Right-wingers are doubling down on Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News host and veteran President-elect Donald Trump picked for Defense Secretary, as reports about his alleged misconduct continue to emerge.
The latest bombshell, published by the New Yorker on Sunday, says that Hegseth was forced to step down from two nonprofit groups amid allegations of financial mismanagement and misconduct.
According to the report, Hegseth repeatedly appeared intoxicated at work events, to the point of needing to be carried out. He also brought his team to a strip club.
The report highlights accusations that he yelled “kill all Muslims” in 2015, pursued female staffers while he was married, and raised concerns among donors that their money was being improperly spent.
Hegseth’s lawyer told the outlet that the “outlandish claims” came from “a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s.”
The report seems to have done little to sway opinions of Hegseth among the pro-Trump crowd—who rushed to defend him and dismiss the report.
“You’ll be shocked to learn that the @NewYorker’s hit piece on Pete Hegseth was complete bullshit,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Monday. “They’ll lie, cheat and steal to try to sink my father’s nominees. The corporate media truly is the #EnemyOfThePeople!!”
Right-wing outlet Breitbart got wind of the report before it was published, warning its readers that there would be a “massive hit piece on Hegseth, using decade-old allegations made by a jealous former coworker.”
“Mainstream Media Duped by Decade-Old Jealous Screed from Former Pete Hegseth Coworker,” reads the headline.
One Truth Social user who quoted the Breitbart story derided: “Remember what the left tried to do to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Here we go again with Pete Hegseth.”
Remarked someone else on X: “I couldn’t believe that their source was a jealous person from 2014. TEN years ago. They need to seek help.”
The New Yorker story, based on numerous sources, not just one as detractors allege, is not the first negative press to hit Hegseth after his nomination was announced; an investigative police report made public in late November detailed a sexual assault allegation brought against him in 2017.
Though Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed settlement, he has denied any wrongdoing—with his lawyer characterizing it as “successful extortion.”
But that too has not deterred the GOP’s support.
“A lot of this stuff was years ago,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told Fox Business on Monday of the allegations Hegseth is facing. “Now again, you’ve got to be responsible for your actions, but Pete has done everything he possibly can do to get it out there, to talk to people … The Democrats are going to do everything they can to destroy probably one of the better people that we’ve ever had—as a possible appointee of Secretary of Defense.”
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