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.”
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In November, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Hegseth as the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Amid the controversies, Trump is reportedly considering alternative candidates for the Defense Secretary position, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While Hegseth was vocal about Trump urging him to fight for a position, the president-elect has reportedly engaged in significant discussions about nominating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his former primary challenger, as the defense secretary.
According to The New York Times, sources close to Trump say that he is enthusiastic about appointing DeSantis, noting it would create a “big story” by elevating him after their electoral battle. The president-elect has also commended Governor DeSantis’s leadership in Florida—where Trump resides—and often highlights his military background, referring to him as “a Navy guy.”
“It is the classic art of the smear,” Hegseth said 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.”
“I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations,” Hegseth wrote on Wednesday in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
Multiple Fox News personalities have also come forward to publicly dispute allegations against Hegseth in a heated rebuke to a recent NBC News report. The NBC article, citing ten unnamed current and former Fox employees, alleged that Hegseth exhibited concerning drinking behavior during his tenure as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend—claims that many of his colleagues say are baseless. The allegations include accusations from two sources who said they smelled alcohol on Hegseth on more than a dozen occasions before he went on air. The report also cited claims that Hegseth appeared on television after discussing being hungover.
“Two of those people said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air,” NBC reported on Tuesday. “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.”
“One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this fall,” the piece claimed. “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.”
Will Cain, a longtime co-host alongside Hegseth, dismissed the report with blunt language. “Bullsht. 100 percent bullsht. Actually…horsesht,” Cain posted on X (formerly Twitter). He later 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.”
https://x.com/willcain/status/1864077559668850827
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.
https://x.com/RCamposDuffy/status/1864155602609447297
