Congress
MAGA world is thrilled with Hegseth pick. Republican senators have questions.
After a weekend of brutal headlines disclosing sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth, Senate Republicans are offering a tepid defense of Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon.
Republicans have downplayed and deflected when asked about Hegseth — arguing Trump picked an outsider to shake up the Pentagon bureaucracy or that the confirmation process should play out.
“Let me say this: I have asked to read the allegations and I honestly have not had time to look at it, so I just can’t comment,” Senate Armed Services ranking Republican Roger Wicker said on Monday. “I am looking to be very supportive of his nomination.”
By Tuesday, Wicker, who will preside over Hegseth’s confirmation process when Republicans take control of the Senate in January, wasn’t taking reporters’ questions. Other Republicans also said they’ll wait and see.
Four Republicans would need to defect to sink Hegseth’s nomination, and all senators are facing immense pressure from Trump and his camp to approve his Cabinet picks. The campaign will kick into higher gear this week, as Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanies Hegseth and former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the embattled pick for attorney general, to meetings with Republican senators on Capitol Hill.
The selection of Hegseth, a weekend Fox & Friends host and Army veteran, has been dogged by a series of controversies, the most serious of which revolve around allegations of sexual assault. Hegseth’s lawyer said that Hegseth in 2017 paid a woman who accused him of the crime to settle a threatened lawsuit, calling the episode “successful extortion.” Hegseth denies the allegations, asserting the encounter was consensual, while police investigated and Hegseth was never charged.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a combat veteran, has said Hegseth needs to explain his opposition to women serving in combat roles. The newly surfaced assault allegations, she said Tuesday, would also merit a “discussion.”
“Any time there are allegations, you want to make sure they are properly vetted, so we’ll have that discussion,” Ernst said.
When asked for their views, some panel Republicans who will have a say in Hegseth’s coming confirmation process quickly changed the subject to Hegseth’s unconventional background, which they framed as a strength.
Another Armed Services Republican, Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), pointed to an eventual confirmation hearing for Hegseth, arguing “There’s a constitutional process, and we’ll go through that.”
“Let’s remember, Donald Trump was elected to shake up Washington as is, and I think that’s one of the reasons why he chose Pete Hegseth,” Budd said.
Though Hegseth’s confirmation is ultimately in the hands of Republicans, who will hold a 53-seat majority next year, Democrats on Tuesday were still mulling their options for handling the allegations and the nomination overall.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees, questioned whether the transition team had performed the normal FBI background check for a Defense secretary nominee and expected SASC would institute its own. Each committee, he noted, can do its own inquiry and has subpoena power.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who publicly asks all nominees for Pentagon jobs about whether they’ve engaged in sexual misconduct, said the allegations “are disqualifying,” if true.
“There are just so many aspects to this nominee’s behavior and positions he’s taken that should give us pause, huge pause,” Hirono said. “I don’t know how my colleagues are [approaching the nomination], but we’re all going to need to figure out what we’re going to do with this nominee.”
Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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