President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, told SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly on Wednesday that he believes he is the target of a “smear” campaign, comparing his experience to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.
After Trump nominated Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court in 2018, Democratic lawmakers quickly sought to derail his confirmation, portraying him as partisan and using sexual assault allegations that surfaced after his nomination to weaken his bid. On “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Hegseth sat down to discuss the backlash against him, with Kelly asking if he believes he is being “Kavanaugh’d.”
“I had a member, not 45 minutes ago, look me in the eye in private, just he and I, and say ‘That’s what they’re trying to do to you,’” Hegseth said. “‘That’s their playbook. Get ready for more, and they’re gonna make it up, just like they have so far. All anonymous, all innuendo, all rumor, nothing sourced, no verification and they’re just gonna keep doing it, because you’re a threat to them. You’re a threat to their system. You’re a threat to all the things in Washington D.C., the swamp, the things that people have rejected. You’re a threat to that, and so they’re coming after you.’”
“I know that, he knows that, and when you stand firm on that, it’s not difficult to just continue to fight. So yeah, we saw what happened, but guess what happened? Kavanaugh stood up, and he fought, and he won, and hopefully Republicans have learned that lesson,” Hegseth added.
Hegseth noted that despite the criticism from lawmakers, Trump still stood by Kavanaugh, stating that what the public is witnessing in his process is the “classic art of the smear” in order to take “tiny kernels of truth” and “blow them up into a masquerade of a narrative.”
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“What they never quote, and we’ll get into this too, are the legions of people from whom I served with in combat, multiple tours, from the multiple veterans organizations that I very proudly ran, and I really want to get into that, and my time at Fox News. They never asked the people closest to me,” Hegseth said.
“They never ask those people. That’s what a smear looks like. It’s a couple anonymous nuggets, usually from disgruntled people who were fired for cause, who are jealous or want a little bit of retribution, and so they peddle stuff to reporters who are not interested in the truth. They’re interested in smearing someone who supports Donald Trump’s agenda,” Hegseth continued.
Following the announcement of Hegseth’s nomination last month, reports of a sexual assault allegation surfaced, along with other outlets claiming the former Fox News host had abused alcohol. In November, The New York Times also published a 2018 email from Hegseth’s mother, calling out her son for his alleged mistreatment and belittling of women. On Wednesday, Hegseth’s mother appeared on “Fox & Friends,” stating that she wanted to “discredit” the media’s attacks against him and that she had written the email “in haste.”
In response, Hegseth denied the claims and has been meeting with Republican senators for private discussions regarding his nomination. Coworkers and friends of the former Fox host have also come forward, with host Will Cain creating a thread Wednesday on X showing how many public figures close to Hegseth are in support of him despite the “anonymous sources” calling for concerns of his alleged drinking habit.
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