Donald Trump and his transition team are firing a warning shot at Fox News personality Pete Hegseth and his troubled nomination for Secretary of Defense by allowing leaks that they are considering other people for the role, Biden White House communications strategist Meghan Hays told a CNN panel on Wednesday.
Hegseth appears not to have the votes among Senate Republicans for confirmation, amid the release of a police report into his alleged history of sexual assault, and colleagues coming forward to say he has a severe drinking problem. He has sat for an interview with Fox News to try to get all of these problems cleared up — but the Trump team is already floating replacing him with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"Conventionally, you'd look to what's happening and say, [Hegseth is] toast," said anchor Brianna Keilar. "But the ship sailed on conventional a long time ago." The panel broadly laughed at the remark.
She turned to Hays. "I wonder what you think specifically of what you heard from [Missouri Sen. Josh] Hawley. Him saying, I'm not 100 percent clear who he wants as Secretary of Defense right now. Really interesting thing today as he's — as the meeting has been postponed to next week, which could be next week to never, depending on how this week goes. What do you think?"
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"Yeah, I think that's right," said Hays. "I think that the Trump team is putting names out there. They're muddying the water, right? They are signaling that we are okay if you guys are not going to vote for him or this is not going to move forward."
"I think DeSantis is a smart move," she continued. "He's an executive. He's, you know, he's led a major state. He understands there's some concerns here operationally. And just because I don't agree with his policies doesn't mean he wouldn't be good at running the DOD. But he's also been vetted at a national stage. So, you know, I think the trump team is smart to put names out there because there are some actually qualified people who have the character and the experience to lead a major organization like DOD."
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