When Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa told a mostly Republican audience Dec. 7 that she needed to hear more from Pete Hegseth to support him for defense secretary, she prominently added: “I am a survivor of sexual assault. I’ve worked very heavily on sexual assault measures within the military. So I’d like to hear a lot more about that.”
In linking Hegseth to the issue and acknowledging her own experiences, Ernst sent encouraging signals to those of us incredulous at Donald Trump’s choice of the Fox News anchor. It’s not just his lack of qualifications, his views against women in combat or gays in the military (he’s called those inclusions a “Marxist agenda”), or his apparent lack of control over his drinking. He paid a settlement to a woman who told police he sexually assaulted her in 2017 after she repeatedly said no to his overtures (some of which others had witnessed earlier that evening). The woman said Hegseth blocked her from leaving a hotel room and took her phone. He said the encounter was consensual and was not criminally charged.
Ernst, it should be remembered, is the first woman from Iowa elected to either house of Congress. She’s also the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, a lieutenant colonel with the Iowa National Guard during the Iraq War. She’s a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And she’s a sexual assault and domestic violence survivor who has called for believing victims.
After her early remarks on Hegseth, former Democratic Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in his Dec. 8 Substack column, “At the moment, Hegseth’s fate seems to rest with Iowa Republican Senator Jodi Ernst, a military veteran who has spent much of her time as a lawmaker working on improving how sexual attacks are reported and prosecuted within the ranks.” The column was titled, “Why under no circumstances should Pete Hegseth be entrusted with the U.S. military. But will Senate Republicans do their duty?”
More: Key GOP holdout Joni Ernst says she will ‘support’ Pete Hegseth through nomination process
Some of the optimism was short-lived. Two days after her initial remarks, Ernst said that she’d support Hegseth “through this process,” (the confirmation hearing), that she’d had encouraging conversations with him, and that he “will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.” Her staff didn’t clarify if she plans to vote for his confirmation. Ernst reportedly got fierce pushback for expressing doubts about Hegseth, with some Republicans threatening to work against her 2026 re-election. Conservative radio show host Dan Bongino called Ernst (and Sen. Lindsey Graham) “the biggest obstacles to Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s confirmation, saying, “it’s disgusting because … they’ve run on the Republican Party brand.” As Politico put it, “The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.”
In other words, the Republican Party is now fully synonymous with the Trump “brand,” which will close even tighter ranks around him than we saw after his impeachment hearings. It apparently took Ernst a day to figure that out concerning Hegseth, whose own brand should be antithetical to hers as she has defined it. Her initial response to a reporter’s question on Hegseth was, “I think for a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process.”
Now she’s saying, “I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.” But here’s the problem: His accuser did file a police report detailing the allegations, obtained by the media outlet Mediaite.com. But that woman is being threatened with a lawsuit by Hegseth’s lawyer if she shares her story openly.
I’ve believed Ernst’s own accounts of being abused, felt empathy for what she’s suffered, and appreciated her efforts in the Senate against violence against women. In an affidavit initially made public during 2019 divorce proceedings against her husband, she said he had demeaned and belittled her mentally and verbally during their 26-year marriage. She said he also physically assaulted her once so badly she fled to her mother’s house with her daughter in the middle of the night, but resisted a victim’s advocate advice to go to the hospital because of embarrassment. These are complicated decisions abuse victims face every day. Ernst has also shared an experience of being sexually assaulted by a college boyfriend, which she opted not to report to police at the time.
As a U.S. senator in 2018, she told CNN the stories of abused men and women need to be heard and believed: “Abuse is never OK. We need to send a very clear signal that it won’t be tolerated.”
More: What Sen. Joni Ernst’s experiences with domestic abuse can teach the rest of us
But she hasn’t always followed that policy herself. In the state Senate, Ernst voted against matching funds for violence-against-women programs and victim assistance grants. And in 2014, Kirsten Anderson, who was communications director for the Iowa Senate Republican caucus, filed suit after being fired the previous year, saying she repeatedly complained of sexual harassment by her male colleagues against female Senate staff members. The suit alleged that Ernst, then a state senator, and another female senator, had witnessed the behavior but did nothing about it. Ernst attacked Anderson’s credibility and said she was being used by political operatives. But Anderson won the case.
Accused candidates need to be thoroughly vetted. Iowa’s other U.S. senator, Chuck Grassley, who headed the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018, was accused of failing to do that during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process after Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against him became public. In a letter, the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights’ CEO wrote that “Grassley’s demand that the hearing be on his unjustified timetable, on having outside counsel question her, and his refusal to include outside witnesses are just a few examples of Senate Republicans bullying Dr. Blasey Ford and abdicating their responsibilities. His threat of holding a committee vote on Monday reveals his political motivations. Every senator must object to these bullying tactics immediately.”
Grassley was also criticized for failing to keep Blasey Ford’s identity secret as requested after she shared her allegations with Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Later, as she considered testifying, he posted public tweets chiding her delays.
She ultimately testified about a drunk 17-year-old Kavanaugh pushing her into a bedroom at a party, locking the door, climbing on top of her, pinning her down and trying to take off her clothes while covering her mouth with his hand. She was 15. After her testimony, an FBI investigation into her allegations was ordered, to be completed in a week. But it ended early without the FBI even interviewing her or following up with the people whose names she sent them to corroborate her story, including a therapist she had told. Kavanaugh was approved by a Senate vote of 50 to 48.
This year, after her book, “One Way Back,” was released, Blasey Ford said on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that she received some 60,000 letters of support from across the U.S. and 42 from abroad. “I think (people) will get behind leadership that will do it, and I think many people hopefully will become leaders themselves that will take on this problem,” she said.
More: In assessing Kavanaugh, Grassley must abide by his own standard for judges’ conduct
Since Trump’s election, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction.
The tone deafness on handling allegations of sexual abuses isn’t limited to one party. President Joe Biden eventually expressed regret for his 1991 handling of Anita Hill’s testimony alleging sexual harassment by Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas when Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also didn’t call additional witnesses who could have supported her claims. He opened his questioning of Hill expressing frustration over having to find seats for family members accompanying her. As Politico wrote, “she faced a panel made up entirely of white men. … Her claims were publicly dissected and often dismissed during the hearing.”
The Senate was created to be independent of the presidential administration. Hegseth’s nomination cries out for an impartial approach by Grassley as chair of the judiciary committee, and Senate Republicans need to show the country they won’t be intimidated by Trump’s henchmen. Now is also the time for Ernst to show she means what she says about fighting domestic and sexual violence, believing victims, and holding perpetrators accountable.
The nation and world are watching.
Rekha Basu is a longtime syndicated columnist, editorial writer, reporter and author of the book, “Finding Your Voice.” She retired in 2022 as a Des Moines Register columnist. Her column, “Rekha Shouts and Whispers,” is available at basurekha.substack.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley must be impartial on Pete Hegseth | Opinion
