Fox News Staffers Reportedly Smelled Alcohol on Pete Hegseth ‘As Recently as Last Month’
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Ten current and former Fox News staffers told NBC News on Tuesday that Pete Hegseth’s drinking concerned his colleagues, who smelled alcohol on him “as recently as last month.”
After President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense faced allegations of drunken behavior on the job, nearly a dozen of Hegseth’s current and former Fox News colleagues gave details to NBC News about his alleged struggle with alcohol.
Two people NBC spoke with claimed they could smell alcohol on Hegseth “on more than a dozen occasions” during his time as co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend and suggested Hegseth appeared on-air while hungover.
“One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this fall,” NBC News reported. “Three current employees said that his drinking remained a concern up until Trump announced him as his choice to run the Pentagon, at which point Hegseth left Fox.”
On Hegseth’s alleged drinking problem, a former Fox News staffer said, “Everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air.”
Another former staffer added that Hegseth “just acted like the rules didn’t apply to him.”
Hegseth’s Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain denied the allegations, calling them “100 percent bullshit” in a social media post.
“Your story is horseshit @NBCNews. Put my name on it. On the record. It’ll be your only on the record source,” he wrote. “Signed, The guy who sat next to him for 8 hours every week for five years starting at 6am.”
This month, a whistleblower report detailed Hegseth’s drunken misconduct and alleged “history of alcohol abuse,” which included allegedly using donor funds at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) “for partying, drinking, and using CVA events as little more than opportunities to ‘hook up’ with women on the road.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the recent sexual assault and drinking allegations against Hegseth would make his confirmation as secretary of defense in the Senate “difficult.”
Hegseth resigned from Fox News last month upon being nominated.
