Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick as Defense Secretary, drank in ways that worried his Fox News colleagues when he was a host at the network, according to an NBC News report Tuesday.
NBC News quoted ten current and former Fox News employees:
Two of those people said that during Hegseth’s time as co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him more than a dozen times before he came on air. Those same two people, plus one other, said he appeared on television during his time there after hearing him talk about his hangover while getting ready or on set. … Three current employees said his drinking remained a problem until Trump announced him as his choice to lead the Pentagon, after which Hegseth left Fox.
NBC News noted that none of the sources could recall an instance in which Hegseth missed a scheduled appearance because he had been drinking.
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team told NBC News: “These disgusting allegations are completely baseless and false, and anyone spreading these defamatory lies to score political cheap shots is sickening. As a decorated combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to compromise that, and he considers his appointment the most important commitment of his life.
Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, referred NBC News to the statement from Trump’s transition spokesman. Fox News did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
The NBC News report follows a New Yorker investigation published Monday into multiple allegations against Hegseth while he led two separate nonprofit veterans groups, including that he was often drunk at public events and that he engaged in sexual improprieties.
One person who contributed to a whistleblower report on Hegseth’s time at Concerned Veterans for America told The New Yorker anonymously: “I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I haven’t seen him towed away a few times, but… several time. It would be scary to have him in the Pentagon.”
Neither MSNBC nor NBC News verified The New Yorker’s reporting. When asked for comment, Parlatore sent The New Yorker a statement from an “advisor” to Hegseth, calling the claims “outlandish” and saying they were made “by a petty and jealous, disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth ‘.
Hegseth has come under scrutiny for his past comments and alleged behavior, much of which resurfaced after Trump announced the former Fox News host as his choice to lead the Pentagon.
Hegseth was also accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met at a Republican women’s conference in 2017. Police investigated the incident and no charges were filed against him. Monterey County, California, District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni said in a statement last month that her office declined to file charges at the time because “no charge was supported by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.”
However, Hegseth has acknowledged paying his accuser an undisclosed sum “as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement,” although he maintains the meeting was consensual.
The New York Times reported last week that Hegseth’s mother sent him an email in 2018 accusing him of being a “wife abuser” during his contentious divorce from his second wife. His mother, Penelope Hegseth, told the Times that she sent the email “in anger” and immediately sent him a follow-up email apologizing afterward.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
