(Adnkronos) – Pete Hegseth, the Fox News anchor initially identified by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Pentagon, ”drank worryingly,” even before going on the air. Three Fox News employees and seven former Hegseth colleagues at the broadcaster told Nbc News on condition of anonymity. Two of them said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” starting in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on the air. The same two people, plus another, said Hegseth went on the air after saying he was ”hungover.”
One of the sources cited by Nbc News said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complaining of a hangover in the fall. None of the sources Nbc News spoke with recalled an instance where Hegseth skipped a scheduled TV appearance because he had been drinking. “Everyone was talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air,” said one of the former Fox News employees. ”He’s a very charming man, but he acted like the rules didn’t apply to him,” said one of the former Fox employees. According to two former employees, Hegseth also drank heavily during some events with Fox News colleagues and got “completely” drunk.
A spokesman for Trump’s transition team denied the claims, saying that “these disgusting allegations are completely unfounded and false. And anyone who promotes these defamatory lies to make political cheap shots is disgusting. As a decorated war veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize this position of his and his appointment (as head of the Pentagon, ed.) is the most important job of his life.” Fox News did not respond to requests for comment from Nbc News.
”For the sake of national security, I really hope he’s stopped drinking,” said one of the former Fox employees. “He shouldn’t be secretary of defense,” said another former Fox employee. “His drinking should be disqualifying,” he added. One current and two former Fox employees said they felt the need to “babysit” Hegseth because of his excessive drinking and sleepless nights. “We had to call him to make sure he didn’t oversleep because we knew he’d been out partying the night before,” one of them said. Another said doing ”TV at dawn is stressful and most of the time Pete made it even more stressful.”
