Former Fox hosts raise new concerns on MSNBC over GOP rush to approve Hegseth

Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson called on all senators to take the sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth seriously as they prepared to question him during confirmation hearings Tuesday.

Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary — also a former Fox News personality — is set to face a barrage of questions about his past behaviors that Carlson said shouldn't solely be the concern of female senators like Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the subject of a Wall Street Journal article Sunday.

Carlson appeared on MSNBC's "The Weekend" with former Fox News host Julie Roginsky who also expressed dismay that Hegseth's hearing is on the fast track when there still appears to be serious questions about his character.

"Joni Ernst is the lynchpin to this, but what's really troubling to me — and I think should be troubling to all women and men, quite honestly — is that this shouldn't just hang on the shoulders of female senators to be the ones that are actually going to ask the tough questions or actually raise the issues of sexual misconduct. We as a country should all be concerned about this," Carlson told MSNBC's Symone Sanders-Townsend.

Carlson, whose sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News' Roger Ailes was a catalyst for the #MeToo movement, said that she and fellow advocate Julie Roginsky were concerned that the sexual assault allegations against Hegseth were taking a back seat to other ethical questions.

ALSO READ:Trump intel advisor Devin Nunes still dismisses Russian election meddling as a 'hoax'

"I think what was disheartening to Julie and myself and many other people who work in this advocacy space was that before the end of the year, the question seemed to be centering on the mismanagement, allegedly, of these nonprofits that he ran and the potential allegations about drinking — and the sexual misconduct allegations were sort of shoved to the side as if, oh, well, those are lower tier concerns. So, look, Joni Ernst is trying to thread the needle here. She put out statements towards the end of the year that said she had had good meetings with him, but she was still taking it under consideration because she had the MAGA people coming after her in force."

Carlson said other senators to watch regarding the Hegseth hearings are Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT), "who was a Democrat but is now a Republican, and has been on the record as saying that he does not believe that nominations coming from Trump nominees should automatically just be forced through just because the president-elect said that they should be."

Hegseth's nomination has been under fire due to allegations he mishandled funds for a nonprofit veterans group, that he had problems with alcohol, and that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 in an encounter he claimed was "consensual."

You can watch the video below or at the link:

- YouTubeyoutu.be