Appearing from within the echo chamber of Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last week batted away the sexual assault and misconduct allegations dogging Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department.
“I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source,” Mr. Graham told Sean Hannity. “If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count.”
Some of Mr. Graham’s female colleagues had a different reaction.
“I have a lot of questions I want to ask Pete Hegseth,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “Obviously, I’m concerned about the allegations against him and his treatment of women.”
Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a survivor of sexual assault who has positioned herself as a leader on matters of sexual assault and the military, also took the accusations seriously, before she appeared to yield this week to a pressure campaign from the far right.
“A number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” Ms. Ernst said on Fox News.
The debate over Mr. Hegseth’s fitness to be confirmed has revealed a gender divide in the Senate, where a tiny group of Republican women have emerged as some of the only skeptics.
They have done so even as their male colleagues have rushed to sweep aside allegations against Mr. Hegseth of sexual assault, sexual impropriety in the workplace, public drunkenness and fiscal mismanagement.
Senator Tim Scott of Florida told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he was “disgusted” that the woman who alleged that Mr. Hegseth sexually assaulted her was not “willing to go on your show or some show and have you ask them all the questions.”
(Mr. Tapper pointed out that as part of a financial settlement Mr. Hegseth struck with the woman who accused him of raping her in 2017, she signed a nondisclosure agreement that would prevent her from doing that.)
Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, said as long as nothing else came out, he was satisfied with Mr. Hegseth and planned to support his confirmation.
“Are there any more surprises?” he said he asked Mr. Hegseth, who assured him that there would be none that were true. “I have no reason not to believe him about that.”
There are currently nine Republican women serving in the Senate, which is still made up mostly of old men. And there are even fewer women who have been willing to voice any potential concerns. Those who might be inclined to are further isolated by both the politics of the moment and the math of their newly won majority.
For one thing, Mr. Trump’s MAGA supporters have made it clear that they will try to exact political retribution against any holdouts to his agenda or desires, including by instigating a primary challenge to the offender.
In addition, Senate Republicans will hold a 53 to 47 majority in the next Congress, giving them a large enough cushion to weather some defections. Even if Ms. Ernst were to oppose Mr. Hegseth and be joined by the two other Republican women who have signaled they have questions — Ms. Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — that would not be enough to block his confirmation.
Things could change on a dime for Mr. Hegseth, who has yet to lock down the votes to be confirmed. But for the moment, it appears that, like Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh before him, he is on a path toward confirmation smoothed by tribal politics that have papered over the gender schism.
Ms. Ernst, who is up for re-election, indicated on Monday that she had found an off-ramp from her stated objections that could allow her to fall in line with her party and back Mr. Hegseth. She said Mr. Hegseth had committed to appointing a senior official “who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.”
And after days of hectoring and threats from Mr. Trump’s hard-right supporters, Ms. Ernst even picked up the “anonymous sources” critique used by the men in the Republican ranks, saying in a statement that “I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”
Ms. Collins has for years infuriated Trump critics by acting concerned but then doing what they see as too little to actually stand in his way.
“I’m preparing as I always do,” Ms. Collins told reporters on Monday of her meeting with Mr. Hegseth, scheduled for Wednesday. “What I most look forward to reading is the F.B.I. background check, which I always find to be illuminating.”
Both Ms. Ernst and Ms. Collins ultimately voted for the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh, whose accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier.
On Monday, Ms. Murkowski, the only Republican to vote against confirming Justice Kavanaugh, did not want to discuss Mr. Hegseth before their scheduled meeting on Tuesday.
“I’ve never met the man,” she said.
In a statement to The New York Times on Tuesday, a spokesman for Ms. Murkowski said she had concerns about the allegations against Mr. Hegseth that she hoped the vetting and public hearing process would help answer.
“The senator takes these allegations seriously,” said her spokesman, Joe Plesha. “This is why the F.B.I. conducts background checks to evaluate the allegations, and why the Senate provides advice and consent through a rigorous confirmation process.”
Gloria Allred, the famed women’s rights lawyer, said in an interview that the standard that Mr. Graham and other Republicans were taking — that anonymous allegations have no merit — reached beyond the bounds of the legal system.
“The courts don’t dismiss anonymous allegations,” she said. “They allow ‘Jane Does.’ A case can be litigated without an accuser’s name being public.”
“The accused knows who they settled with,” Ms. Allred noted. “And it’s not in their interest to say, ‘Yeah, so and so accused me, here’s their name.’”
The reality, she added, is that it would be excruciatingly difficult and potentially life-altering for an accuser against Mr. Hegseth to come forward publicly in the current political environment, in which MAGA forces have made it clear they will come down hard on anyone standing in the way of their agenda.
“There are actually people who still care about privacy — shocking but true,” Ms. Allred said. “Some of them don’t want their mothers to know they were assaulted or raped. They don’t want their co-workers to know. They don’t want to have their community or the world to know. That’s very important to them.”
Mr. Graham, who attacked Democrats for their treatment of Justice Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, said Republicans did not intend to allow Mr. Hegseth’s to go that far.
“His confirmation hearing,” Mr. Graham said on Tuesday, “should not be allowed to become a three-ring circus.”
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