OUT FOR BLOOD: The Regime Media Remain After Pete Hegseth

As Defense Sec­re­tary-Des­ig­nate Pete Hegseth con­tin­ues to do the work in fur­ther­ance of his Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion, the Regime Media con­tin­ue to do the work to make sure he nev­er gets con­firmed. With the anony­mous­ly-sourced alle­ga­tions out in pub­lic, the media now work to main­tain pres­sure.

Watch as ABC News, the most Biden/Har­ris-syco­phan­tic news divi­sion through­out the cam­paign, stoops to a new low by seem­ing­ly mock­ing Hegseth’s mother’s appear­ance on Fox & Friends:

MARY BRUCE: And tonight, Hegseth now rely­ing on his moth­er, too, to make the case for him. Today on Fox News, his moth­er say­ing he’s a changed man. But when asked about a 2018 email she wrote him accus­ing her son of being an “abuser of women,” she did­n’t deny the email, but main­tained he’s dif­fer­ent now.

PENELOPE HEGSETH: I would just say that some of those — some of those attach­ments or descrip­tions are just not true, espe­cial­ly any­more.

BRUCE: Tonight, with a grow­ing num­ber of Repub­li­can sen­a­tors sig­nal­ing they are not behind him, Hegseth, an Army vet­er­an with no mil­i­tary lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence, still mak­ing the case for him­self.

PETE HEGSETH: That’s what Don­ald Trump asked me to do. “Your job is to bring a war-fight­ing ethos back to the Pen­ta­gon. Your job is to make sure that it’s lethal­i­ty, lethal­i­ty, lethal­i­ty. Every­thing else is gone. Every­thing else that dis­tracts from that should­n’t be hap­pen­ing.” That’s the mes­sage I’m hear­ing from sen­a­tors in that advice and con­sent process.

BRUCE: He can lose just three Repub­li­can sen­a­tors. Today try­ing to court key skep­tics, includ­ing Repub­li­can sen­a­tor Joni Ernst, who could also be up for the job if Trump moves on.

We may have arrived at Mean Girls ter­ri­to­ry with Mary Bruce’s lin­ger­ing on Hegseth’s mom. Of course, the pur­pose of such lin­ger­ing is to extend the shelf life of the dubi­ous­ly-sourced email pub­lished in The New York Times, notwith­stand­ing its being refut­ed at every turn by Mrs. Musk among oth­ers.

The rest of the report dove­tailed with every­one else’s on the mat­ter: rehash the alle­ga­tions, cast Hegseth as way unqual­i­fied for the post, spread head­count spec­u­la­tion, and advance replace­ment can­di­date the­o­ries.

After mak­ing fun of Hegseth’s moth­er, Bruce went on to attempt to shame him, by false­ly smear­ing him as unqual­i­fied:

BRUCE: Tonight, with a grow­ing num­ber of Repub­li­can sen­a­tors sig­nal­ing they are not behind him, Hegseth, an Army vet­er­an with no mil­i­tary lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence, still mak­ing the case for him­self.

Hegseth, of course, was a Pla­toon Leader while in the Army, which is sig­nif­i­cant. OF course, the “mil­i­tary lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence” Bruce alludes to is expe­ri­ence with­in the D.C. blob. 

Over at CBS, Nikole Kil­lion men­tioned Hegseth’s mom briefly, and didn’t linger too long before mov­ing on to the next sub­ject:

NIKOLE KILLION: His moth­er Pene­lope also took to the air­waves and appealed to law­mak­ers, walk­ing back a scathing 2018 email report­ed by The New York Times where she called her son an abuser of women.

Gar­rett Haake’s report for the NBC Night­ly News went along those very famil­iar lines: refresh the smears, recir­cu­late the Sen­ate head­count spec­u­la­tion, and fur­ther indi­cate to view­ers that Hegseth is unqual­i­fied to dis­rupt the Depart­ment of Defense.

The Regime Media, hav­ing cre­at­ed a sense of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty with regard to this can­di­da­cy, now seek to destroy it.

Click “expand” to view the full tran­scripts of the afore­men­tioned reports, as aired on their respec­tive net­work evening news­casts on Wednes­day, Decem­ber 4th, 2024,

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

12/4/24

6:40 PM

DAVID MUIR: We turn now to Pres­i­dent-Elect Trump’s embat­tled nom­i­nee for Defense Sec­re­tary, for­mer Fox host Pete Hegseth. Stand­ing firm tonight, say­ing Trump has told him to keep fight­ing. Hegseth’s own moth­er now defend­ing him on cable TV. But tonight, ABC News has also learned that Trump is now pri­vate­ly con­sid­er­ing oth­er poten­tial choic­es to lead the Pen­ta­gon. Mary Bruce with the list.

MARY BRUCE: Tonight, Don­ald Trump’s embat­tled pick for Sec­re­tary of Defense, for­mer Fox News host Pete Hegseth, says he will keep fight­ing.

PETE HEGSETH: I spoke to the Pres­i­dent-Elect this morn­ing. He said, “Keep going. Keep fight­ing. I’m behind you all the way.”

NIKOLE KILLION: So you’re in this all the way?

HEGSETH: Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fight­er.

BRUCE: Hegseth back on Capi­tol Hill fac­ing a bar­rage of new ques­tions about trou­bling alle­ga­tions involv­ing alleged sex­u­al mis­con­duct, alco­hol prob­lems, and finan­cial mis­man­age­ment. And tonight, mul­ti­ple sources tell us Trump is now con­sid­er­ing oth­er options to lead the Pen­ta­gon.

UNKNOWN: Excuse us.

REPORTER: Are you plan­ning to drop out?

BRUCE: Today, Hegseth call­ing those alle­ga­tions “the art of the smear,” adamant­ly deny­ing a rape accu­sa­tion, and say­ing he does­n’t have a prob­lem with alco­hol. Even promis­ing not to drink if he gets the job.

ERIC SCHMITT: He offered up to me — and I know he has with oth­er sen­a­tors too — that he’s not drink­ing, and that’s not some­thing he’s going to do when con­firmed here.

BRUCE: And tonight, Hegseth now rely­ing on his moth­er, too, to make the case for him. Today on Fox News, his moth­er say­ing he’s a changed man. But when asked about a 2018 email she wrote him accus­ing her son of being an “abuser of women,” she did­n’t deny the email, but main­tained he’s dif­fer­ent now.

PENELOPE HEGSETH: I would just say that some of those — some of those attach­ments or descrip­tions are just not true, espe­cial­ly any­more.

BRUCE: Tonight, with a grow­ing num­ber of Repub­li­can sen­a­tors sig­nal­ing they are not behind him, Hegseth, an Army vet­er­an with no mil­i­tary lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence, still mak­ing the case for him­self.

HEGSETH: That’s what Don­ald Trump asked me to do. “Your job is to bring a war-fight­ing ethos back to the Pen­ta­gon. Your job is to make sure that it’s lethal­i­ty, lethal­i­ty, lethal­i­ty. Every­thing else is gone. Every­thing else that dis­tracts from that should­n’t be hap­pen­ing.” That’s the mes­sage I’m hear­ing from sen­a­tors in that advice and con­sent process.

BRUCE: He can lose just three Repub­li­can sen­a­tors. Today try­ing to court key skep­tics, includ­ing Repub­li­can sen­a­tor Joni Ernst, who could also be up for the job if Trump moves on.

HEGSETH: We had an engag­ing and con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tion.

JONI ERNST: It was a very thor­ough con­ver­sa­tion.

BRUCE: With Ernst on Trump’s pos­si­ble replace­ment list, when asked about it by reporters –

ERNST: Mr. Hegseth is the nom­i­nee.

BRUCE: If it’s not Hegseth, we’ve learned Trump is not only con­sid­er­ing Ernst, but also pos­si­bly Ten­nessee Sen­a­tor Bill Hager­ty, and Flori­da Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis.

JOSH HAWLEY: It’s not 100% clear to me who he wants as Sec­re­tary of Defense right now. And I defer to him.

MUIR: So let’s get right to Mary Bruce, live at The White House again tonight. Mary, Sen­a­tor Joni Ernst real­ly didn’t want to engage there when she was asked about being a pos­si­ble replace­ment for Hegseth. How about Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis tonight? Does he want the job?

BRUCE: Well, David, sources tell us that Trump and DeSan­tis did speak about this yes­ter­day and that DeSan­tis has made it very clear he is inter­est­ed in the job, but they were bit­ter rivals dur­ing the pri­ma­ry. It would be quite some­thing to see DeSan­tis join the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, giv­en their past. David.

MUIR: Mary, thank you.

CBS EVENING NEWS

12/4/24

6:34 PM

NORAH O’DONNELL: Tonight, Don­ald Trump’s embat­tled pick to run the Pen­ta­gon says he’s look­ing for­ward to an FBI back­ground check, adding it’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty for a real inves­ti­ga­tion into alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al mis­con­duct and exces­sive drink­ing. Pete Hegseth also say­ing today that if he’s con­firmed as Sec­re­tary of Defense, there won’t be a quote: “drop of alco­hol” on his lips. CBS’s Nikole Kil­lion reports from Capi­tol Hill.

NIKOLE KILLION: Tonight, Pres­i­dent-Elect Don­ald Trump’s Pen­ta­gon pick is not back­ing down after mul­ti­ple sources told CBS News Trump could be seek­ing to replace the embat­tled designee with Flori­da Gov­er­nor Ron Desan­tis. Do you have any con­ver­sa­tions with the Pres­i­dent-Elect about him replac­ing you? With Gov­er­nor DeSan­tis?

PETE HEGSETH: I spoke to the pres­i­dent this morn­ing, he said keep going, keep fight­ing.

KILLION: You are in this all the way?

HEGSETH: Why would I back down? I’m here for the war fight­ers. This is per­son­al and pas­sion­ate for me.

KILLION: Hop­ing to com­bat a flood of neg­a­tive head­lines, Pete Hegseth went on a full-court press Wednes­day, start­ing with a Wall Street Jour­nal op-ed defend­ing his con­duct at two vet­er­an non­prof­its where he was accused of finan­cial mis­man­age­ment, and in a new inter­view he addressed accu­sa­tions of exces­sive drink­ing.

HEGSETH: First of all, I’ve nev­er had a drink­ing prob­lem. No one has ever approached me and said, “oh, you should real­ly look at get­ting help for drink­ing.” Nev­er.

KILLION: His moth­er Pene­lope also took to the air­waves and appealed to law­mak­ers, walk­ing back a scathing 2018 email report­ed by The New York Times where she called her son an abuser of women.

PENELOPE HEGSETH: I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emo­tions. Pete is a new per­son. He is redeemed, for­giv­en, changed.

KILLION: Are you a changed man?

HEGSETH: I love my mom and I appre­ci­ate her. And by the grace of God, all of us change, and I’m grate­ful for that.

Kil­lion: Still, some sen­a­tors seem uncon­vinced.

KEVIN CRAMER: The alle­ga­tions are very, very seri­ous. They can’t be triv­i­al­ized.

KILLION: Hegseth’s meet­ing today with Iowa Repub­li­can Joni Ernst, a sur­vivor of sex­u­al assault, was con­sid­ered crit­i­cal. 

How was your con­ver­sa­tion with Sen­a­tor Ernst?

HEGSETH: We had an engag­ing, con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tion.

JONI ERNST: It was a frank and thor­ough con­ver­sa­tion.

KILLION:: Sen­a­tor Ernst, who is also a com­bat vet­er­an, has been men­tioned as a poten­tial Defense can­di­date, but tonight, when asked whether she’s under con­sid­er­a­tion, she told me Mr. Hegseth is the nom­i­nee. As for Gov­er­nor Desan­tis, sources tell CBS News he is inter­est­ed in the job, and con­sid­ered con­firmable. Norah.

O’DONNELL: Nikole Kil­lion, with all that new infor­ma­tion. Thank you .

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

LESTER HOLT: We turn now to the con­fir­ma­tion chal­lenges for Pres­i­dent-Elect Trump’s choice for Defense Sec­re­tary. Pete Hegseth speak­ing out as we’ve also learned Trump may be eye­ing a for­mer pri­ma­ry rival to replace him. Here’s Gar­rett Haake.

GARRETT HAAKE: Pres­i­dent-Elect Trump’s selec­tion for Sec­re­tary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, fac­ing what may be a make-or-break moment for his nom­i­na­tion amid waver­ing GOP sup­port. Hegseth defi­ant, say­ing Trump told him today…

HEGSETH: Hey Pete, I got your back. It’s a fight. They’re com­ing after you. Get after it.

HAAKE: The for­mer Fox News host and dec­o­rat­ed com­bat vet­er­an speak­ing to Meg­yn Kel­ly, push­ing back on dam­ag­ing sto­ries about his back­ground.

HEGSETH: What has been said about me, it was so ridicu­lous and all anony­mous that we did­n’t want to give it oxy­gen. What you’re see­ing right now with me is the art of the smear.

HAAKE: NBC News has report­ed ten cur­rent and for­mer Fox News employ­ees say he drank in ways that con­cerned them.

HEGSETH: First of all, I nev­er had a drink­ing prob­lem. What do guys do when they come back from war often times? Have some beers.

HAAKE: Hegseth adding that if con­firmed, he would stop drink­ing entire­ly.

HEGSETH: This is the biggest deploy­ment of my life. There won’t be a drop of alco­hol on my lips while I’m doing it.

HAAKE: And address­ing why he paid a set­tle­ment to a woman who accused him of sex­u­al assault in 2017, an alle­ga­tion he denies. Police inves­ti­gat­ed and Hegseth was not charged.

HEGSETH: I did it to pro­tect my wife, I did it to pro­tect my fam­i­ly, and I did it to pro­tect my job.

HAAKE: But mul­ti­ple Repub­li­cans have told NBC News at least six GOP sen­a­tors are not com­fort­able sup­port­ing Hegseth. He can only afford three Repub­li­can no votes. Meet­ing with Iowa’s Joni Ernst today.

JONI ERNST: It was a frank and thor­ough con­ver­sa­tion.

HAAKE: Did he ask for your vote specif­i­cal­ly?

ERNST: Thank you.

HAAKE: And the Pres­i­dent-Elect may already be prepar­ing a back­up plan. Two sources tell NBC News Trump is con­sid­er­ing oth­er options for The Pen­ta­gon if Hegseth fal­ters, includ­ing Flori­da Gov­er­nor and Navy vet­er­an Ron DeSan­tis. Trump talked to the gov­er­nor and wants him to do it, a source famil­iar with the con­ver­sa­tion told NBC News. Trump and DeSan­tis, once pri­ma­ry rivals.

RON DESANTIS: I don’t know what goes into pay­ing hush mon­ey to a porn star.

DONALD TRUMP: And it’s time for Ron DeSanc­tus to hang it up.

HAAKE: But DeSan­tis ulti­mate­ly endors­ing Trump.

DESANTIS: He’s been pros­e­cut­ed and he near­ly lost his life. We can­not let him down and we can­not let Amer­i­ca down.

HAAKE: Some top Trump allies now in a hold­ing pat­tern.

JOSH HAWLEY: I will sup­port who­ev­er he wants. It’s not 100% clear to me who he wants as Sec­re­tary of Defense right now.

HOLT: And Gar­rett, despite the chal­lenges for Hegseth, Trump is mov­ing quick­ly to fill a lot of his admin­is­tra­tion posts.

HAAKE: That’s right, Lester. He named at least 13 picks so far today, includ­ing Peter Navar­ro to be an advi­sor on trade. Navar­ro served four months in prison for defy­ing a sub­poe­na from the Jan­u­ary 6th Com­mit­tee. Today, Trump tout­ing his sup­port for tar­iffs. Lester.

HOLT: Gar­rett Haake. Thank you.