Pete Hegseth’s for­mer col­leagues defend him against report that his drink­ing ‘wor­ried’ cowork­ers

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Pete Hegseth’s former colleagues defend him against report that his drinking ‘worried’ coworkers

Pete Hegseth’s drink­ing was such a prob­lem it wor­ried many of his col­leagues at Fox News, accord­ing to a report pub­lished on Tues­day by NBC News. 

The claim is based on com­mu­ni­ca­tion with ten employ­ees who worked along­side Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump’s nom­i­nee for sec­re­tary of defense and dis­cussed instances in which they sus­pect­ed him of being under the influ­ence of alco­hol. How­ev­er, two of Hegseth’s col­leagues at Fox News came to Hegseth’s defense and denounced the report. They took to X on Tues­day to claim it was untrue. 

Will Cain and Rachel Cam­pos-Duffy, who cohost­ed Fox & Friends Week­end with Hegseth, called the reports bogus, using col­or­ful lan­guage to do so.

“Bullsh*t,” Cain post­ed on X, above a link for the arti­cle. “100 per­cent bullsh*t. Actually…horsesh*t.”

Cain post­ed again sev­er­al min­utes lat­er, adding to his rebuke of the NBC News report by vouch­ing for Hegseth and telling the net­work to use his name as a source to debunk the claim.

“Your sto­ry is horesh*t @NBCNews,” Cain post­ed on X. “Put my name on it. On the record. It’ll be your only on the record source. Signed, The guy who sat next to him for 8 hours every week for five years start­ing at 6am.” 

Cam­pos-Duffy fol­lowed Cain with a post of her own lat­er Tues­day night. 

“The losers at @NBCNews nev­er reached out to me either,” Cam­pos-Duffy post­ed. “@willcain is right – your sto­ry IS horsesh*t. You now have 2 peo­ple who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or cor­rect your sto­ry?”

Accord­ing to the NBC News report, two peo­ple said they “smelled alco­hol on him before he went on air,” and on sev­er­al oth­er occa­sions, Hegseth men­tioned he was “hun­gover” as he was prepar­ing to film his show. One of the sources inter­viewed by NBC News claimed to have “smelled alco­hol on him as recent­ly as last month” and heard Hegseth men­tion he was hun­gover before film­ing an episode “this fall.” 

“Every­one would be talk­ing about it behind the scenes before he went on the air,” the source told NBC News. 

Oth­ers took to X to vehe­ment­ly defend Hegseth from the claims in the report. 

Bre­an­na Morel­lo, a for­mer pro­duc­er for Fox News, denied the claim, stat­ing that she “nev­er heard this” dur­ing her time with the news net­work.

“As a for­mer Fox pro­duc­er, I’ve nev­er heard this in my life,” Morel­lo post­ed. “Every­one spoke high­ly of him and still does til this day. I noticed the employ­ees are anony­mous.”

Kyle Beck­er, a for­mer employ­ee of Fox News, also chal­lenged the accu­sa­tion that Hegseth was reg­u­lar­ly sus­pect­ed of being under the influ­ence of alco­hol. 

“I sae [sic] @PeteHegseth numer­ous times while work­ing at Fox News,” Beck­er post­ed. “Nev­er got the impres­sion he was ever drunk. No blood­shot eyes. No slurred speech. No disheveled appear­ance. No wob­bly gait. Noth­ing. I’m also call­ing bullsh*t.”

Pod­cast host Dan Bongi­no also reject­ed the NBC News report. 

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“Worked with Pete for years,” Bongi­no post­ed. “This is absolute BULLSH*T.”

The report fea­tured three cur­rent Fox News employ­ees and sev­en for­mer ones. Accord­ing to NBC News, all made their accu­sa­tions anony­mous­ly because they were con­cerned about retal­i­a­tion.

Hegseth was the week­end cohost of Fox & Friends from 2017 until Pres­i­dent-elect Trump nom­i­nat­ed him for sec­re­tary of defense.