特朗普考虑让德桑蒂斯担任国防部长，因为他对赫格塞斯的支持有所动摇
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 4 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）当选总统唐纳德·J·特朗普正在权衡他的选择，尽管皮特·赫格塞斯正在与参议员会面以争取支持。过去不当行为的指控从一开始就威胁到他的提名。《纽约时报》记者玛吉·哈伯曼乔纳森·斯旺和迈克尔·D·希尔对此作了下述详细报道。
当选总统唐纳德·J·特朗普在选举日后不久宣布选择皮特·赫格塞斯担任国防部长，但随着一桩强奸指控和赫格塞斯母亲在 2018 年发来的电子邮件指责他虐待女性，他对皮特·赫格塞斯的支持开始动摇。
佩内洛普·赫格塞斯在邮件中说，她的儿子“贬低、撒谎、欺骗、乱搞”。周三，她在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，她后悔发送了这封邮件，赫格塞斯先生不再是六年前她大肆抨击的那个人了。
“皮特已经是一个新的人了，”赫格塞斯夫人在“福克斯与朋友们”节目中说。她敦促那些将考虑提名他的人现在听听他的意见。“他已经得到救赎、得到宽恕、改变了。”
她的出现受到了特朗普身边人的乐观欢迎，他们告诉同事，他们认为这可以帮助减少人们对性行为不端、酗酒和财务管理不善等一系列指控的担忧。保守派活动人士在社交媒体上纷纷表达对赫格塞斯先生的支持，这也让他们感到鼓舞。
但赫格塞斯先生周三将面临一系列考验，这对他当选总统的机会至关重要。他将继续与一些重要参议员会面，包括爱荷华州的乔尼·恩斯特，她是一名退伍军人，曾谈到自己遭到性侵犯。他还将在电视上为自己辩护。
“我今天早上和当选总统谈过了。他说要继续努力，继续战斗，”赫格塞斯抵达国会山时告诉记者。
当被问及是否会在有报道称特朗普已经与佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯讨论可能的替代方案时退缩时，他说：“我为什么要退缩？我一直都是个斗士。”
不过，特朗普的盟友担心，《华尔街日报》早些时候报道了当选总统与德桑蒂斯的私人谈话，这让共和党参议员有胆量质疑赫格塞斯的可行性。
北达科他州参议员凯文·克莱默和南卡罗来纳州参议员林赛·格雷厄姆都是特朗普的忠实支持者，他们称针对赫格塞斯的指控令人不安，尽管他们说他应该有机会说出自己的看法。
“我们绝对不能让一个经常喝醉的国防部长担任国防部长，”克莱默告诉《华盛顿邮报》，并补充道，“我知道他已经解决了这个问题。”
据两位了解特朗普想法的人士称，特朗普已向亲近的人明确表示，他认为赫格塞斯应该更坦率地说明他在确认任命过程中将面临的问题。
这些事件的结合可能会决定他是否能继续担任预期的提名人。特朗普曾与其他人讨论过这个职位，包括德桑蒂斯，他在共和党总统初选中击败了德桑蒂斯，两人的关系一直不和。特朗普喜欢让一个在公众面前被他压制的人上任，周二，他在纪念三名在车祸中丧生的佛罗里达州警长副手的仪式上与德桑蒂斯谈论了这件事。
但在特朗普的世界里，不喜欢和不信任德桑蒂斯的人——以及对他与当选总统竞选的痛苦回忆——数量庞大。这些人正在讨论其他选择，包括特朗普挑选为国家安全顾问的佛罗里达州众议员迈克·沃尔茨能否顺利接任这一职位，并预计他将很容易地得到参议院的批准。
虽然过去批评特朗普并不总是他任命的人的障碍，但德桑蒂斯在初选期间对特朗普进行了猛烈的抨击。其中包括一句关于向色情明星付钱的反讽，这是对特朗普起诉的依据。
特朗普几乎没有花费任何个人资本来说服参议员推举赫格塞斯。当选总统的顾问在私下讨论中注意到，共和党参议员试图尊重特朗普，但并不认可令他们担忧的提名人。
44 岁的赫格塞斯可能成为特朗普提名的第三位辞职的人选，此前马特·盖茨撤回了司法部长提名，警长查德·克罗尼斯特也退出了对缉毒局局长的提名。
在过去两周里，赫格塞斯受到了密切关注。据透露，他已与一名指控他在 2017 年强奸的女性达成和解协议；他坚称这是双方自愿的，特朗普当时告诉助手，他希望坚持他宣布的提名人。
但特朗普讨厌的令人不安的头条新闻只会变得更糟。 《纽约时报》报道了 2018 年他母亲给他写的一封电子邮件，当时他正经历一场激烈的离婚，母亲在邮件中告诉儿子，多年来，他“以某种方式”虐待了多名女性。
特朗普告诉人们，他对这封电子邮件的报道感到不满。
赫格塞斯也是《纽约客》一篇谴责文章的主角，文章称，他因行为不当而被迫辞去两个退伍军人团体负责人的职务。NBC 新闻周二报道称，赫格塞斯的酗酒问题令福克斯新闻的同事感到担忧。
目前尚不清楚特朗普的过渡团队对赫格塞斯过去的调查有多深入。
现在，特朗普团队正密切关注赫格塞斯和他的母亲在采访中的表现，他们知道，这对特朗普决定是否继续聘用这位前福克斯新闻主持人和战斗老兵至关重要，这位老兵是否有资格领导五角大楼受到了质疑。
赫格塞斯身边的人认为，如果他想自保，就必须表现出色。特朗普团队尤其担心共和党女参议员与赫格塞斯，尤其是恩斯特女士决裂。
题图：皮特·赫格塞斯走在美国国会大厦的走廊上，周围是其他政客和记者。当选总统唐纳德·J·特朗普选定的国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯将于周三会见包括爱荷华州参议员乔迪·恩斯特在内的参议员。图片来源：Kenny Holston/纽约时报
附原英文报道：
Trump Considers DeSantis for Defense Secretary as His Support for Hegseth Falters
President-elect Donald J. Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start.
Pete Hegseth walks in a hallway at the U.S. Capitol surrounded by other politicians and reporters.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for defense secretary, will meet with senators including Jodi Ernst of Iowa on Wednesday.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
By Maggie HabermanJonathan Swan and Michael D. Shear
Dec. 4, 2024
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s support for Pete Hegseth, whom he announced as his pick for defense secretary shortly after Election Day, is wobbling after a crush of controversy over a rape allegation and a 2018 email from Mr. Hegseth’s mother accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward women.
Penelope Hegseth, who said in the email that her son “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around,” told a Fox News interviewer on Wednesday that she regretted sending the email and that Mr. Hegseth was no longer the person she lashed out at six years ago.
“Pete is a new person,” Mrs. Hegseth said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” She urged senators who will consider his nomination to listen to him now. “He’s redeemed, forgiven, changed.”
Her appearance was greeted with optimism by people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, who have told associates they believe it could help minimize some of the concerns about the swirl of allegations about sexual misconduct, drinking and financial mismanagement. They have also been encouraged by a burst of expressions of support for Mr. Hegseth from conservative activists on social media.
But Mr. Hegseth faces a series of tests on Wednesday that will be critical for his chances. He is set to continue his meetings with key senators, including Joni Ernst of Iowa, a combat veteran who has spoken about being sexually assaulted herself. He is also set to start defending himself on television.
“I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said keep going, keep fighting,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters as he arrived on Capitol Hill.
Asked whether he would back down amid reports that Mr. Trump was already talking to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida as a possible alternative, he said: “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter.”
Still, Mr. Trump’s allies fear that the public reporting about the president-elect’s private conversations with Mr. DeSantis, which were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, have emboldened Republican senators to question Mr. Hegseth’s viability.
Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who are both Trump loyalists, have called the allegations against Mr. Hegseth disturbing, even as they say he deserves a chance to tell his side of the story.
“We absolutely cannot have a secretary of defense that gets drunk on a regular basis,” Mr. Cramer told The Washington Post, adding, “I got to know that he’s got that problem licked.”
Mr. Trump has made clear to people close to him that he believes Mr. Hegseth should have been more forthcoming about the problems he would face getting confirmed, according to two people with knowledge of his thinking.
The combination of events could determine whether he hangs on as the expected nominee. Mr. Trump has had discussions with other people for the job, including Mr. DeSantis, whom he defeated in the Republican presidential primary and has had a contentious relationship with. Mr. Trump likes the story of bringing on someone he dominated publicly, and he talked about it with Mr. DeSantis on Tuesday at a service honoring three Florida sheriff’s deputies who were killed in a car crash.
But the number of people in Mr. Trump’s world who dislike and distrust Mr. DeSantis — and bitterly recall the campaign he ran against the president-elect — is vast. Those people are discussing other options, including whether Mike Waltz, the Florida congressman whom Mr. Trump picked as his national security adviser, could slide into the job, expecting he would be confirmed fairly easily by the Senate.
While criticizing Mr. Trump in the past has not always been an obstacle for his appointees, Mr. DeSantis threw aggressive jabs at Mr. Trump during the primary. They included a flip line about paying money to a porn star, which was the basis for an indictment against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump has spent little if any personal capital with senators trying to push Mr. Hegseth through. And the president-elect’s advisers are mindful in private discussions that Republican senators are trying to be respectful of Mr. Trump while not approving of a nominee who concerns them.
Mr. Hegseth, 44, could become the third Trump pick to step aside after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name for attorney general and Sheriff Chad Chronister pulled out of consideration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In the past two weeks, Mr. Hegseth has come under intense scrutiny. It was revealed that he had entered into a settlement agreement with a woman who accused him of rape in 2017; he had insisted it was a consensual encounter, and Mr. Trump told aides at the time that he wanted to stick with his announced nominee.
But the troublesome headlines, which Mr. Trump hates, only grew worse. The New York Times reported on the email his mother wrote him in 2018 as he was going through an acrimonious divorce, in which she told her son he had “abused” a number of women “in some way” over the years.
Mr. Trump has told people he was unhappy with the story about the email.
Mr. Hegseth was also the subject of a damning article in The New Yorker, which reported that he had been forced out as the head of two veterans’ groups because of his behavior. NBC News reported on Tuesday that Mr. Hegseth’s drinking worried his colleagues at Fox News.
It was unclear how extensive the vetting into Mr. Hegseth’s past was by Mr. Trump’s transition team.
Now the Trump team is watching closely how Mr. Hegseth and his mother perform in the interviews, knowing they will be critical for the Mr. Trump in deciding whether to stick with the former Fox News host and combat veteran whose qualifications to lead the Pentagon have come into question.
The perception from people close to Mr. Hegseth is that if he wants to save himself, he must perform well. The Trump team is particularly worried about female Republican senators breaking with Mr. Hegseth, and especially Ms. Ernst.
