Sen. James Lankford (R‑OK) pleaded with his fellow Senators to see past the “media noise” behind President-elect Donald Trump’s appointees and nominate them.
Trump’s decision to name Fox anchor Pete Hegseth as his Defense Secretary and former Department of Defense chief of staff Kash Patel as the FBI director prompted negative press about the two. While some outlets report innocuous clips from podcast interviews on Patel’s part, other outlets made allegations that Hegseth had a problem with alcohol while working at Fox, which has been heavily disputed by his former coworkers. Lankford dismissed all reports on Trump’s appointees in a Wednesday segment on Newsmax TV’s Wake Up America.
“All of us get the privilege of actually getting a chance to be able to meet them and to be able to walk through that. So there’s all the noise that’s out there, then there’s actually what’s happening on the Hill as people are one by one getting a chance to be able to meet with folks, as I’m doing later on today with several different nominees,” Lankford said. “At this point, let it play out. Let’s get past the media noise, and let’s actually do the constitutional process, and let’s actually support the president and who he’s actually trying to be able to pick to put next to him to be able to actually turn the country around.”
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Lankford admitted he has not met with Hegseth as he is not a member of the Armed Services Committee. However, Hegseth already has the public support of Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R‑TN), Markwayne Mullin (R‑OK), and Tommy Tuberville (R‑AL), among others.
Hegseth came under fire for his comments suggesting that military women shouldn’t serve in combat roles. He served tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.