Democratic National Committee (DNC) official Lindy Li shocked NewsNation host Markie Martin on Friday when she said she supported Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled pick for defense secretary.
Hegseth and Republican backers have made a full court offensive to try and charm senators and shore up support for his nomination, which has remained under intense scrutiny due to a growing list of controversies surrounding him. This week, however, he received a vote of confidence from an unlikely source.
“I think you were maybe looking for someone to oppose his nomination, but I’ve had personal interactions with—because I’ve been on Fox & Friends—I’ve met Pete, he’s my fellow Princetonian. I actually think he’s a pretty good guy,” Li said during her appearance on Morning in America.
Martin responded: “Wow, I was not expecting this from you Lindy.”
Li, a Democratic strategist who is also on the DNC’s finance committee, added: “I know, but fair is fair, right? I’m not here to gaslight anybody. I’m just here to present the facts as I know it. I know a lot of people are saying his nomination is in trouble, we’ll see. He’s definitely a fighter. As he told Megyn Kelly, he said Trump told him to be ‘tough as blank,’ and he’s certainly that way.”
Li highlighted Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, as the “lynchpin” for Hegseth’s U.S. Senate confirmation, saying, “We’ll just see if Joni Ernst can come around.”
Li later added that America is “the country of second chances” and urged senators to “keep an open mind” if Hegseth is really “a changed man.”
“This has never happened before when a nominee’s mom is going there to make the case for her son to say that he’s different, he’s changed, he’s committed to his family, he’s doubled down on his faith,” she said. “I think we should maybe extend a little bit of grace.”
Li, who has made several appearances on Fox & Friends following this year’s presidential election, made headlines for criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign as a “$1 billion disaster” and for saying that the Harris campaign took a “self-congratulatory” tone during a call with top donors last month.
“I’m just frankly stunned that there was no sort of post-mortem or analysis of how we can do better,” as a party, Li said during a previous NewsNation appearance. “It was really just patting each other on the back, congratulating each other for, I’m not sure what.”
Newsweek has reached out by email on Saturday morning to the DNC for comment.
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Hegseth Faces Multiple Allegations
When Trump announced that Hegseth, a former Fox News host and veteran, would lead the Department of Defense, initial criticism focused on Hegseth’s perceived lack of experience to hold one of the most significant roles in the country, if not the world.
Hegseth and his supporters have defended his resume, which includes degrees from Princeton and Harvard and intermittent service over 20 years in the Army National Guard, which included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, achieving the rank of major, and advocating for veterans.
However, Hegseth quickly found himself facing challenges to his character, starting with the revelation of a 2017 sexual assault allegation. Police never brought charges against Hegseth, and he has vigorously denied the allegations, but the further revelation that he paid the woman a settlement in 2020 over concerns that the allegation could cost him his job has only complicated the issue for him.
The New York Times then published an email that Hegseth received from his mother in 2018 that criticized his treatment of women. In the letter, Penelope Hegseth told her son that he needed to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” writing “on behalf of all women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way.”
This week, Penelope Hegseth spoke with Fox News’ Steve Doocy and defended her son, saying he is “a new person. He’s redeemed, forgiven, changed” and that he’s “not that man he was seven years ago.”
“And I hope people will hear that story today and the truth of that story,” his mother added.
However, this week also saw reports that Hegseth had a problem with excessive drinking, with 10 current and former Fox employees expressing concerns that included claims that “everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes” and that Hegseth would sometimes show up to work smelling of alcohol.
Hegseth again denied those allegations and promised to “fight like hell” to achieve confirmation, even as reports started to circulate that Trump was considering alternatives for the defense secretary nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
That changed somewhat on Friday as Trump came out in vocal support of Hegseth, writing on Truth Social that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
In a clip released ahead of his first post-election network interview, which will air Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Trump dismissed concerns about Hegseth’s reported drinking problems, telling host Kristen Welker he had received calls from senators to tell him they thought Hegseth was “fantastic.”
One of his final hurdles remains the support of senators, however. Trump admitted to Welker that he had received no assurances from any senators they would support Hegseth.
Ernst, a former U.S. Army National Guard member and retired lieutenant colonel, has made combating sexual harassment in the military a primary focus during her time on Capitol Hill, and indicated Thursday that she isn’t ready yet to support Hegseth for defense secretary.
“As Senator Ernst has said, she is not seeking to be secretary of defense, there is no ‘campaign’ against Pete, and is continuing the vetting process,’ a spokesperson for Ernst told Newsweek earlier this week.
