but hegseth's attorney, tim palatore, said last month that the nda is no longer in effect. >> i senter attorney that that agreement is no longer has any force in effect, so there is no nda to release her from. and if if she wants to go and talk about it, she can do it. i mean, certainly she would do it at her own peril of a further defamation lawsuit. laura: given your experience, gretchen, as a survivor of sexual harassment in the workplace, why do you believe that eradicating nondisclosure agreements is critical? gretchen: first of all, that is, you could argue, is witness tampering with a threat that he will let you out of your nda. but if you do speak, we'll sue you for defamation and you know you will be in more trouble. i mean, that is -- that's the old school way of approaching survivors. number two, this this woman has been in hiding ever since this story came to light because she's seen what happens to women when they come forward. we have made great strides but women are still penalized. and so this is not about her not wanting to tell her story. the greatest solution for t

holker writing in her book that an nda was needed in order to protect the privacy of her late husband9 -- the first place is to keep sensitive information completely private. it's extremely rare for family members to be asked to sign an nda about a deceased family member. >> now, meanwhile, holker hopes sharing her story will help other people recognize what she said were missed red flags. move magazine is out now, and proceeds will fund a mental health organization. and listen up, in you or someone is struggling, you can call or text 988 for 24/7 support, but certainly a lot of people talking about this. >> rhiannon: really sad to see them feuding like this. >> gio: it is. >> whit: thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> coming up here on "gma," espn's sam acho joins us to size up the teams in the college football playoff national championship. that's ahead. joins us to size teams in the national football championship. that's ahead. so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. i'm getting prevnar 20 because pneumococcal pneumonia could put me in the hospital and my risk is

labeled as an nda. so i have a hard time understanding how this became on a local state level, what it would be a federal issue. wouldn't that fall under the supremacy clause? >> first of all, you're trying to do something called mental gymnastics, and the reason you can't understand it is because it's unthinkable. it is not founded in any law. we even had decisions about immunity. yet there were witnesses allowed to come in and testify about things that happened outside the oval office. president trump was not even there. this was a trump administration person in accounting plugging away on quickbooks who labeled a legal expense as a legal expense. and somehow our president, our former president and our future president was attacked by a man who put a gag order on him because he didn't want anyone to know the discrepancies of his family or anybody else. and that is a disgrace. you can't figure this out because the statute of limitations, of course they ran. so did they with letitia james. and just yest

truly interested in what happened, and i also will say that, you know, pete hegseth signed her to an ndary single one supported the legislation that gretchen and i put forward, called the speak out act, which eradicates pre-dispute ndas for sexual misconduct. >> like this. and every single one of them gave wonderful statements and speeches about how this is a forward for sexual assault survivors, and how this is a new day for the metoo movement. well, if they truly believe what they voted for and they truly believe what they said, they should give the survivor the benefit of the doubt and have her come speak to them privately and just share her information with them. and armed with that information, they can then make a determination as to which kind of questions to ask. pete hegseth, at the hearing, gretchen, i want to pick up on a point that julie was just making about, you know, what happens to women in this situation when they do want to speak that truth to power? >> what what is it about the fact that even today, in the face of everything that we've seen, everything that we've learn

to get out of their ndas and to tell their truth. so, from our perspective, the very same senators who unanimously voted for this legislation and also something called the ending forced arbitration for sexual assault and sexual harassment act, which also gives women back their voice. these senators unanimously voted for both these bills and gave brilliant floor speeches about how they wanted survivors to come forward, how they wanted to give survivors back their voices, how they wanted survivors to own their own truth. and yet you have a report in the new yorker today that senator ernst and senator collins refused to meet with the sexual assault survivor, who claims that pete hegseth assaulted her in monterey, california, that the fbi never interviewed her, that fresh complaint witnesses were never called to testify. and the one thing i have to say about this hearing that's deeply disappointing is that nobody said that we need to bring the survivor in to tell us what happened to her behind closed doors. >> why do you think that didn'

despite the fact that the sources behind some of these accusations include a woman under an nda, seth'st fox, and even his own mom, who wrote an email in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women. joining me now is retired army major general paul eaton, senior advisor to votevets and msnbc political analyst, and former senator claire mccaskill, who once served on the armed services committee. i'm going to start with you, claire. you know, they did everything but walk over and hug him. the republicans, you worked with some of these people. is it just fear of primaries? because apparently joni ernst, she just got off the radio with a guy named simon conway in des moines and indicated that despite it all, she's down for him. she's going to support him. does this surprise you? and what is going on with your former colleagues? >> yeah, i'm disappointed in joni because joni, first of all, knows about women in the military and the challenges they have faced because she lived it in some painful ways. so i'm disappointed she's overlooking some of the obvious character flaws this man represen

the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her some money to make sure she did not file a complaint. moving on. as secretary you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform code of military justice. in addition to the sexual assault allegations and by the way, the answer to my second question should have been yes. i have read multiple reports of you regularly being drunk at work including by people who worked with you at fox news. do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the ucmj? yes or no. mr. hegseth: those are multiple falls anonymous reports peddled by nbc news in direct contradiction to the people on the fox news channel who i worked with on the record and said i never did that. >> do you commit to holding leaders accountable at all levels, that includes you? frankly as secretary you will be on the job 24/7. you recently promised some of my republican colleagues that you stopped drinking, will not drink if confirmed, correct? mr. hegset

him putting on a drop-down on a computer legal expense when he paid a lawyer to have a woman sign an nda travesty you get that. jail for 34 felonies it's ridiculous. >> the president-elect said people saw the trial first-hand and that they been watching the trial and voted decisively. that was the line 77 million voted he won all seven swing states more real vote total of any republican president by rock out then anybody in history of republicans. there is a verdict of the american people he watched at this they thought it was a sham they elected the man u.s. president in huge numbers. today was the final nail in the coffin all because it was a talking point sentencing they just wanted to say convicted felon ahead of inauguration day. there was a brilliant piece in "new york" magazine where he laid out what was wrong with this. you have a judge who donated $35 to a probe item group and earmarked it to resisting the republican party and donald trump's radical right-wing the legacy. the d.a. ran on the fact that he is sue trump a hundred times though politically motivated d.a. and judge re

there is hundreds of nda's congress doesn't want you to see. the senator from virginia still on his high horse. >> many of your colleagues have said you show up for work under the influence of alcohol are drug. i knew you donated but you would agree with me if that was the case that would be disqualifying for someone to be secretary of defense. >> senator those are all anonymous false claims. >> at this point republicans and the committee had enough of the hypocrisy. >> the senator starts bringing up the fact that what if you should have drawn to your job. how many senators have shown up drunk to vote at night? have any of you guys ask them to step down and resign for their job? and don't tell me you haven't seen it because i know you have. how many senators dino have gotten a divorce for cheating on their wives? did you ask them to step down? no. but its first show. you guys major you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because a men's made a mistake. and you want to sit there and say he's in a qualified. >> congress opened up a cantee

because he put on a drop-down on a computer legal expense when he paid a lawyer to have a woman sign an ndat you get no jail for 34 felony's. ridiculous. >> sandra: kayleigh, the president-elect said the people saw this trial first-hand. he went on to say they have been watching your trial and they voted decisively. >> kayleigh: that was the line of the entire sentencing. 77 million people plus voted on president trump, won all seven swing states, more raw votes total of any republic and president in terms of raw count than anyone in history of republicans. there was the american people who watch this, they thought it was a sham and thought . today was the last vestige of lawfare, the final nail in the coffin at all because it was a talking point sentencing. they just wanted to be able to say convicted felon ahead of inauguration day. cnn rode a brilliant piece in "new york" magazine, and he laid out what was wrong all of this, a judge, this judge donated $35 to a pro-biden group, not only that he earmarked it to resisting the r. the d.a. ran on the fact that i assume donald trump. you have

. >> you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her. >> yes or no? did you say yes or no? completely mischaracterized. you've never let an audit a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign. because i'm a change agent and a threat to them. >> hegseth can afford to lose three republican senators. republican senator joni ernst of iowa previously appeared ready to vote against him, but yesterday announced her support. a vote is expected early next week. a new survey shows most americans have doubts about federal law enforcement agencies under the incoming trump administration, according to a poll from the associated press, about 1 in 5 u.s. adults is confident the justice department will act fairly while mr. trump is in office. the report also says most americans do not approve of the president elect's cabinet picks and have a more negative than positive view of key nominees. >> time is 709. we're finally seeing some improvement. there were two crashes on the richmond bridge, and for a while it kept looking up at the pictu

. >> you entered into an nda, paid a person who accused you of raping her. >> republican senator jonirnst herself a sexual assault survivor and who many believe is a key vote to hegseth's confirmation followed up. >> will you appoint a senior level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and response? >> yes, i will. >> then, there will were also allegations of past alcohol abuse. >> your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from hold anything leadership position in the military much less being confirmed as a secretary of defense. >> a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign because i'm a change agent and a threat to them. >> republicans were quick to come to his defense. >> how many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? [laughter] have any of you guys asked them to step down? >> pete hegseth spent nearly 20 years as national guardsmen and oversaw two veterans nonprofit organizations. >> an independent forensic accountant discovered evidence of gross financial mismanagement. >> a problem given the pent

. >> you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her. >> republican senator jonirnst, herself a sexual assault survivor and who many believe is a key vote to higgs's confirmation, followed up. >> will you appoint a senior level official dedicated to sexual assault prevention and response? >> yes i will. then there were also allegations of past alcohol abuse. >> your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the secretary of defense. >> a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign. because i'm a change agent and a threat to them. >> republicans were quick to come to his defense. >> how many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? have any of you guys asked him to step down? >> pete hegseth spent nearly 20 years as a national guardsman and oversaw two veterans nonprofit organizations. >> an independent forensic accountant discovered evidence of gross financial mismanagement, a problem given the pentagon's nearly $850 bi

there's hundreds of ndas that congress doesn't want you to see. the senator from virginia, still on his high horse. >> many of your work colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk. i know you've denied that, but you would agree with me, right? that if that was the case, that would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense. >> senator, those are all anonymous false claims at this point. >> republicans on the committee had had enough of the hypocrisy. >> watch the senator from virginia starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job? how many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job? and don't tell me you haven't seen it because i know you have. and then how many senators do you know have gotten a divorce before cheating on their wives? did you ask them to step down? no, but it's for show. you guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake, a

think completely cleared is accurate but the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint. moving on. as secretary you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform code of military justice, ucmj. in addition to the sexual assault allegations, by the way the answer to my second question should have been yes. i have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work. including by people who worked with you at fox news. do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the ucmj. >> senator, those are multiple false, anonymous reports peddled by nbc news that run directly contradictory to the dozens of 34e7b and women at fox news channel who went on the record and said they've never seen that. >> do you commit to holding leaders accountable at all levels? that includes you, of course. frankly as secretary you will be on the job 24/7. you recently promised some of my republican colleagues that yo

completely cleared is accurate, but my the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint. moving on, as secretary, you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform code of military justice, ucmj. in addition to the sexual assault allegations. and by the way, the answer to my second question should have been, yes. i have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work, including by people who worked with you at fox news. do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the ucmj? >> senator? >> yes or no? >> multiple. false anonymous reports pedaled by nbc news. do you know that directly contradictory to the dozens of men and women at fox news channel who i work with, i'm not hearing on the record my question and said in your opening statement, mr. hegseth, you commit to holding leaders accountable at all levels. >> that includes you, of course. and frankly, as secretary, you will be on t

this is about hegseth and his doling out of ndas to alleged victims. let's just take a listen to that exchange. >> in finalizing divorces from your first and second wives, were there nondisclosure agreements in connection with those divorces? >> senator, not that i'm aware of, but if there were, you would agree to release them from a confidentiality. senator, that's not my responsibility. >> did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives? >> senator? absolutely not. >> can you elaborate, senator, on what you were trying to get at there? >> well, a couple of things. the i think the record show that pete hegseth has nondisclosure agreements. potentially with respect to his first two wives. i believe with at least one of the two veterans organizations that he worked for and sort of ran into the ground. he has a confidentiality agreement with the person that filed a sexual assault complaint against him that he ended up settling, making a cash payment to and entering into a confidentiality agreement. he had the nerve to say i

. >> anonymity is enforced by the nda clause. >> right. >> his the deals that protect him ensure anonymityso the fact that these are anonymous sources is not some accident. and as we know you know, there are a lot of reasons why including incredible intimidation and, you know, sort of violence laced pressure and threats against people who would come out and speak on the record about their experiences with him. but it is also true that he himself ensured anonymity when he asked for nondisclosure agreements with perhaps multiple of these people who could be speaking right now. >> one of the things that comes out in your reporting and in some of jane mayer's reporting here, is that, you know, senators genuinely as partizan, they are do take the advice and consent thing seriously, partly because it's their turf and they have big egos and they don't want, you know, they don't like to roll over, like they take it seriously. and i know millions of stories, both on the record and off of democratic senators giving democratic presidents a hard time on nominees. i mean, a really hard time that this p

the nda that was signed. but let's look at what some of the women senators on the committee had to say. the questions they had for pete hegseth about women in combat. watch. >> why should women in our military, if you were the secretary of defense, believe that they would have a fair shot and an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks? we have hundreds, hundreds of women who are currently in the infantry, lethal members of our military, serving in the infantry. >> but you degrade them. >> you previously have made a series of inflammatory statements about women in combat, about your views of women in the military. >> and i just want to know what changed in the 32 days that the song you sang is not the song. you come in here today to sing. >> so hegseth himself. how would you evaluate how he answered the pushback, answered some of these questions because what they're what they're referring to is the opening of some of these ground combat roles to women and basically saying, we haven't changed the standards

because he put on a dropdown on a computer legal expense when he paid a lawyer to have a woman sign an ndais is a travesty that you get no jail for 34 felonies. this is ridiculous. >> kayleigh, the president elect, said the people saw this trial firsthand. he went on to say they've been watching your trial and they voted decisively. >> that was the line of the entire sentencing. 77 million people plus voted on. president trump won all seven swing states, more raw vote total of any republican president in terms of votes by raw count, than than anyone in history of republicans. so there was a verdict of the american people who watched this. they thought it was a sham. they voted to elect this man president of the united states in huge numbers. today was the last vestige of lawfare. it was the final nail in the coffin. and it was all because it was a talking point sentencing. they just wanted to be able to say convicted felon. ahead of inauguration day, elie honig at cnn wrote a brilliant piece in new york magazine, and he laid out what was wrong with all of this. first, you have the judge. t

i mean, the fbi reportedly did not speak to the woman who is the subject of the nda. who was, you know, paid, settled with pete hegseth after the allegation of sexual assault. roger wicker, the chairman, came out afterward and said he understood that he wasn't sure she wanted to talk to the committee. and of course, i mean, the experience that christine blasey ford had with kavanaugh had to have been weighing there. >> yeah, i think, you know, look, the way these hearings have been done and the way that the background checks have been done has not been acceptable, i think, to the american people. i think the democrats are doing the best that they can, knowing that they cannot really stop his confirmation and doing the best they can to bring some of this stuff to light. like you heard senator gillibrand doing that. you heard, uh, some, you know, elissa slotkin doing the same thing and doing that what they can here to make the best of it. but to your point, and we talked about this on monday, he is a media personality. he was very good at keeping his cool and doing and

we're on a path to finishing the nda. this week has been good, bipartisan cooperation and a string of. ambitious. emissions. anything else you want to say? i'm sure, scott, that you do. do you want to say anything else to the press about what will take place? let's go back to you. go ahead, john. michael, take it. what did his office say about that moment? what did he tell you when he sat with you for interviews for your book? well, initially he didn't want to talk very much about it, but the one thing he did say was he said, i didn't really think i had a medical problem. i thought i had a public relations problem because he went back to the office. he felt pretty much okay and he wanted to go right back out there and eventually did go back out and answer questions. but then as things progressed, you know, we talked more about it and i interviewed him once in louisville shortly after that first episode, and he said, i think it was just simple dehydration. that's what we think it was. it was kind of interesting because we

a lot of information was held back for the public not to see whether it be through ndas or decisions not to share. but i'm just wondering, general, if the republicans on the committee care about this pick and they're not thinking about donald trump's influence over them or what people are saying on next. but really, is this person qualified to be secretary of defense? what should they be looking at in terms of what we saw yesterday? >> well, look, i the reality of it is, in my view that he did a magnificent job in terms of being evasive, smart, responsive only to republicans. he went we went into this committee hearing having refused to see any democratic senators, which is, i think, the first time in probably 50 years that's happened. so this was a partizan attempt to get him through the ordeal of four hours and 15 minutes of a hearing. and to some extent, you know, senator jack reed, senator kelly laid it all out there, an enduring concern about alcohol abuse. it's very difficult to walk away from alcohol abuse without therapy, without help. so that's that's on the table. but, you

else's request, i don't know who it was to get the test data on drugs that had been approved by the nda. one of those that determine was whether the fda was bendingover backwards . they claimed exemption and we filed that administrative court of appeals supporting the requesters, butler pickering was on this side but this was the first of many requests. we brought a whole bunch of lawsuits and finally over the years the fda changed its position so these things are now generally routinely available after the drug has been approved . pointing out the importance of persistence in foia and not letting it go and the connection betweenthe foia and the substantive areas . lots of lawsuits when i started in 1972 and not only a public citizen but all our ralphs related organizations . there were infinite needs for foia requests. and at one point we had about 1 and a half lawyers working on foia matters and i was told by the government one time i had 25% of all litigation in the united states . i don't think one and a half lawyers would do that these days but there we were and we are suing everyb

the person in question signed an nda. we don't know all those details.ume democrats will get into these questions. i think they will bring of quotes exactly like that. they will ask him pointedly in committee what his response to those allegations are. we will hear that today and we will hear his side of the story. when we in the media it's been a trial by media up to this point. pete has not been able to articulate his version of the story. we will hear that today and i'm encouraged to hear it. host: danny from south carolina, independent line. caller: howery? -- how are you? i have a couple of questions. i'm a service-connected disabled veteran. i'm also a woman. first i would like to know the difference between a soft touch that the heritage does compared to a hard touch. number two, you said you were pleased with the schedule. do you think 30 minutes is appropriate? number three, what you say to the women like myself who experienced military sexual trauma? it is one of the most significant things women in the military actually undergo. pete hegseth -

. >>> as we head to a break here is the look at the premarket tus.asq ifting the nda fure "squawk boxming right back. it all started with a small business idea. it's a pillow with a speaker in it! that's right craig. pulling in the perfect team to get the job done. i'm just here for the internets. at&t, it's super-fast! you locked us out?! and when thrown a curveball... arrggghh! ahhhh! [crashing sounds] we had everything we needed. is the internet out? don't worry, we have at&t internet back-up. the next level network for small business. ♪♪ i sold a pillow! welcome back to "squawk box." we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square and the futures this morning are on the rise. right now is looks like the dow futures are indicated up by about 125 points, big winner the nasdaq up about 210 points this morning. >>> i'm excited about this next story because it involves a bunch of these. elon musk, airlines and finally getting the internet to work while i'm in the sky. >> which never happens on planes. >> delta has figured it out recently, i have had a good experience there. uni

completely cleared is accurate, but my the the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint. moving on, as secretary, you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform code of military justice, ucmj. in addition to the sexual assault allegations. and by the way, the answer to my second question should have been yes, i have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work, including by people who worked with you at fox news. do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the ucmj? senator, yes or no? >> multiple false anonymous reports peddled by nbc news. do you know that run directly contradictory to the dozens of men and women at fox news channel who i work with? >> i'm not hearing on the record my question and said in your opening statement, mr. hegseth, you commit to holding leaders accountable at all levels. that includes you, of course. and frankly, as secretary, you will be on the j