Sen. Susan Collins of Maine met with Pete Hegseth on Wednesday and said she pressed President-elect Trump’s choice to be the next Pentagon chief about allegations of mistreating women and heavy drinking, as well as military matters.

The allegations against Hegseth emerged after Trump announced his intent to nominate the former Fox News host and have prompted concerns among some senators about his fitness to serve.

Hegseth has been meeting with key senators who could be influential voices or swing votes on his nomination. Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the Senate and still have enough support to have a nominee confirmed, so all eyes are on Collins and a few other moderates who aren’t necessarily Trump loyalists.

In a brief interview Wednesday afternoon with the Press Herald, Collins said she met with Hegseth for an hour and 20 minutes and pressed him on “a wide range of policy questions as well as personal questions.” Topics ranged from military procurement reform, the role of women in the military, sexual assault in the military and his previous criticism of NATO.

Collins said she didn’t keep track of how long they discussed the personal allegations against Hegseth. She declined to characterize Hegseth’s response to her questions about the allegations and other topics.

“I’m not going to go into the details of our exchanges,” Collins said. “We covered a host of issues, and I didn’t divide up the time in segments dealing with allegations versus women in combat for example. I tried to cover virtually every important issue that I could in that period of time.”

Collins said she has not made a final decision about whether to support Hegseth.

“I obviously always wait until we have an FBI background check, and one is underway in the case of Mr. Hegseth,” Collins said. “And I wait to see the committee hearing before reaching a final decision.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks with reporters after meeting with Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Hegseth told reporters that he had a great meeting with Maine’s senior senator, saying they discussed the importance of ensuring that “this Pentagon is focused on war-fighting and lethality” and that soldiers “get what they need,” according to a video posted by Forbes on YouTube.

“I’m certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands,” Hegseth said. “This is a process we respect and appreciate. We hope that in time when we get through that committee to the floor that we can earn her support. It’s about earning that support in this process through ongoing conversations.”

OTHER TRUMP APPOINTEES

Collins was one of the Republican senators to express strong reservations about another Trump cabinet pick who later dropped out. She said she was shocked when Trump announced Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general.

Gaetz had been investigated for illicit drug use and inappropriate relationships with young women. Gaetz resigned from Congress and withdrew his name from consideration, effectively preventing the public release of a House ethics report and public questioning over the allegations.

But Collins has kept her powder dry on other controversial nominations, including Hegseth. But she has stressed the importance of fully vetting each nominee with background checks and public hearings, which is part of the Senate’s constitutional role to advise and consent.

In addition to Hegseth, those nominations include vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary; former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has been accused by Democrats of repeating Russian propaganda and 2017 statements of support for Syria’s Assad regime recently toppled by rebels, as director of national intelligence; and Kash Patel, who has expressed support for prosecuting Trump’s domestic opponents, as FBI director.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, is joined by his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, as they walk through the basement of the Capitol Wednesday. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Collins said she plans to meet with other nominees in the near future. She said she met Tuesday with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has been tapped to replace Gaetz as the AG nominee. Collins said she was “very impressed” with Bondi and the two discussed illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine that have been linked to Chinese operators.

“I’m obviously happy that Matt Gaetz is not the nominee for attorney general anymore,” Collins said. “(Bondi) appears to be a well-qualified replacement. But even in the case of Bondi, I will wait until the background check by the FBI is done and the committee hearing is done before making a final decision.”

‘PEOPLE ARE NOT PERFECT’

Trump announced on Nov. 23 that he plans to nominate Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as his defense secretary. Following that announcement, reports emerged about Hegseth’s alleged mistreatment of women and heavy drinking.

Hegseth was accused of raping a woman in 2017 at a Republican women’s conference in California. Hegseth said the encounter was consensual, fully investigated and resulted in no charges being filed, though he did reach a settlement with his accuser.

The New York Times reported that Hegseth’s own mother sent him an email in 2018, criticizing his treatment of women, as he was going through his second divorce. Hegseth got a divorce from his second wife, with whom he has three children, after an affair with a Fox News co-worker who got pregnant and to whom he’s now married.

Hegseth’s mother has since disavowed her statements and has defended her son.

Hegseth’s former colleagues have reportedly expressed concerns about his drinking habits, questioning whether he will be able to serve in an around-the-clock capacity in a role where decisions can have global consequences. Hegseth has said he will quit drinking if confirmed.

The Press Herald asked Collins how important things like personal character, a strong moral compass, integrity and temperance are for such an important nominee and to address concerns about someone who has been accused of sexual assault also being responsible for ending sexual assault in the military.

Collins said those traits “certainly weigh in my consideration” and then criticized Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for not publicly disclosing that he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Collins noted that he didn’t transfer authority to his deputy during the first treatment, but did during the second.

“To me that showed a lack of judgment on Secretary Austin’s part,” she said. “Obviously people are not perfect, but I do certainly weigh qualifications and integrity, experience and policy – all of those are important, and they’re one of the reasons I have been consistent there be FBI background checks as part of this process.”

HEGSETH SHORES UP SUPPORT

Hegseth’s nomination appeared to be in jeopardy, as Trump remained silent and some Senate Republicans expressed concerns about the allegations. But Trump has since reaffirmed his support for Hegseth, and his supporters have mounted a public pressure campaign on wavering senators, threatening to primary any Republican senator who votes against any of Trump’s nominations.

Even Sen. Joni Ernst, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Iowa National Guard and sexual assault survivor, has set aside her concerns and announced this week that she plans to support his nomination.

This is not the first time Collins has been in the spotlight regarding a Trump nomination.

While she’s been critical of Trump and not supported his three presidential campaigns, Collins was a key vote in getting Brett Kavanaugh appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh apparently won Collins’ support after a private meeting in which she said Kavanaugh assured her that abortion protections afforded under Roe v. Wade for 50 years was settled law.

Kavanaugh would go on to join the conservative majority to overturn those protections in 2022, leading many Republican controlled states to restrict or ban abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.

Maine Democrats on Wednesday criticized Collins for entertaining Hegseth’s nomination despite telling a local TV station last week that she was concerned about the allegations made against him.

“Being concerned is not enough when it comes to protecting our military service members,” Maine Democratic Party Chair Bev Uhlenhake said in a written statement. “Susan Collins cannot wait, she must show courage and speak out now to stop this unqualified and unfit nominee from leading the Department of Defense, our single largest government agency, where the lives of Maine soldiers are on the line every day.”

TRUMP SUPPORTERS THREATEN PRIMARIES

While some are threatening to support primary opponents to challenge Republicans who don’t support Trump’s nominees, even faithful Trump supporters are nervous about challenging Collins in a primary.

A discussion on X, formerly Twitter, about calls by some critics for Republican primaries against Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, is filled with doubts that any other Republican besides Collins could win one of Maine’s two Senate seats.

Collins, who is the only Republican from New England in Congress, is planning to seek reelection in 2026.

With Republicans in control of the Senate, she will chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, where she will play a key role in negotiating spending priorities of the incoming Trump administration, including earmarks for projects here in Maine.

Collins told the Press Herald that the meeting did not make her more or less likely to support Hegseth.

“I’m in the same position I was prior to the interview,” she said. “It’s a valuable piece of the process to have spent so much time talking to him one-on-one. I had never met him before, so it was valuable to be able to question him at such length in my office.”