Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, is facing scrutiny from Republicans as well as Democrats when it comes to his Senate confirmation, political analyst Mark Halperin said on Newsmax Saturday.
"It's really not up to the left," Halperin told Newsmax's "The Count." "It's up to whether he can hold 50 Republican senators and I think there are some senators who have questions."
Part of the questions relate to allegations of sexual misconduct from Hegseth's past, which he has denied, and part is whether he has the resume for the vital position, said Halperin.
"President Trump wants outsiders," he added. "They want folks who will shake things up. And [Hegseth] is that. And he's got a number of positions, particularly on removing woke from the military that are popular with those who voted for President Trump. I'd say today my general view is if he performs well at the hearing, if he gives the people a sense of what he'll do in the job, I think he will be confirmed. But if he performs poorly, I think he does hang in the balance."
The job of defense secretary is also a "big management job" that is "related to realms in which Pete Hegseth has no experience whatsoever," said Halperin.
This means that Hegseth's fate will be determined on whether four GOP senators see him as being more unorthodox than unqualified, he added.
Halperin also discussed the "unfortunate" threats being made on members of Trump's proposed cabinet and transition team.
"It's hard to know if it's a foreign or domestic, hard to know what the motivation is, how serious it is,' he said. "But it's obviously seriously unsettling for the families involved, particularly around the holiday time. So I don't know and I'm not sure the government knows."
It is vital to launch a "strong investigation" to determine where the threats are coming from, said Halperin, but he added that he thinks it is "unproductive to speculate about the motive or the actors until we learn more."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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