Pete Hegseth Vows To Stay Sober If Confirmed As Secretary Of Defense

Former Fox Information host Pete Hegseth addressed issues over his use of alcohol in an interview with a former colleague, Megyn Kelly, pledging to not drink on the job if confirmed to supervise the huge U.S. army equipment.

Since President-elect Donald Trump made Hegseth his choose for secretary of protection, reporters have surfaced troubling allegations about his conduct in and out of doors of the office. He allegedly demonstrated a historical past of alcohol abuse, in response to a bombshell report from The New Yorker, and supposedly involved his colleagues at Fox Information by getting very drunk.

An embattled Hegseth stated Wednesday that, if confirmed, he can be prepared to surrender alcohol.

“I’m not going to have a drink in any respect. It’s not onerous for me, as a result of it’s not an issue for me,” he stated on “The Megyn Kelly Present.”

“I have to make it possible for the senators, and the troops, and President Trump and all people else is aware of, once you name me 24/7, you’re getting absolutely dialed-in Pete, identical to you all the time did in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he continued, including: “That is the largest deployment of my life, and there received’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips whereas I’m doing it.”

Hegseth has been promoting that promise to among the senators who will resolve whether or not he’s certified to be the secretary of protection.

“He views the job as so essential that he volunteered that. I didn’t ask him,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) informed reporters on the Capitol Hill.

Hegseth claimed that Trump had informed him earlier within the day that he nonetheless had the president-elect’s assist and will preserve combating, regardless of studies stating Trump was pondering of changing him with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

The interview with Kelly coated a spread of accusations which have plagued Hegseth over the past three weeks.

Requested whether or not he needed to talk about The New York Instances’ publication of a 2018 electronic mail from his mom during which she accused him of being an “abuser of ladies,” Hegseth stated, “I really feel for my mother.”

“The times that adopted, we labored our manner via it,” he stated.

The e-mail from Penelope Hegseth got here amid her son’s second divorce. She informed the Instances that she rapidly adopted up with an apology for phrases she had written in anger.

“Your abuse through the years to girls (dishonesty, sleeping round, betrayal, debasing, belittling) must be known as out,” Penelope Hegseth had written in 2018, telling her son to “get some assist and take an sincere take a look at your self.”

Kelly agreed with Hegseth that “it was so imply” of The New York Instances to publish the message.

Penelope Hegseth has since gone on the offensive on behalf of her son, showing on “Fox & Mates” early Wednesday morning to defend him and lambast the media. She appealed on to “feminine senators” by urging them to not belief tales within the information media.

Hegseth additionally addressed the 2017 police report accusing him of sexual assault at a Republican girls’s convention — an accusation that reportedly got here as a shock to Trump’s transition workforce. The girl informed police that she had confronted Hegseth, a keynote speaker on the occasion, as a result of she felt he didn’t deal with girls with respect.

Hegseth admitted that he had paid the girl an undisclosed amount of cash to remain silent concerning the alleged assault, telling Kelly that he thought it was the perfect plan of action.

“I did it to guard my spouse, I did it to guard my household, and I did it to guard my job, and it was a negotiation,” he stated.

Hegseth claims the encounter in a California resort room was consensual and has falsely stated that police had cleared him of wrongdoing. The matter was merely dropped with out additional investigation.

He additionally defended his work main two veterans’ advocacy organizations after The New Yorker reported that he had grossly mismanaged their funds, allegedly spending lavishly on events till being compelled out.

“There wasn’t a greenback spent that we weren’t pleased with spending on behalf of the trigger,” Hegseth informed Kelly. He complained that reporters by no means needed to speak to individuals who might communicate to optimistic experiences working with him.

“I used to be not fired. I used to be not pushed out,” he stated.

Kelly appeared to sympathize with Hegseth and forged the media’s reporting on a person who might helm the world’s strongest army as an orchestrated smear marketing campaign.

“All I can assume is, how are we going to get individuals to volunteer for public service?” Kelly stated at one level. “They’re at the moment attempting to destroy you, not solely from this position, however from any job, ever once more. From going again to Fox if this doesn’t work out, from going into the non-public sector. What, ‘He’s an alcoholic, philanderer, rapist, mismanager of cash.’ All the things they will pile on you, they’re piling on you.”

In his response, Hegseth stated, “The longer term’s in God’s palms.”

“I believe greatness awaits,” Kelly informed Hegseth.

Arthur Delaney contributed to this report.