Two Fox News staffers told NBC News that they smelled alcohol on Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, last month.
The staffers said they smelled alcohol on Hegseth “on more than a dozen occasions” during his time as a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” including moments before he went on air.
One of the sources told the outlet they smelled alcohol on Hegseth “as recently as last month” and heard him complain about being hungover this fall.
“Everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air,” a former employee said referring to Hegseth’s alleged drinking problem.
Hegseth’s co-host Will Cain denied the allegations in post on X, calling the claims “100 percent bullshit.”
“Your story is horseshit [NBC News],” he added. “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.”
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team said in a statement: “These disgusting allegations are completely unfounded and false, and anyone peddling these defamatory lies to score political cheap shots is sickening. As a decorated combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize that, and he is treating his nomination as the most important deployment of his life.”
The report comes after new disturbing allegations were revealed by The New Yorker from a previously undisclosed whistleblower report from 2015 detailing Hegseth’s time as the head of Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) from 2013 to 2016.
The report said Hegseth was repeatedly intoxicated on the job and was forced out of the organization due to mismanagement and allegations of sexual misconduct.
