Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Sunday he “absolutely” believes defense secretary candidate Pete Hegseth's sexual assault accusers.
Marin appeared on CNN's Dana Bash's “State of the Union” and spoke about President-elect Trump's selection and the doubts surrounding his nomination.
The two have been at loggerheads for a while, as Marin has been a vocal supporter of Hegseth and said he spoke with Hegseth about a recently released police report detailing that he had sexual contact with the woman he was accused of assaulting in 2017. We got into an argument.
Marin began discussing the police report, arguing on behalf of Hegseth that it was actually the woman who took them back to Hegseth's hotel room that night.
Bash interjected, pointing out that Marin answered her question “to some degree” about whether he believed Hegseth's side of the story more than his accuser's.
“I absolutely think so,” Marin said. “He wasn't charged. He wasn't charged with anything. No crime was committed in this case. The police put everything out there.”
“Unfortunately, in today's world, you can be accused of anything, and especially in something like this, you're automatically assumed guilty,” Mullin said. continued.
He said he read the police report “from cover to cover” and determined that no crime had been committed.
“The American people have given President Trump a mandate. They have this mandate because they want to change the way government has been run,” Mullin said. “The government works for the political party, not the people, and President Trump is putting people there who are going to make a difference.”
A police report released last week details a sexual encounter between Hegseth and a woman in California, in which the woman said Hegseth took the woman's cellphone, pressed his body against her and forced her to leave. He claims that he blocked the entrance with his body to prevent him from getting caught.
