Ten current and former Fox News employees told NBC News that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, drank in ways that worried his coworkers.
During Hegseth’s tenure as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, which started in 2017, two of those individuals said that they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air more than a dozen times. Those two individuals, along with an additional one, claimed that he was on TV during his stay there after they overheard him discussing his hangover when he was getting dressed or on set.
According to one of the individuals, they heard him complain about being hungover this fall and even smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month.
None of the people NBC News spoke with could remember a time when Hegseth skipped an appointment because he had been drinking.
Before he went on the air, everyone would be discussing it behind the scenes, according to a former Fox employee.
Concerns over Hegseth’s drinking at two jobs he held at NGOs serving veterans prior to joining Fox were highlighted by the New Yorker on Sunday night. Hegseth was described as being frequently drunk while acting in his official capacity to the point where he had to be carried out of the organization’s events in a previously undisclosed whistleblower report on his time as president of Concerned Veterans for America, which ran from 2013 to 2016.
Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, reportedly replied, “We’re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s,” according to the New Yorker. When you attempt real journalism for the first time, let us know.
Three current and seven former Fox workers, who all requested anonymity out of concern for reprisals, were interviewed by NBC News for this story about Hegseth’s tenure at Fox News.
Hegseth departed Fox after Trump named him his pick to lead the Pentagon, according to three current workers, who added that his drinking continued to be an issue.
One former employee remarked, “He’s such a charming guy, but he just acted like the rules didn’t apply to him.”
“Anyone selling these vile lies to score political cheap shots is sickening,” a spokesman for the Trump transition team stated. “These disgusting allegations are completely unfounded and false.” Pete is viewing his nomination as the most significant deployment of his life, and he has never done anything to compromise his status as a decorated combat veteran.
Hegseth’s attorney Parlatore directed NBC to the Trump transition spokesperson’s remark. Requests for comment from Fox News were not answered.
Round-the-clock duties
The former coworkers’ accounts of Hegseth’s conduct when working at Fox News cast doubt on his capacity to perform the 24-hour tasks required to oversee the Pentagon and its 3 million civilian and military staff.
In addition to working around the clock, a secretary of defense may have to respond to an unexpected crisis that occurs on a weekend or at night.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was woken up at 3 a.m. local time in February 2023 by a phone call regarding a Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental United States when he was in Manila on a tour that frequently necessitates mingling with other high-ranking officials.
In a similar vein, the attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, started at midnight Eastern Time.
Additionally, the Department of Defense is in charge of defending American infrastructure and communities against possible aerial threats such to the 9/11 assaults. The secretary of defense may be asked to make a decision about whether to shoot down a civilian aircraft at any time of day or night. In any case, making the wrong choice could result in the deaths of innocent people.
One of the former Fox staffers stated, “I sincerely hope he has stopped drinking for the sake of national security.”
Another former Fox employee stated that he shouldn’t be the secretary of defense. He ought to be disqualified for his drinking.
Former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, was the defense secretary nominated by then-President George H.W. Bush, but the Senate rejected him in 1989, partly due to Tower’s drinking past.
Hegseth had to report to work early on the weekends because she was a co-host. According to three sources, male co-hosts usually arrived around 5 or 5:15 a.m., 45 minutes before they went on television, while his female co-hosts would arrive about 4 a.m. to get ready and have their hair and makeup done for a show that started at 6 a.m. ET.
Because of Hegseth’s drinking and late nights, one current employee and two past Fox workers claimed they felt compelled to watch over him. “We knew he would be out partying the night before, so we’d have to call him to make sure he didn’t oversleep,” one of them stated. According to someone another, watching morning TV may be stressful, and Pete frequently made it considerably worse.
According to those three reports, Hegseth occasionally came with just twenty minutes or fewer before the event started, which caused panic among his coworkers. They claimed that because Hegseth arrived late and left his coworkers with little time, his makeup would occasionally need to be done on set. Whether his tardiness was due to drinking alone was unknown from the sources.
A team outing to a strip club in Louisiana in November 2014, where Hegseth became so drunk that he had to be restrained from climbing on stage to dance with the strippers, was one of the numerous incidents of Hegseth drinking excessively at work events, according to the whistleblower report published in the New Yorker.
Two former employees claim that Hegseth also drank excessively at various social gatherings with Fox News coworkers, with one of them claiming that he would get completely inebriated.
Records of a 2017 investigation into a claim that Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room during a Republican women’s convention were made public by the Monterey, California, police department last month. According to the documents, the accuser, Jane Doe, thought someone might have put something in her drink.
Hegseth was never charged and has denied any wrongdoing.
Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, told NBC News last month that the police report validated what he had been saying all along. No charges were brought after the incident was thoroughly examined and the police determined that the claim was untrue.
Additionally, Hegseth has acknowledged that he made an undisclosed settlement payment to the woman. At the height of the MeToo movement, Parlatore previously told NBC News that Hegseth finally chose to accept a settlement for a far smaller sum. Additionally, Parlatore said that his client was innocent collateral damage—a falsehood the Complainant was clinging to in order to preserve her marriage.
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