President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday evening that he will be nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense for his second administration.
Hegseth is a decorated combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining Fox News, where he now serves as a host on its weekend morning show Fox & Friends Weekend. Despite his pedigree, Hegseth is known for hard-line views on subjects ranging from vaccines to the 2020 election and even hand-washing.
The announcement from Trump shocked lawmakers and commentators alike, including apparently Hegseth’s colleagues on Fox & Friends.
The former Army National Guard Infantry Officer and Ivy League grad turned best-selling author is no stranger to Mediaite, however, after a feisty interview with editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin in 2021.
McLaughlin spoke with Hegseth the day after the Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards when he clashed with the interviewer over questions about the 2020 election results and vaccine policies, topics he deemed “dumb” and invasive.
Initially, Hegseth opened up about the awards, held in Hollywood, Florida, as “positive” and a welcome alternative to “left-wing, condescending politics” he said was typical of award ceremonies in Hollywood, California.
However, tensions spiked when McLaughlin probed Hegseth’s stance on the 2020 election. Sidestepping a clear answer, he dismissed the question as irrelevant, saying: “People are gathering information for themselves.”
When pressed again, he retorted: “If you want to do a hit job, then we can go for it.”
“Not a hit job,” McLaughlin replied. “A very simple question about who the president is.”
The interview continued on a rocky path as McLaughlin addressed the Covid-19 policy at The Patriot Awards which, like Fox News at the time, required vaccination or daily testing. McLaughlin asked why Hegseth had a problem with the Biden administration vaccine and testing mandates but not Fox’s own policy.
Hegseth brushed it off: “Companies have prerogatives. What the government shouldn’t be doing is telling them what to do.”
The exchange grew even more contentious when McLaughlin asked Hegseth if he’d been vaccinated.
“This is the shameful part of this moment we’re in,” Hegseth replied, rejecting the question as invasive. “You’re intruding into every part of every person’s life and forcing them to take a personal choice and make it public.”
Frustrated, Hegseth asked if McLaughlin was done with the “dumb questions” before blasting Mediaite as “part of the trash heap” of media.
After a spirited 13 minutes, Hegseth promptly ended the interview.
