Pete Hegseth: ‘I Have Never Backed Down From a Fight and Won’t Back Down From This One’
“They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about.”
Mike LaChance has been following the “Kavanaughing” of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense.
The latest hit came from NBC, alleging Hegseth has a drinking problem that worried “anonymous” Fox News colleagues.
We all know the media and the left want to discredit all of Trump’s picks. Matt Gaetz already withdrew as attorney general nominee. Sheriff Chris Chronister withdrew from consideration for DEA leader, but both sides criticized him.
Hegseth told the media that Trump told him to “keep going” and “keep fighting,” which shot down (so far) rumors that the president-elect had been thinking of replacing him.
Hegseth also wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed where he vowed not to back down while providing evidence of why he’s qualified to lead the Defense Department:
On these pages 18 years ago I penned an article titled “More Troops, Please.” I was a young U.S. Army lieutenant who had just completed a combat tour in Iraq, and believed we needed more troops and a new strategy to turn the war around. I had seen a lot, been through a lot, and believed in my troops and the mission.
Ever since then, I have been fighting for our troops.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that op-ed launched my next mission—fighting for the warriors on the home front. Like many veterans of my generation, when I came home I jumped into a new mission—always looking for a way to channel the sense of purpose that had been unleashed in combat.
The nominee explained how he took over Vets for Freedom, which is for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to support those still fighting overseas. Hegseth admitted the group made mistakes, “but never did anything improper” and “treated everyone with mistake.”
The group backed then-Sen. John McCain over former President Barack Obama. It went into debt but Hegseth “stayed with the organization until all the debt was paid off and outstanding contracts negotiated.”
That’s when Hegseth decided to volunteer for overseas deployment to Afghanistan under Obama:
Fighting and winning our wars was never political to me. I wanted to do my part again; like many warriors of my generation, I found the battlefield had a recurring pull on my passions. But the war wasn’t going well, and we all knew it.
After his tour, Hegseth took over Concerned Veterans for America to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs and help those here at home:
My mission at home continued. This time we fought to fix our broken Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system, and we made great progress. Our group was the original nexus of the VA accountability and VA healthcare choice legislation that improved the lives of countless veterans. Few groups in Washington ever accomplish as much as we did.
We fought entrenched interests and mobilized veterans and patriotic Americans across the country. We had hundreds of employees and thousands of volunteers—yet based on the anonymous accusations of a few disgruntled employees, the legacy media has made it sound as if we ran a college frat house. That’s just untrue.
Hegseth has been at Fox News after he left the organization.
The host then lashed out at the mainstream media, calling out their obvious malicious tactics to bring him down and encouraging people to talk to those around him, especially those who served with him:
The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown. They provide no evidence, no names, and they ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about.
Talk to those who served with me in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan or the National Guard. They support me, and I’m honored by that. I have never backed down from a fight and won’t back down from this one. I am grateful President-elect Trump chose me to lead the Defense Department, and I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing with our distinguished senators—not a show trial in the press.
You know we can expect more from the media, especially if Hegseth doesn’t drop out or Trump replaces him.
Hegseth also sat down with Megyn Kelly:
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Comments
America just passed a huge mandate to stop this insanity.
I think it is far beyond time to step on the accelerator.
Trump needs to stop the clown car nominations. Who’s next Wink Martindale?
Are you a troll or do you just live in different universe?
Embrace the healing power of “and.”
or a general in a dress you doofus
Speaking of clowns… what circus did you escape from?
The one Hegseth will be joining after a sufficient number of good Republican senators make it clear he must withdraw. Just like Gaetz and hopefully that dumb bimbo Noem.
what are you afraid of? Try asking Joe for one of those all encompassing pardon
Is that you, Rags?
Have you stopped beating your spouse? Yes, or No? Regardless of your answer, you must sign up for anger management sessions because of the seriousness of the charges.
Pillow man!
It sounds like Hegseth has been scaring himself recently. Like Henley “I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul.” Whistling in the dark.
He is a good man, a patriot, a warrior, a father. He is a good man, not a saint. People at Fox, real people, said he was rock solid. Funny, none of those people were asked to comment.
This may devolve into a standard Leftist ploy: preponderance of inuendo. The D’s and the willing dinosaur media will make up stuff and use it in a circular argument against Mr Hegsteh.
Standard Operating Procedure
Huh?
Treated everyone with respect. TID.
TID?
For the people that didn’t think about this. The slime that against Pete are being paid by military contactor lobbyists. Think they have something to loos?
Says who? How do you know this? Or are you just making it up?
It’s called common sense
No, it’s called wild and bizarre fantasy. Paranoid even. Or just plain old making stuff up. In other words lying. Just like Harry Reid.
There are some among the commenters here that suffer from visual agnosia.
“The latest hit came from NBC, alleging Hegseth has a drinking problem”
Were you worried about Hillary?
Were you worried about Kamala?
Shut up.
He also has many other problems, like defrauding non profits.
Elaborate.
Pete,
Some of your old, longtime friends who know what’s happening are sending you this message: Remember the truth; accept the messes; make corrections; move forward.
Obama force-ably removed thousands of officers – look where we are today. This must stop. Standards, merit and ability to make tough decisions must return to our military. You did, you can and you will.
Allegations of sexual impropriety might just mark somebody who plays by men’s rules still, back when stuff worked. Before HR took over every organization.
Dems should be reminded that Pete has not been accused of anything that Bill Clinton wasn’t
I never heard Clinton accused of drunkenness.
Bill has the W.C. Fields schnozz, so there’s that:
https://www.rosacea.org/blog/2019/september/severity-rosacea-rhinophyma-linked-alcohol-intake-291846
well I see this one brought out
all the trolls ….
stay the course Mr Hegsteh
you know your over the target when your taking flak.
Pete they try and tear you down because they fear you. Watch the first 10 minutes of the Godfather. Trump telling you that you need to fight is good advice. Remember that with Trump at your side your enemies are his enemies. And they fear you because of that. The more you stand fast the more you expose those who support the deep state and are under control of the lobbyists and the military industrial complex.
I’m surprised the left hasn’t accused Pete of toxic masculinity.
Good. It’s about time men reclaim their testicles from the purse of cancel culture.
Has anyone heard what Pete’s co workers said, on camera? I believe them, not an anonymous source. The important thing is that 47 believes in Pete.
Even his mom doesn’t like him.
BS. His mother took her daughter-in-law’s side in the divorce, and in the heat of the moment said some nasty and untrue things, that she apologized for the same day.
And even what she wrote wasn’t bad, she just spun it to be bad. The “abuse” she accused him of was simply cheating on his wife. That’s not abuse, and it’s not anything anyone cares about. It’s none of our business.
She has totally retracted her statements and fully supports her son.
Any man who hasn’t been repeatedly chastised by his mother, and oftern, is not worth hiring. Without my mother, father and Marine Corp drill instructor, I wouldn’t be who I am today, They all had similarities.