Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled pick for defense secretary, doubled down on his commitment to securing the role in a fiery statement on Wednesday. As questions swirl over his qualifications and past conduct, Hegseth vowed to “fight like hell” to prove he is the right candidate to lead the Department of Defense.
However, his path to confirmation is far from certain. Republican senators have raised concerns about allegations of misconduct from Hegseth’s past, including his tenure as a Fox News host and his prior military service.
Hegseth described meeting with Senators and the Senate Armed Services Committee as a “wonderful process.” He continued, “That’s what Donald Trump asked me to do. Your job is to bring a war-fighting ethos back to the Pentagon. Your job is to make sure that it’s lethality, lethality, lethality!”
“Everything else is gone. Everything else that distracts from that shouldn’t be happening. That’s the message I’m hearing from Senators in that advise and consent process. It’s been a wonderful process.”
In November, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Pete Hegseth as U.S. Secretary of Defense. However, amid growing controversies, Trump is reportedly considering alternative candidates for the role, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While Hegseth has been vocal about Trump’s encouragement to fight for the position, sources close to the president-elect suggest he is seriously considering DeSantis, his former primary challenger, for the defense secretary role.
The New York Times reports that Trump is excited about the prospect of appointing DeSantis, seeing it as an opportunity to create a “big story” by elevating him after their electoral rivalry. Trump has also praised Governor DeSantis’s leadership in Florida, often highlighting his military background, referring to him as “a Navy guy.”
“It is the classic art of the smear,” Hegseth remarked on Megyn Kelly’s show on Wednesday. “Take whatever tiny kernels of truth — and there are tiny, tiny ones in there — and blow them up into a masquerade of a narrative about somebody that I am definitely not.”
Hegseth further stated, “I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations,” in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Multiple Fox News personalities have stepped forward to publicly dispute allegations against Pete Hegseth in a strong rebuke of a recent NBC News report. The NBC article, citing ten unnamed current and former Fox employees, accused Hegseth of displaying concerning drinking behavior during his time as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend. Many of his colleagues, however, have called these claims baseless.
The allegations in the NBC report include accounts from two sources who claimed they smelled alcohol on Hegseth before he went on air on more than a dozen occasions. The report also cited claims that Hegseth appeared on television after discussing being hungover.
NBC reported on Tuesday: “Two of those people said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air. Those same two people, plus another, said that during his time there he appeared on television after they’d heard him talk about being hungover as he was getting ready or on set.”
The article further claimed: “One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this fall. None of the sources with whom NBC News has spoken could recall an instance when Hegseth missed a scheduled appearance because he’d been drinking.”
In response, Will Cain, a longtime co-host alongside Hegseth, dismissed the report in blunt terms. “Bullsht. 100 percent bullsht. Actually…horsesht,” Cain posted on X (formerly Twitter). He added, “Your story is horsesht, @NBCNews. Put my name on it. On the record. It’ll be your only on-the-record source. Signed, the guy who sat next to him for eight hours every week for five years starting at 6 a.m.”
Rachel Campos-Duffy, another Fox News colleague who worked closely with Hegseth, echoed Cain’s sentiment. “The losers at @NBCNews never reached out to me either. @WillCain is right—your story IS horsesh*t. You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story?” Campos-Duffy wrote.
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