Pete Hegseth’s Fox colleagues were concerned about his drinking: report

Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth has been hit by a barrage of troubling allegations since President-elect Donald Trump announced the former Fox News personality as his Cabinet nominee. The latest allegations come from former colleagues who spoke to NBC News about concerns they had about Hegseth’s drinking during his tenure at Fox News.

The alleged accounts of Hegseth’s time at Fox News are based on interviews with three current and seven former Fox employees, all of whom were asked to remain anonymous.

Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 as a contributor. After serving as co-host in 2016, Hegseth was officially named co-host of Fox & friends the following year, where he remained until leaving the network after Trump announced Hegseth as his Cabinet nominee.

Two of the sources claimed Hegseth smelled of alcohol more than a dozen times before going behind the camera, while the same two people and another source said he appeared on television after talking about a hangover.

One current and two former Fox employees said Hegseth’s drinking and late nights made them feel like they had to “babysit” him. “We had to call him to make sure he didn’t oversleep because we knew he was going to be partying the night before,” a source claimed. Neither source cited an occasion where the former TV personality missed a scheduled appearance due to alcohol consumption.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Trump transition team called the allegations “disgusting” and “completely baseless and false.” The spokesman added: “As a decorated combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize this and he considers his nomination to be the most important mission of his life.”

As NBC News highlights, Hegseth’s alleged behavior toward his former Fox colleagues has raised concerns about his ability to carry out his duties as the country’s defense secretary. The position involves directing the Pentagon and its 3 million civilian and military employees at any time, including when a crisis may occur at night or on weekends.

“He shouldn’t be defense secretary,” said one former Fox employee. “His drinking should be disqualifying.”

In 1989, the Senate rejected then-President George H. W. Bush’s nominee for defense secretary, former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, because of, among other things, Tower’s drinking habits and his alleged relationships with women.

On Sunday, The New Yorker reported that Hegseth was ousted as head of two veterans organizations amid internal allegations of mismanagement of funds, sexual impropriety and reports of drunken behavior on the job.

Accordingly In the publication, a whistleblower alleged that Hegseth drank heavily at work events on several occasions, including a team outing to a strip club in Louisiana in November 2014, where he allegedly had to be “banned” from going on stage and dancing with the strippers.

Another complaint described a stop on the CVA’s Defend Freedom Tour where Hegseth and someone traveling with the group were at a bar and reportedly began chanting “Kill all Muslims!” Kill all Muslims!” in what the complaint described as “drunken and violent.”

Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, told the publication: “We will not comment on outlandish claims made through money laundering The New Yorker from a petty and jealous, disgruntled former employee of Mr. Hegseth. Get in touch with us if you’re taking your first stab at real journalism.”

In November, it was revealed that Hegseth was under investigation for an alleged sexual assault in Monterey, California in 2017. The city of Monterey confirmed that a police report had been filed against Hegseth.

CNN previously reported that Hegseth paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault in a settlement agreement that included a confidentiality clause, according to Hegseth’s attorney. His lawyer said Hegseth denied the 2017 assault and described the incident as a “consensual sexual encounter.”

Last week, the mother of Trump’s nominee for defense secretary accused her son of mistreating and abusing women in an email released by the US government New York Times. Penelope Hegseth sent the email in 2018, when the former Fox co-host was in the midst of a divorce from his second wife, Samantha Hegseth.

“You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for a man who belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and exploits women for his own power and ego,” Penelope wrote. “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it hurts me and I’m embarrassed to say it, but it’s the sad, sad truth… your years of abuse of women (dishonesty, sneaking around, betrayal) . , humiliation, degradation) must be brought up.”

Penelope condemned her first email in an interview with the Justand said her statements about Pete’s treatment of women were “not true.”