FOX News Employees Defend Pete Hegseth After NBC News Publishes Anonymously Sourced Hit Piece
“This is such a disgusting and false smear. It is wrong and malicious.”
A few days ago, I suggested that Democrats and the media are trying to ‘Kavanaugh’ Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense. NBC News has just confirmed my thesis by publishing a smear piece about Hegseth’s supposed problem with drinking.
The entire NBC News article is based on comments from unnamed former and current employees at FOX News. It’s the same, old, tired playbook.
Three writers at NBC News are credited with this piece. Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick.
Pete Hegseth’s drinking worried colleagues at Fox News, sources tell NBC News
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, drank in ways that concerned his colleagues at Fox News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke with NBC News.
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. 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.
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.
“Everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air,” one of the former Fox employees said.
On Sunday night, The New Yorker detailed concerns about Hegseth’s drinking at two jobs he held at nonprofit veterans’ groups before he joined Fox. “A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events,” the magazine reported.
I would suggest to you that no one at NBC News even cares about this. They’re just trying to turn public opinion against Hegseth because Trump wants him for this job and because Hegseth has vowed to get wokeness out of the U.S. Military.
Multiple FOX News personalities have gone on the record on Twitter/X, disputing and downright rejecting the claims made in the article.
Bullshit. 100 percent bullshit. Actually…horseshit. https://t.co/GgD6Ax455q
— Will Cain (@willcain) December 3, 2024
10 “anonymous sources” for @NBCNews.
Here’s your on the record statements from people who worked with @PeteHegseth. I know there’s MANY more of you. Drop it here. 👇@dbongino @NBSaphierMD @Johnny_Joey @kylenabecker pic.twitter.com/OkvTY4J5iu
— Will Cain (@willcain) December 4, 2024
Worked with Pete for years. This is absolute BULLSHIT. https://t.co/qyH0i2Kunk
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 3, 2024
As a former Fox producer, I’ve never heard this in my life.
Everyone spoke highly of him and still does til this day.
I noticed the employees are anonymous. https://t.co/7SmwHQ7993
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) December 4, 2024
I have routinely sat on the couch with @PeteHegseth for 8 years. Not once did I suspect he had consumed anything other than an egg sandwich and coffee before going on air. pic.twitter.com/vjDQUpV9il
— Nicole Saphier, MD (@NBSaphierMD) December 4, 2024
I have covered the media for 15 years. If @PeteHegseth was as drunk on set, etc., as people are saying, it would’ve been gossip everywhere. I was Managing Editor at @Mediaite when the Roger Ailes stuff went down. That place (Fox) talks/leaks a LOT. Until tonight. Not a word or… pic.twitter.com/XvmCvK8PvB
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) December 4, 2024
The losers at @NBCNews never reached out to me either. @willcain is right – your story IS horseshit. You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story? https://t.co/s5YJsI23EV
— Rachel Campos-Duffy (@RCamposDuffy) December 4, 2024
I've guest co-hosted with him numerous times before. Not once did this happen. Not once have I heard this from others. This is such a disgusting and false smear. It is wrong and malicious. https://t.co/avtrIo9Qzw
— Lisa Boothe 🇺🇸 (@LisaMarieBoothe) December 4, 2024
I’ve been on set with Pete Hegseth for Fox and Friends and at various events for Fox Nation. I’ve been with him in the green room. He’s been on my show a half dozen times.
That he’s some problematic drunk is laughable — but there’s nothing funny about these coordinated smears. pic.twitter.com/a8oRKwuMvl
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) December 4, 2024
Stand with Pete. The country needs him. pic.twitter.com/cIl6yonw7z
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 4, 2024
I don’t drink. I’m disgusted by the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath. I’ve never EVER seen Pete drink like that, and have never smelled alcohol on his breath at work. These hit pieces are getting laughable. https://t.co/6qdq3MhADh
— Joey Jones (@Johnny_Joey) December 4, 2024
I truly hope that Trump ignores these liberal media hit pieces and moves forward with Hegseth as the nominee. The people who are doing this are absolute slime and should be denied access to the incoming Trump administration.
Enough.
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Comments
Boy is the deepstate especially those at the DOD and military industrial complex very nervous.
Some Repubs reported to want a Trump critic to replace him for DOD. I want the states with those senators to have a heart to heart talk about what the states want and not the personal issues of some RINOs. The senate was not to be a super House of Representatives.
Who are these “states”, who should have a “heart to heart talk” with the senators? States are millions of people, and the only way they can talk is at elections.
And the senate was intended to be a “super house of representatives”, but with more weight to the smaller states, and with the senators having more independence from their voters, since they only have to face them every six years instead of every two, so most of the time they can just ignore them and do what they think is right.
The 17th amendment didn’t change that at all; it just stopped the state legislatures from turning into electoral colleges that also had legislative power, i.e. people were being elected not on the basis of what laws they would make but on the basis of whom they supported for senator. In between elections the legislatures had no more influence over senators than the voters do now.
“The 17th amendment didn’t change that at all;…”
Brilliance on display.
Truth on display. If you think the 17th changed anything, say what you think it changed and justify it.
Particularly if you think senators before the 17th were less independent than after. Explain how.
Let’s start with the basic fact –
The founders feared direct “democracy” as much as they feared kings. Due to this concern they created a government heavy on the state side and light on the fed side. The senators being appointed by the state legislatures gave the states power that direct elections takes away.
I hardly need repeat the pro/cons of the 17th, anyone that desires can search and read for theirselves.
To suggest the “17th amendment didn’t change that at all“, is an indication that the writer of such is either unfamiliar with the constitution and the founders philosophy and the profound effect upon our governing philosophy, or they agree with having a stronger federal government / weaker state government and are willing to lie about the 17th to cover up the effect of the change.
Or they could just be stupid.
Your call.
As Ann Coulter said, he is a sleazy serial adulterer. This makes him susceptible to blackmail. Surely Trump can appoint someone better than him.
He has committed adultery several times. So has Trump. If it doesn’t disqualify Trump why should it disqualify him?
Aw, shaddup, dingus.
He’s not being nominated to be Lara Trump’s boyfriend, he’s being nominated to clean out the Pentagon, kill DEI in the services, and restore our military to its (former) warfighting lethality.
Warfighting lethality is something you’d know absolutely nothing about.
Sod off, and quit upvoting yourself.
How is he susceptible to blackmail if everyone knows about it?
Ann Coulter is an obvious left wing supporter.
Her and fat Chris Christie.
Who did she “date” again?
“unnamed source” = complete bullshit. NBC, still the rotten leftist pile of dung its been for years.
I wonder why they decided to run with “Problem Drunk” instead of “Sexual Predator” for Hegseth’s smear campaign.
Is Sexual Predator getting too repetitious? The trouble with Problem Drunk is that its too easy to disprove; he said/she said has the positive aspect of being just as difficult to disprove as prove.
No matter, the mouth-breathers on the Left will embrace this as gospel. Maybe the Trump press secretary can ban NBC from the WH press corps until they revise and apologize.
“Sexual predator” needs credible “victims.” “Problem drunk” only requires allegations. The Deep State has run the “victims” play too often, with spotty results, for another such play to have any credibility.
Funny, they were ready to make a problem drunk President.
Twice. Don’t forget drunk Hillary.
Don’t misunderstand what this smear is supposed to accomplish.
It’s not supposed to convince ANYBODY that had the slightest intention of supporting Hegseth.
The only thing it is designed to do is give the RINO backstabbers that didn’t want to vote for him in the first place an excuse.
Precisely, it’s to provide cover for the RINOs trying to tank this nomination. And they’re trying to back-channel this pressure to drop him without having to actually commit to a public vote. Force them to publicly vote.
There are already 6 and I bet you can name 3 or 4 without searching.
The man is unfit for office. There are many capable men who share his espoused views who are not unfit. Remember, another drunk, John Tower, was denied the same post for his drinking. Unlike Hegseth, he had a serious resume.
Hegseth’s problem is decades old and well known. It is not unusual for friends to stick by him and the concerned to wish for anonymity.
No wonder Obama returned the bust of Winston Churchill to the British!
“…decades old and well known…”
Then why did Fox News keep him on the payroll? One appearance on set of a drunken Hegseth would have been a minor catastrophe. Fox News was willing to accept that risk? For what gain? Whether or not Hegseth is qualified to run DOD is one thing. Could he have easily been replaced on a TV show? You betcha. Why didn’t that happen?
Ha ha ha, half those talking heads are drunks and perverts. What planet are you from?
Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris should know.
He’s from Earth.
Clearly, you’re not.
“Hegseth’s problem is decades old and well known.”
By whom? Specifically. By name.
^^^ This, exactly.
C’mon, Mr Hunt. Where are the sources to back up your statement?
Can you cite half a dozen of the ‘well known’ instances over the past decade? Seems an easy ask if the problem is as ‘well known’ or as pervasive as you claim. Names, dates, police reports, media stories if you please, no anonymous or third party accounts.
“Hegseth’s problem is decades old and well known.”
If it’s so well-known, I’m sure a Sooper-Jeenyus like you would be able to provide, by name, multiple legitimate sources.
Go ahead… we’re waiting.
Liar. Any decades old citations? Anything, ANYONE on the record, Liar? yeah, we didn’t think so, Libtard.
“Hegseth’s problem is decades old and well known.”
You are a liar.
NBC-Nothing But Crap-is living up to their rep.
Well, I’d have some lawyers on this, for certain. Start looking into how they handle all the counter-claims. Repeating hearsay shouldn’t really be a defense to libel.
“Anonymous source” = non-existent source
People at Fox who worked with him everyday have come out on the record throwing the flag on all of this.
Nothing But Crap (that’s a good one – thanks, Whitewall!) sees this as a twofer: Smear both Hegseth and Fox News. It’s dishonest on its face but they consider it an efficient use of resources. I stopped watching them many years ago for reasons such as this. It prompts the question of how many at NBC/MSNBC are drunks.
Be careful about pointing a finger. You have three others pointing back at you.
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We, (the demonrats) want to F- up all of your MAGA and viciously break down every decent person who gets in our way.
Being of unsound mind and totally lacking in honour, we will keep the think tanks humming night and day to come up with filthy ideas and as always, massive amounts of lying.
While Trump works tirelessly to improve the lives of all citizens and bring sanity back to our government, dims plan to trip him at every turn. Considering they have neither ethics nor morals and are filled with hate and anger, this gives them an advantage over us.
“Considering they have neither ethics nor morals and are filled with hate and anger, this gives them an advantage over us.”
Only if we allow it. Challenge them for evidence, then challenge that evidence. You know the old saying in politics: If you’re explaining, you’re losing. Make them explain and BOLO for points to call them out on. Let them embarrass themselves. If they talk enough, they’ll do it. Should be fun.
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Agreed. We should apply the same level of morality and ethics in political situations as our opponents do. So long as they act honorably and forthrightly then we must do so as well. However, when those opponents choose backstabbing, muckraking and other unsavory tactics we should meet them with the same things in ever expanding multiples until our opponents choose to climb out of the mud.
Unnamed sources=We made up a story to fit our narrative. World class hit job!
But they heard those voices in their heads saying those things.
Still any doubts that the multinational news corporations are subsidiaries of The Democrat Party of the United States?
The media are the unofficial organ of the Democrat party.
As Instapundit calls them, “Democrats with bylines”.
That means one for each nostril, right?
Let’s suppose the allegation is true. He likes his drink a bit more than the rest of us, and once in a while, maybe once a month or two, he gets drunk and has a hangover. So freaking what? How is that not within the range of normal? Even it if occasionally impairs his effectiveness at work, it’s not a problem unless it does so regularly, or in a major way. If he can work through a hangover and be at least reasonably productive, it’s none of our business.
I don’t get this whole American moral panic about alcohol. It’s a gift from God, a sign that He loves us, but also a test of our responsibility that some of us occasionally fail. You only learn your limits by testing them.
In a way it reminds me of the time they tried to whip up some sort of scandal out of Trump taking two scoops of ice cream for dessert instead of just one. I never got what that was supposed to be about. It’s his ice cream, he’s paying for it, what the **** business is it of anyone else how much he wants of it?
Milbank – you’re down to earth this time and on the mark.
You know, the USA is not exactly in a good place worldwide: MAJOR enemies; BRICSa; lack of competition on so many levels because of our declining education standards; grift; merit means next to nothing these days; decent people ignore the military yet we NEED THEM.
Pete has faults like all of us. The higher you go, the more people watch you. I’ve watched Pete for over 20 years. Mistakes, yes. Don’t we all? It’s just the higher you go, the more you are a threat, competitor. So those you threaten (whether or not you know it) will try to take you down.
Hang in there, Pete. We need merit, integrity, common sense and standards to return to our military.