.

RT frequently reports glowingly on Snowden, who has for more than a decade lived under asylum in Russia.

‘Undeniable facts’

But it is Gabbard’s framing of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has most galvanized her critics in the national security sphere.

In March 2022, Gabbard posted a video to Twitter — now X — sharing what she said were “undeniable facts” about U.S.-funded biolabs in the war-torn country, claiming that “even in the best of circumstances” they “could easily be compromised” — a debunked theory regularly promoted by RT and other Kremlin propaganda channels.

Experts say RT and other Russian state-controlled news agencies have frequently capitalized on Gabbard’s public comments to support the biolab conspiracy theory and other disinformation, recirculating clips in which she repeats the Kremlin propaganda as evidence backing the false claims — effectively engineering an echo-chamber to magnify their propaganda machine.

Even so, Brian O’Neill, a former senior intelligence official with experience in senior policymaker briefing, expressed confidence that career intelligence officials can support Gabbard with “a constant barrage of new information” that will help shape her understanding of emerging world events.

“New appointees in such roles always bring preconceptions, but like her predecessors, she will be subject to comprehensive briefings grounded in solid evidence provided by individuals of high integrity and expertise,” O’Neill said.

“That said,” O’Neill cautioned, “Trump’s well-documented hostility and skepticism toward the [intelligence community] will shape the environment she steps into. If she adopts a similar posture, there’s a risk she might deprioritize intelligence community input or dismiss inconvenient truths presented to her.”

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House Judiciary Committee will see a changing of the guard in the 119th Congress with a new Democratic leader.

Rep. Jerry Nadler announced Wednesday that he would not run to be the top Democrat on the committee, which he has been for the last seven years.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D- Md., announced plans Monday to challenge Nadler for the leadership spot. Nadler, 77, endorsed Raskin, 61, in a letter to his colleagues.

“As our country faces the return of Donald Trump, and the renewed threats to our democracy and our way of life that he represents, I am very confident that Jamie would ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we confront this growing danger,” he wrote.

Raskin did not immediately comment on Nadler’s decision.

The Maryland congressman’s challenge came as Democrats worried that Nadler was not vigorous enough to match the Republican committee chair, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

Raskin is the former chair of the House Oversight Committee, a constitutional scholar and also sat on the Jan. 6th Committee. He was also the lead manager for Trump’s second impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Raskin said in a letter to colleagues that the Judiciary Committee “will be the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism and MAGA’s campaign to dismantle our Constitutional system and the rule of law as we know it.”

Raskin was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010 and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2022 and underwent chemotherapy for both diagnoses and surgery for the former. Last year, Raskin said the cancer was in remission.

The congressman noted his cancer survival in his letter to colleagues.

“I hope to be at the center of this fight and — as someone who has battled cancer and chemotherapy — I can tell you that I will never, never surrender,” he wrote.

Nadler, who plans on staying on the committee, also praised Raskin.

“I am also proud that, under my leadership, some of our caucus’s most talented rising stars have been given a platform to demonstrate their leadership and their abilities,” he wrote. “That includes Jamie Raskin, who in just a few terms in Congress has already proven himself to be an exceptional leader and spokesperson for our party’s values.

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(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, said on Wednesday he would not “back down” as new misconduct allegations cause growing concern among Republican senators tasked with whether to confirm him.

Going public in his own defense, Hegseth also directly addressed several of the accusations for the first time in an interview with Megyn Kelly. He denied many of the claims he mistreated women and pushed back on reports he was forced out from two veterans’ nonprofit groups.

He’s also promised senators he’s stopped drinking and won’t drink if confirmed, according to Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt. Some of the misconduct accusations included claims he has been drunk in public.

“He offered up to me, and I know he has with other senators too, that he’s not drinking, and that’s not something he’s going to do when confirmed here,” Schmitt said a day after meeting with Hegseth.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would vote to send Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate, affirmed that Hegseth committed to not drinking if he was confirmed.

“The allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times and so the questions that every member will be asking him led to his statement,” Wicker said.

Pressed to confirm Hegseth told him he would stop drinking altogether, Wicker replied, “That’s right, that’s exactly right.”

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said he was encouraged by Hegseth’s pledge in their private meeting Wednesday to abstain from alcohol as defense secretary.

“He said, ‘My commitment is to not touch alcohol while I have this position,'” said Cramer, who lost a son to alcohol addiction in 2018.

“I said, ‘It’s really important that we have a clear-eyed secretary of defense if the phone rings at 3 in the morning.'” Cramer said. He said Hegseth replied that he would be clear-eyed at “3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, and every hour in between.”

Cramer said Hegseth told him there were times when he “drank too much, but never times that I drank too much and anything improper happened.”

Hegseth said he spoke with Trump earlier on Wednesday, and said the president-elect told him: “Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.”

The comments come as a number of senators — at least six — have privately signaled they are not inclined to vote for him, leading Trump’s advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Multiple sources also told ABC News that Trump and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the job Tuesday and DeSantis expressed interest in it. Other possible candidates include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Tennessee Gov. Bill Hagerty, said sources familiar with private discussions.

As he walked with his wife through the Capitol for a third day of sit-downs with GOP lawmakers, Hegseth was peppered with questions from reporters asking if he’s committed to remaining in the running. He replied, “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter. I’m here for the war fighters. This is personal and passionate for me.”

Hegseth met with Ernst on Wednesday afternoon. Ernst briefly spoke with reporters after, calling it a “throughout conversation.”

Asked by ABC’s Jay O’Brien if Hegseth alleviated any of her concerns, Ernst did not respond.

When pressed if there’s any chance she was being considered to replace Hegseth, Ernst responded: “Mr. Hegseth is the nominee.”

Shortly after he was tapped by Trump to lead the Pentagon, it was reported that Hegseth had paid a settlement agreement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.

Over the weekend, the New Yorker, citing what it called a detailed seven-page whistleblower report, said Hegseth was forced to step down from two veterans’ nonprofit groups amid accusations of financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and other disqualifying conduct. ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s account.

Hegseth denied most of the allegations against him as Kelly went through them.

He flatly denied the 2017 sexual assault allegation, saying he paid a settlement to protect his wife and career.

He pushed back on reports he was forced out of the veterans’ groups, though he didn’t dispute mismanaging funds at Veterans for Freedom, blaming it on being an “amateur.”

“Am I a perfect man? No, was I a perfect man? Absolutely not,” Hegseth said. “Do I regret those things? Yes. But is it who I am today? No, and I’m just grateful for the grace of God that gives me a new chapter.”

Hegseth’s lawyer Tim Parlatore told CNN on Wednesday his client was looking forward to doing an FBI background check.

“He knows, as I know, that FBI investigators are professionals. They’re going to go through this. They’re going to not just take a few anonymous complaints and put that in the report. They’re going to try and corroborate it,” Parlatore said. “The FBI background check is going to exonerate him of the vast majority of these claims, and so he’s very much looking forward to that.”

Parlatore claimed that while Hegseth isn’t an “angel” and that he has partied “a bit,” the onslaught of allegations coming out against him are because people are “threatened” by changes he would bring to the Pentagon.

His mother, Penelope Hegseth, also offered a defense of her son on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning.

She sent an email to her son in 2018 amid his divorce in which she wrote that he was an “abuser of women.” The email was reported by the New York Times. ABC News has not independently obtained the email.

Penelope Hegseth on Wednesday said her son was a “changed” man and that the email was written in “haste” during a “very emotional time.” She said that she “retracted it with an apology email” just hours after she sent it, and that she and her son are “very close today.”

Penelope Hegseth, imploring senators to listen to his account, also said she believed her son was “the man for the job.”

Hegseth told Kelly he was still confident he’ll be confirmed but said if he isn’t, he’ll know “I did everything I could in this process.”

“So, we don’t know precisely how this is all going to play out. I’m going to go up on Capitol Hill, meet with all these senators, keep working hard, try to earn votes, respect the process,” he said.

ABC News’ Rick Klein, Rachel Scott, Ivan Pereira and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — ABC projects that Democrat Adam Gray will win the race for California’s 13th Congressional District, unseating incumbent Republican John Duarte and flipping the final unresolved seat in the 2024 election.

With all 435 House races projected, ABC News estimates Republicans will hold 220 seats and Democrats 215 in the 119th Congress.

But it’s not clear how vacancies — or, illness or other absences — will impact the day-to-day division of power when the House convenes on Jan. 3.

President-elect Donald Trump initially tapped three House Republicans for positions in his upcoming administration: Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. Gaetz has already resigned from Congress and withdrew last month from consideration to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general. And though he won reelection to his seat last month, he said he won’t serve another term.

Republicans could have a 217-215 majority while their seats are vacant — the narrowest GOP majority in history — and special elections to fill those seats can take months to complete.

In this case, any single Republican can hold Johnson hostage: Losing just one Republican on a vote would result in a 216-216 tie.

The speaker acknowledged the thin majority, which could pose a challenge in passing Trump’s agenda.

“Well, just like we do every day here, we’ve developed an expertise in that. We know how to work with a small majority. That’s our custom now,” Johnson said. “So, yes — do the math. We can, we have nothing to spare. But all of our members know that we talked about that today, as we do constantly, that this is a team effort that we’ve got to all row in the same direction.”

But several elderly Democrats have missed votes recently, which could give Republicans a little more breathing room next year.

In California’s 13th District, Duarte conceded to Gray on Tuesday, according to the Turlock Journal.

“I’m a citizen legislator, and I didn’t plan on being in Congress forever,” Duarte told the newspaper. “But whenever I think I can make a difference, I’ll consider public service in different forms, including running for Congress again.”

Gray released a victory statement on X Tuesday evening, extending his gratitude and saying the “final results confirm this district is ready for independent and accountable leadership that always puts the Valley’s people ahead of partisan politics.”

-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — ABC projects that Democrat Adam Gray will win the race for California’s 13th Congressional District, unseating incumbent Republican John Duarte and flipping the final unresolved seat in the 2024 election.

With all 435 House races projected, ABC News estimates Republicans will hold 220 seats and Democrats 215 in the 119th Congress.

“People are excited about what we were able to achieve in electing another Republican House majority, keeping the majority,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday morning.

But it’s not clear how vacancies — or, illness or other absences — will impact the day-to-day division of power when the House convenes on Jan. 3.

President-elect Donald Trump initially tapped three House Republicans for positions in his upcoming administration: Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. Gaetz has already resigned from Congress and withdrew last month from consideration to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general. And though he won reelection to his seat last month, he said he won’t serve another term.

Republicans could have a 217-215 majority while their seats are vacant — the narrowest GOP majority in history — and special elections to fill those seats can take months to complete.

In this case, any single Republican can hold Johnson’s agenda hostage: Losing just one Republican on a vote would result in a 216-216 tie.

But several elderly Democrats have missed votes recently, which could give Republicans a little more breathing room next year.

In California’s 13th District, Duarte conceded to Gray on Tuesday, according to the Turlock Journal.

“I’m a citizen legislator, and I didn’t plan on being in Congress forever,” Duarte told the newspaper. “But whenever I think I can make a difference, I’ll consider public service in different forms, including running for Congress again.”

Gray released a victory statement on X Tuesday evening, extending his gratitude and saying the “final results confirm this district is ready for independent and accountable leadership that always puts the Valley’s people ahead of partisan politics.”

-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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