'Terrified': Senator describes death threats lobbed at Republicans who opposed Hegseth

24 January

Despite Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's narrow confirmation in the U.S. Senate, MAGA could still harbor a grudge against the three Senate Republicans who voted down President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon.

According to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (R-Ill.), both her fellow colleagues and Hegseth's ex-wife have been the target of Trump supporters' rage. Duckworth — an Iraq War combat veteran — told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that Hegseth's opponents have come under a "torrent" and a "deluge" of attacks by the far right. While Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who is also a military veteran, signaled she may vote against Hegseth, she ultimately voted in favor of his confirmation.

"Joni Ernst received so many threats and attacks outright, you know, threatening her, saying that they would primary her all the way through to threats against her own security," Duckworth said.

"Pete Hegseth's second wife, you know, lives in fear. She has young children... She's under a [non-disclosure agreement]. She had to have a safe word because she was so afraid of him," she continued. "If you talk to sexual assault survivors, domestic violence survivors, they are terrified. And they're not going to speak out against their abusers."

While Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced earlier this week they would be voting against the confirmation of the Fox News part-time weekend host, former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined his two Republican colleagues on Friday. Duckworth told Maddow that while she was glad there were "at least three Republicans who have put the well-being of our nation above themselves," she lamented that Hegseth was the first defense secretary in U.S. history to have needed a tie-breaking vote from the vice president to be confirmed.

"The last company that he ran... he so badly bungled their finances, they had to bring in a forensic accountant to figure out what he did with the $10 million budget, and now they're going to put him in charge of a $900 billion Pentagon budget," Duckworth said. "It's a sad day for our nation, I fear for the military. I fear for our national security."

Watch the video of Duckworth's comments below, or by clicking this link.

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