I was eight months pregnant with my second child — a boy — when Christine Blasey Ford sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and bravely recalled the trauma she claimed she endured at the hands of soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. My son was kicking my ribs as I fought back tears while Ford testified that the laughter from the man who allegedly sexually assaulted her was “indelible in the hippocampus.”
“The details about that night that bring me here today are ones I will never forget,” she said, her voice shaking at times. “They have been seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult.”
Despite accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence, yet another man has been buoyed by lawmakers and members of Congress to occupy one of the highest offices of federal government.
Six years later, as Pete Hegseth is confirmed as President Donald Trump’s next defense secretary, those details are haunting my memory, too. Because despite accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence, yet another man has been buoyed by lawmakers and members of Congress to occupy one of the highest offices of federal government — seemingly unscathed, confident and with an all-too-familiar smirk.
The allegations levied against the former Fox News host have so far apparently been far from disqualifying. In 2017, Hegseth was investigated for sexual assault by California authorities after a woman accused him of raping her at a Monterey hotel. The woman, referred to in the case as Jane Doe, claimed Hegseth “blocked the door” to the hotel room “with his body” and, according to a police report from the Monterey California Police Department, she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot.” She later went to the hospital because she believed she had been sexually assaulted by Hegseth. According to authorities, she underwent a rape kit and had contusions on her right thigh.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied the allegations, and in 2018 Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni declined to pursue the case after determining that “no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Hegseth later paid the woman a $50,000 settlement, according to written answers he provided to Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the vetting process for his slated role as defense secretary. Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, confirmed a settlement payment had been made but declined to confirm the amount.
During his confirmation hearing, Hegseth described the allegations as a “coordinated smear campaign,” arguing that he is innocent but “not a perfect person.”
“But redemption is real,” Hegseth continued, adding that he has been “saved by the grace of God” and his current wife, Jennifer Rauchet.
Like Kavanaugh, who claimed he was the victim of a “political hit” orchestrated by a “frenzy on the left,” Hegseth has tended to blame “left-wing media” for turning him into a victim of a “smear campaign” orchestrated by “anonymous sources.” And like Kavanaugh — for whom Trump’s first administration reportedly heavily controlled the FBI investigation into Ford’s allegations — the soon-to-be secretary of defense appears to be sailing through a contentious confirmation hearing despite an FBI background check and investigation that Democratic Sen. Jack Reed has said was “insufficient.”
We are once again watching a sitting president of the United States — who himself has faced (and denied) many allegations of sexual misconduct and has been found liable for sexual abuse — come to the defense of a controversial nominee. In 2019, Trump argued that Kavanaugh should “start suing people for libel,” adding that the “lies being told about him are unbelievable.” On Friday morning, ahead of Hegseth’s seemingly inevitable confirmation, Trump described Hegseth as a “good man.”
“Pete’s a very, very good man,” the president said. “I hope he makes it; I hope he makes it.”
Hegseth has indeed “made it” — even after Armed Services Committee members received a sworn affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, claiming his second wife feared for her personal safety during their marriage, at one point hiding from her then-husband in a closet. (Hegseth denied the allegations and, in a statement to NBC News, his ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, said there was “no physical abuse in my marriage.”)
As was the case with Kavanaugh, only two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — are willing to break from party lines.
Sen. Mike Rounds told reporters that the affidavit “doesn’t change anything,” adding that it’s just another instance of a “third party coming in saying something which is directly contradictory to what the individual they’ve identified has said.” As was the case with Kavanaugh, only two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — are willing to break from party lines.
“If you think Vladimir Putin or anyone else isn’t watching this circus of Pete Hegsteh and laughing at how we’re putting someone so uniquely unqualified by their disposition and their experience, you have another think coming,” Sen. Jacky Rosen told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera.
“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter,” Ford once said, “the uproarious laughter between the two [men] and their having fun at my expense.”
In 2018, after two of his former White House aides quit amid accusations of domestic violence, Trump claimed men’s lives are being “shattered and destroyed by mere allegations.”
“Some are true and some are false,” he tweeted at the time. “Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career gone.”
When applied to Pete Hegseth’s confirmation, Trump’s statement is a proven lie.
Instead, Hegseth’s confirmation serves as a continuation of Trump and the Republican Party’s ongoing victimhood campaign. With every credible accusation of rape, assault or violence comes a wave of “woe is me” declarations at war with their hyper-masculine facades. Men like Kavanaugh, Hegseth and Trump are at once the epitome of rugged virility and perpetually fragile targets of so-called “dangerous” women. It has become a feature, not a bug, of many far-right heroes to receive accusations of gender-based violence — a sure-fire way to fail upward while being hailed as a conquering hero, leaving a trail of Jane Does in their wake.
I’m now five weeks postpartum with my third child — a girl — as I once again watch a man accused of violence against women ascend to a powerful political position. Instead of a kick to the ribs, I am navigating sleepless nights and breastfeeding pains as I grapple with the inescapable reality that not much has changed when it comes to the ways society views my sons and now my daughter.
I could hope — against my better judgment and against all evidence to the contrary — that, after another six years pass, things will look very different. I can hope that accusations of assault against men in positions of power will carry more weight and require more than perfunctory inquiries or mild concern.
But even if that is the case, and we demand more of our elected officials and their Cabinet and judicial appointees, the details of what society has come to accept will undoubtedly remain “indelible in the hippocampus” of this country’s collective psyche.
