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Senator Lindsey Graham<\/strong> has declared that allegations against defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth,<\/strong> which include rape<\/a>, don\u2019t \u201ccount\u201d because they\u2019ve come from anonymous sources, one day after calling the accusations \u201cvery disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to Sean Hannity<\/strong> on Wednesday, Graham declared: \u201cI\u2019ve known Pete\u00a0for a long time. I served with him in Afghanistan. The people over there said nothing but great things about him. The allegations against Pete are all anonymous sources. I am not gonna make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you\u2019re not willing to raise your hand under oath and make the accusation, it doesn\u2019t count. I\u2019ve heard everything about all these people\u2014none of it counts.\u201d<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the Daily Beast notes<\/a>, neither Graham nor Hannity felt the need to acknowledge that the 2017 rape accusation\u2014which Hegseth denies and which did not result in charges\u2014was made by a woman who ultimately signed a nondisclosure agreement<\/a> after being paid to keep the story quiet, meaning she is likely barred from speaking about the matter. The New York Times<\/em> revealed<\/a>\u00a0last week, too, that during Hegseth\u2019s second divorce, his own mother, who is very much not anonymous, told him that he \u201cabused\u201d women and should \u201cget some help and take an honest look\u201d at himself. (Hegseth\u2019s mother told the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0she \u201chad sent her son an immediate follow-up email at the time apologizing for what she had written.\u201d)<\/p>\n Elsewhere, the former Fox News host was accused in a whistleblower report, obtained by The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> of allegedly \u201cbeing repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity [as president of Concerned Veterans for America]\u2014to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization\u2019s events.\u201d The report also claimed that \u201cHegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team,\u201d and that, while married, he \u201csexually pursued the organization\u2019s female staffers.\u201d (In response to\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u2019s report, Hegseth\u2019s lawyer sent a statement from \u201can adviser\u201d to the nominee that read: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth\u2019s. Get back to us when you try your first attempt at actual journalism.\u201d) The identity of a whistleblower is often kept anonymous in order to shield them from retribution; Donald Trump<\/strong> and a number of people he\u2019s nominated to serve in his second administration have vowed<\/a> to use the power of the federal government to get back at perceived enemies.<\/p>\n Graham\u2019s remarks to Hannity would likely come as a surprise to the Graham of one day prior, who told CBS News on Tuesday that some of the reports detailing accusations against Hegseth were \u201cvery disturbing\u201d and \u201cgoing to be difficult\u201d to defend against.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nX content<\/h4>\n