Key GOP Senator Solicited Testimony Against Pete Hegseth, Then Voted to Confirm Him Anyway

Just days before casting the vote that clinched Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina reportedly urged Hegseth’s former sister-in-law to testify against him.

Tillis reassured Deborah Hegseth, the ex-wife of Pete’s brother, that her damning statement would likely persuade three Republican senators—Tillis included—to vote against the former Fox News host’s confirmation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The senator then voted to approve Hegseth, even as Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska cast their promised “no” votes.

In her sworn statement, which detailed allegations that Hegseth regularly drank to the point of throwing up and passing out, Deborah Hegseth said she was only coming forward, and exposing herself to “public scrutiny,” because someone had assured her that her testimony would tip the scales against Hegseth.

Contacted by the Journal, Tillis did not dispute that “someone” was him: Deborah’s statement “did carry weight,” he said, “which is why I communicated my concerns to the White House and spent days doing my due diligence.” But he was ultimately not persuaded by the testimony because he could not find other firsthand witnesses to corroborate it, he claimed.

Tillis’s quiet about-face casts new light on the fractious battle over Hegseth’s confirmation, which will likely shape defense and military policy for years. An army veteran and former Fox News host with no relevant leadership experience, Hegseth faced a litany of sexual assault and misconduct allegations, all of which he vehemently denied.

The testimony from his former sister-in-law was particularly damning: For almost 10 years, she said, Hegseth repeatedly drank to the point of becoming erratic and aggressive, once prompting his second wife, Samantha, to hide in a closet for her safety. Deborah’s statement said that Hegseth also repeatedly threw up after drinking and passed out from drunkenness at bars and family gatherings. Hegseth denied his former sister-in-law’s version of events, describing her as a “lifelong Democrat” who is prone to exaggeration. His ex-wife issued a statement denying any physical abuse in their marriage. The new defense secretary has acknowledged a past drinking problem, however, and told senators he would stop drinking if he got the Pentagon job.

Those and similar allegations initially seemed likely to sink Hegseth’s nomination—after all, only four Republican senators needed to defect. But one by one, most of Hegseth’s critics got in line: Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and, of course, Tillis himself. In addition to Collins and Murkowski, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined Democrats in opposing Hegseth. Late Friday evening, Hegseth became only the second cabinet secretary in history, after Betsy DeVos, to advance after a tied vote in the Senate.

In justifying his vote, Tillis said he spoke to Hegseth for nearly two hours and found him “very, very gracious.” That explanation didn’t appear to fly with Collins or Murkowski, who could be seen huddling with Tillis after the vote in animated conversation. Nor did it seem to hold much water with Deborah Hegseth, who said in a statement that the confirmation would “make women who have experienced abuse and mistreatment even less forthcoming” in the future.