The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer — who previously pushed the Russia collusion hoax against President-elect Donald Trump — on Tuesday attacked combat veteran and former U.S. House candidate Sean Parnell for debunking her hit piece on Trump Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth.
Mayer published a piece on Hegseth Sunday that recycled old claims from a decade ago from disgruntled ex-coworkers of his who were fired from a veterans advocacy organization that Hegseth ran between 2013 and 2016.
The anonymously-sourced claims were that Hegseth drank at holiday parties and afterwork events as he traveled around the country mobilizing veterans to vote and was forced to resign from the organization, as well as another veterans advocacy organization, due to mismanagement.
However, Parnell, a retired U.S. Army Ranger who worked with Hegseth at Concerned Veterans for America, went on the record to reject those claims. He told Compact Magazine, “I was there for most of those alleged incidents, and this stuff is just complete fabrications.”
He added that the so-called “whistleblower” claims in the New Yorker piece were from “people who were let go as the organization was growing, who weren’t fulfilling their duties. They just weren’t.”
Parnell also said Hegseth was not forced out of his position due to personal misconduct or mismanagement, saying, “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Parnell said,
This was right before President Trump began his first term. Pete and I were on the media all the time, talking about national security and foreign policy. And he and I became big believers in Trump’s vision of foreign policy. The funders of that organization [CVA] didn’t necessarily believe that. And because of that policy difference, over what America’s foreign and national-security policy should be, Pete parted ways. It was 100 percent professional, political differences.
Parnell also said the claim that Hegseth had no immediate job options was not true either. “He was a Fox News contributor,” adding he was in negotiations to become a full-time anchor and that “ABC was interested in him, as well.”
The New York Post on Wednesday posted a 2016 letter from a CVA trustee that backed up Parnell’s account and demolished a key claim in Mayer’s piece.
It said:
The truth is Pete resigned his position as CEO of Concerned Veterans for America as a result of a difference of opinion as to the future of the organization and so that he could focus on other endeavors, including his relationship with Fox News. Pete was not terminated by the organization and, in fact, we at CVA worked with him though this difficult decision and mutually agreed the end of 2015 was the best timing for both parties.
…
The bottom line is that Pete Hegseth voluntarily resigned his position and CVA recognizes and appreciates his accomplishments as CEO. Pete provided strong leadership during the growth of CVA as an influential organization on many fronts. We wish him much success.
For his substantiated defense of Hegseth, Mayer smeared Parnell — a combat veteran with a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars — posting on X:
I thought at 1st this was a joke: Pete Hegseth’s character witness was accused of choking his wife
Mayer’s smear against Parnell came from an ex-wife during a contentious divorce, with no evidence that it ever happened.
Parnell fired back at Mayer: “Yeah of course I’m defending Pete. I know exactly how it feels to be falsely accused with zero corroborating evidence by soulless hacks like you. But I’m through it now & Pete will get through it too.”
Parnell’s wife, Melanie Parnell, also blasted Mayer, calling her a “disgusting hack.” She posted on X:
You are the joke, you disgusting hack. You parrot false allegations made during a contentious divorce which had zero corroborating evidence & were refuted by his kids & others in the household. You smear @SeanParnellUSA, a great father & husband & decorated combat vet, but are silent about the allegations against Doug Emhoff, Keith Ellison, Raphael Warnock, etc. You are a pathetic excuse for a journalist.
Breitbart News — which obtained a copy of what the disgruntled ex-coworkers had compiled against Hegseth and was made aware that Mayer planned a hit piece on Hegseth — contacted her before she published her piece, asking:
Can you please provide a comment on why you are writing a story about Pete Hegseth that contains unverified allegations from a disgruntled former coworker of his? I would appreciate it.
Mayer never responded and proceeded to publish.
Mayer recently gushed about former President Barack Obama campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris on an October 23 New Yorker podcast episode, asking the host, Susan Glaser, “Did you see Obama last night?” and agreeing with Glaser that he was “amazing.”
She also said she felt bad for young Justice Department employees who had to decide whether to stay in government under Trump, or leave, and said it gave her “comfort” that “checks and balances” worked to sink former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R‑FL)’s nomination as attorney general.
Mayer wrote a lengthy profile on discredited ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by opposition research firm Fusion GPS to fabricate the so-called Steele Dossier, which claimed there was a pee tape of Trump and Russian prostitutes. It turned out that most of the information had been Russian disinformation funneled to Brookings Institution researcher Igor Danchenko.
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