Sen. Lindsey Graham has heard the allegations against former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, but the South Carolina Republican suggested that he sees the case against Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon as flawed. The Hill reported:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a senior Republican senator who is close to President-elect Trump, said the “anonymous” allegations against Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, “don’t count” if his accusers aren’t willing to step forward publicly.
“I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count,” the senator told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Graham also described the allegations against Hegseth, who’s denied any wrongdoing, as “rumors.”
“If people do raise their right hand and claim something bad happened, I will listen to them,” the Republican added, concluding, “Allegations that are anonymous don’t count.”
There are a handful of dimensions to this that are worth keeping in mind. Right off the bat, as my MSNBC colleague Lisa Rubin explained, anonymous allegations absolutely count.
What’s more, the idea that Graham and his party necessarily take allegations from named sources seriously is at odds with recent history. For example, Christine Blasey Ford, to borrow the senator’s phrasing, raised her right hand and made an accusation, and Graham discounted her claims and scrambled behind then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh anyway. Similarly, E. Jean Carroll raised her right hand and made an accusation, though few in GOP politics took her claims — or a jury’s findings regarding those claims — especially seriously.
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But especially notable about Graham’s on-air comments was the degree to which — and the speed with which — the senator changed his mind about the seriousness of the allegations surrounding the prospective nominee.
The South Carolinian’s “allegations that are anonymous don’t count” comments were aired during a live interview on Wednesday night. Literally one day earlier, Graham spoke to Capitol Hill journalists on the record and conceded that the recent reporting about Hegseth has been “very disturbing.”
The senator added on Tuesday that the allegations against the president-elect’s choice to lead the Defense Department would be “difficult” to overcome.
What changed for Graham between Tuesday and Wednesday? He hasn’t yet offered a public explanation, though it’s worth emphasizing that the Republican faced significant conservative pushback after his comments on Tuesday. What’s more, Graham will be up for re-election in just two years, and there’s already scuttlebutt about the incumbent lawmaker facing a potential primary rival.
As Graham weighs what to do with some of Trump’s most controversial personnel choices, it’s a dynamic worth keeping in mind.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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