Pete Hegseth Says Fox News Colleagues Criticizing Him Are ‘Jealous’

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, responded to criticism from his Fox News colleagues on Wednesday, saying they were jealous of him.

Speaking on The Megyn Kelly Show about the many accusations against him since his nomination, the veteran host laughed when Kelly asked him about his alleged drinking problem.

“They never ask the people closest to me, they never ask the people who are directly involved,” he said of media reports about him. “They never ask the people closest to me.

“Everybody at Fox and Friends has come out and said, ‘This is not Pete, and we’ve worked with Pete for 10 years, every single morning, every single day.'”

He said the comments used against him were “a few anonymous nuggets” from those who had been sacked “who are jealous or want a little bit of revenge”.

Hegseth, who has also been accused of mismanagement and sexual misconduct, was tipped by Trump to be the next defense secretary. He has denied all allegations against him, including a police report which revealed a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.

However, the Fox host’s record has come under increasing scrutiny, with recent reports that he was repeatedly drunk during his tenure as executive director of the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) between 2013 and 2016.

On Monday, he told reporters he wouldn’t make questions about his drinking worth an answer. That attitude appeared to have changed Wednesday when he told Kelly he had never been told to seek help for his drinking.

“What do guys do when they come back from war often? Drink some beer,” he said. “How do you deal with the demons you see on the battlefield? Sometimes it’s with a bottle.”

Hegseth said that sometimes leads veterans into depression and, in some cases, suicide. For him, he said, his wife Jennifer and Jesus Christ saved him from that.

“I’m a very different person than I was 10 years ago than I was 15 years ago,” he added, saying he was the right guy to be in the Pentagon because he had lived in the military.

Hegseth also addressed the reports surrounding the other allegations against him, saying he still had the support of the president-elect and U.S. senators, who are responsible for confirming or rejecting the appointment.

That support has also come publicly from MAGA figures and Hegseth’s colleagues at Fox News.

“Pete Hegseth is an excellent choice for Secretary of Defense. I am confident he will strengthen our military and make an excellent addition to the Trump administration,” Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Fox contributor Guy Benson also took to the social media platform to voice his support.

“I have co-hosted with Pete and have never experienced anything like what was claimed in this anonymously sourced report,” he said.

Others, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, have spoken out against Hegseth’s nomination. He called the allegations against Hegseth “disturbing.”