Pete Hegseth, The newly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, was elected as the Minister of DefenseAccording to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke to NBC News, he drank to the dismay of his colleagues at Fox News.
Two of those people said they smelled alcohol on Hegseth more than ten times before he went on air during his tenure as host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which began in 2017. Those two people, plus another, said that while he was there, he appeared on television after hearing him talk about being hungry while he was getting ready or on set.
One source said he smelled of alcohol as recently as last month and complained of hunger this fall.
None of the sources NBC News spoke with could recall an instance in which Hegseth missed a scheduled performance because he had been drinking.
“Everybody would be talking about it behind the scenes before it aired,” said one former Fox employee.
sunday night The New Yorker details Concerns about Hegsett’s drinking at two jobs he held at nonprofit veterans groups before joining Fox. “A previously undisclosed whistleblower report on Hegseth’s tenure as president of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013 to 2016 describes him repeatedly being intoxicated while in official capacity — a requirement the organization requires. events”, the magazine writes.
According to The New Yorker, Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, responded: “We are not going to comment on the outlandish allegations that have been floated through The New Yorker by Mr. Hegseth’s junior and jealous disgruntled ex-employee. When you try your first attempt at real journalism, turn to us.”
This account of Hegseth’s time at Fox News is based on NBC News interviews with three current and seven former Fox employees, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
Three current employees said their drinking was a concern until Trump announced him as his choice to run the Pentagon, at which point Hegseth left Fox.
“He’s a very charming guy, but he acted like the rules didn’t apply to him,” said one former employee.
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team said: “These disgusting allegations are completely baseless and false, and anyone who peddles these defamatory lies to score political cheap shots is disgusting. As a combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize that, and he sees his candidacy as the most important place in his life.
Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, referred NBC News to a statement from Trump’s transition spokesman. Fox News did not respond to requests for comment.
Day and night duties
Statements by former colleagues about Hexeth’s behavior during his tenure at Fox News raise questions about his ability to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of running the Pentagon and its 3 million civilian and military employees.
The secretary of defense generally works around the clock and may have to respond to a sudden crisis at night or on the weekend.
In February 2023, while he was in Manila on a trip that required frequent interactions with other senior officials, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was awakened at 3 a.m. local time and had a phone call. Chinese spy balloon flies over the continental United States
Similarly, on October 7, 2023, the attack in Israel began at midnight ET.
And the Department of Defense is responsible for protecting US cities and infrastructure from potential air threats similar to the 9/11 attacks. At any time, day or night, the secretary of defense can be called upon to decide whether to shoot down a civilian aircraft. A wrong decision can result in the death of innocent people.
“For the sake of national security, I really hope he stops drinking,” said one former Fox employee.
“He shouldn’t be secretary of defense,” said another former Fox staffer. “His drinking should be a disqualification.”
In 1989, the Senate rejected the nomination of President George HW Bush Secretary of Defense, former Senator John Tower, R-Texas, in part over concerns about Tower’s drinking history.
As a co-host, Hegseth had to be at work early on the weekend. For the show, which starts at 6 a.m. ET, its female leads arrive around 4 a.m. to do their hair and makeup; The three sources said the male hosts usually arrived around 5 or 5:15 a.m., 45 minutes before they went on air.
One current and two former Fox employees said they needed to “babysit” Hegsett because of his drinking and late nights. One of them said: “We had to call him to make sure he didn’t fall asleep because we knew he was going to party the night before.” Another said: “Morning TV is stressful and Pete makes it even more stressful.”
According to these three sources, Hegseth sometimes arrived just 20 minutes or less before the show started, stressing out his co-stars. They said that Hexeth’s make-up sometimes had to be done while on set, as his late arrivals left little time for his co-stars. Sources could not say whether his tardiness was due to alcohol alone.
A report detailed in The New Yorker claimed that Hegseth had been duped He was drinking heavily at work events, including a team trip to a strip club in Louisiana in November 2014, when he got so drunk that he had to be “convicted” of going on stage to dance with strippers.
Hegseth drank too much at some social events with his Fox News colleagues, according to two former employees, one of whom said he would “get completely wasted.”
last month, Monterey, California, Police Department After the Republican Women’s Convention, he released the records of a 2017 investigation into allegations that Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room. The accuser, identified in records as “Jane Doe,” said she believed someone may have spiked something in her drink.
Hegseth denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.
“This police report backs up what I’ve been saying all along,” Hegseth’s attorney, Parlatore, told NBC News last month. “The incident was fully investigated and police determined the allegation was false, so no charges were laid.”
Hegseth also confirmed that he paid the woman an undisclosed settlement fee. Parlatore previously told NBC News that Hegseth “finally decided to enter a settlement for a significantly reduced amount at the height of the MeToo movement.” Parlatore also said his client was “innocent collateral damage by the lie that the complainant kept to preserve her marriage.”