Ernst Says She’ll Confer With Hegseth After Trump Avers Support

A Republican senator crucial to Pete Hegseth’s chances of being confirmed as secretary of Defense said she would meet with him again next week and “that he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our warfighters at a fair hearing.”

Joni Ernst of Iowa, who earlier this week had pointedly declined to say if she’d advance Hegseth’s nomination, made the announcement in a Friday evening post on X — hours after President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his support.

Joni Ernst

Photographer: Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg

Not long afterward, Hegseth said in his own X post that “I just had another substantive conversation with Senator ...