WATCH: Pen­ta­gon Nom­i­nee Pete Hegseth Reveals Details From Call With Trump, Says He Won’t Back Down

Trump Defense Sec­re­tary nom­i­nee Pete Hegseth said on Wednes­day morn­ing that he has no plans to with­draw his name from con­sid­er­a­tion, reveal­ing a recent call he had with Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump.

“I spoke to the Pres­i­dent-elect this morn­ing. He said keep going, keep fight­ing, find your own way,” Hegseth told reporters.

Asked about with­draw­ing his name, the com­bat vet­er­an respond­ed, “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fight­er. I’m here for the warfight­ers. This is per­son­al and pas­sion­ate for me.”

WATCH:

The next Sec­re­tary of Defense, Pete Hegseth: “I spoke to the Pres­i­dent-elect this morn­ing. He said keep going, keep fight­ing…

Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fight­er. I’m here for the warfight­ers. This is per­son­al & pas­sion­ate for me.” 🔥
pic.twitter.com/LJFXkTBq1q

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) Decem­ber 4, 2024

Hegseth’s for­mer col­leagues at Fox News came to his defense on Tues­day evening after an NBC News report fueled by anony­mous sources claimed Hegseth was rou­tine­ly drunk on air.

Fox News’ Will Cain, co-host of “Fox & Friends Week­end,” respond­ed to the NBC arti­cle, “Your sto­ry is hors­es*** @NBCNews. 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 6 am.”

Hegseth’s oth­er for­mer “Fox & Friends Week­end” co-host, Rachel Cam­pos-Duffy, issued a sim­i­lar response. “The losers at @NBCNews nev­er reached out to me either. @willcain is right – your sto­ry IS  hors­es***,” she wrote. “You now have 2 peo­ple who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or cor­rect your sto­ry?”

It was uncov­ered last month that Hegseth was accused of sex­u­al assault back in 2017. An unnamed woman claims Hegseth sex­u­al­ly assault­ed her in a hotel room fol­low­ing a con­ser­v­a­tive con­fer­ence. Hegseth said that the encounter was con­sen­su­al, and police decid­ed against any fur­ther action.

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“It’s very sim­ple,” Hegseth told the press. “The mat­ter was ful­ly inves­ti­gat­ed, and I was com­plete­ly cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.”

Notably, jour­nal­ist and attor­ney Meg­yn Kel­ly went through the police report on her show and said that the accu­sa­tion looks to be “bulls***” and stat­ed that it appears the accuser “was not raped,” but pan­icked after her hus­band became sus­pi­cious that she cheat­ed with Hegseth.

Reports cir­cu­lat­ed Mon­day evening that Trump is weigh­ing the option of Flori­da Repub­li­can Gov. Ron DeSan­tis as a replace­ment Sec­re­tary of Defense nom­i­nee.

Relat­ed: ‘Your Sto­ry Is Horse­sh**’: Hegseth’s Col­leagues Fierce­ly Defend Him After NBC News Attack