Warning: this episode contains strong language.Over the past few weeks, the resistance of a single Republican senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, had threatened to derail Donald J. Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense.Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The Times, and Jonathan Swan, who covers politics, discuss how Mr. Trump and his allies ensured that Ms. Ernst’s resistance went away.Guest: Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The New York Times, with a focus on national security.Jonathan Swan, a Times reporter covering politics and Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.Background reading: Mr. Trump became convinced that letting Mr. Hegseth fail would set off a feeding frenzy among senators.Ms. Ernst, who is facing re-election in 2026, appeared less skeptical about the pick after MAGA supporters threatened her with political retribution.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Full Episode
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Over the past few weeks, the resistance of a single Republican senator has threatened to derail Donald Trump's controversial choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense. Today... Karin Demersian and Jonathan Swan with the story of how Trump and his allies ensured that that senator's resistance quickly went away.
It's Monday, December 16th. Karin, in your role as a congressional reporter, you have been closely tracking the fate of Trump's pick to run the U.S. military, Pete Hegseth, a pick that was controversial from the start but has become only more controversial over the past couple of weeks.
Right. I think everyone was pretty surprised when President-elect Trump picked a Fox News host to be his next secretary of defense. And the surprise turned into discomfort for a lot of people and shock as allegations started coming out about these fairly sordid details from his past. First, it was an accusation that he had committed sexual assault.
And then after that, it became this article for The New Yorker, which alleged that he was... Drinking on the job and harassing female employees and was mismanaging the veterans nonprofits that he was running. In the middle of all that, there was this email that cropped up that his mother had written him in 2018, calling him an abuser of women and telling him what a reprehensible person he was.
And so as that mountain of allegations grew... there started to be more senators, including some of Trump's allies, who started to express real discomfort with having to back this guy, or at least with the fact that they were having to grapple with these allegations and, you know, calling them disturbing, calling them troublesome.
And that's a problem for Trump because even though Senate Republicans are going to take the majority in the new year, it's a very slim majority. they cannot afford to lose more than three of their own if they actually want to get these nominees confirmed. And it becomes clear that there's really one senator who has the potential to swing things one way or another.
It's a senator whose whole brand, basically, has been built on these issues around which Hegseth is having problems with these allegations. And that senator is Joni Ernst of Iowa.
Well, just explain that. Tell us about Senator Joni Ernst and how her career ends up so at odds with Hexeth.
So when Joni Ernst runs for the Senate a decade ago, a centerpiece of her campaign is the fact that she's a combat veteran. And she's one of the first generation of female combat veterans. And she's actually becomes the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate. There have been others since, but she breaks that glass ceiling.
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