C-SPAN Shoots Down House Republican Calling Hegseth Rape Allegation ‘Anonymous’: ‘He Paid A Settlement — He Does Know Who It Is’

C-SPAN host Mimi Geerges pushed back when Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) referred to rape allegations against Pete Hegseth  — President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to run the Department of Defense — as “anonymous,” reminding him Hegseth paid his accuser a settlement.

Hegseth’s chances of being confirmed have been hampered by developments like new details about a rape allegation over which he previously paid a financial settlement without admitting guilt, a 2018 email from his mother in which she called him “an abuser of women,” a devastating whistleblower report, and allegations of excessive drinking, including on the job.

But Hegseth has soldiered on with Trump’s support and has been meeting with lawmakers again this week.

On Wednesday’s edition of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Geerges asked McCormick about his meeting with Hegseth, but interrupted when the congressman characterized the allegations against Hegseth as “anonymous”:

MIMI GEERGES: I want to ask you about Mr. Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Obviously, you’ve served for many years in the in the Marine Corps, in the Navy and have been in combat zones. So I want to ask you specifically about him. I believe you guys met. You met with some other House members. How did that go and what are your thoughts on him?

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: It was really a positive meeting. He met with the RC, the largest body of Republicans, about 170 members. Not everybody was there, but we also had several senators in his support there who had spoken to him who had would looked into the accusations.

He did a really good job of shoring up against those accusations, which are anonymous, which nobody at Fox will say anything like.

I don’t know what he’s talking. I don’t know what they’re talking about when they talk about these anonymous complaints. He doesn’t know what’s talking about his wife doesn’t know what’s going on. Well, they’re all kind of like just show me who it is and let’s address it, because I don’t know who it is. And so

MIMI GEERGES: You’re talking about the allegations of sexual assault.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: Yeah – mm-hmm.

Okay. But so he paid a settlement. So he does know who it is.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: No, he didn’t know who it is. And he’s saying to us, it’s an empty– it’s an empty allegation of an anonymous tip. That’s that’s not the same thing.

And so that’s that’s why I heard the same thing as you and I had my concerns. But that’s not what we were told in conference. We were told, no, these are anonymous tips. We don’t know where they came from.

MIMI GEERGES: I want to ask you about the drinking.

Watch above via C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.