Pete Hegseth, a Pentagon pick of President-elect Donald Trump, has clarified his allegations of alcohol abuse, saying that he must have had a beer or two, like all men from war, but that he never had a drinking problem and never needed counseling. Because it was never an abuse or a problem. On Megyn Kelly’s show Wednesday, Pete Hegseth said he looks forward to the Senate hearing because it will end the “arsenal of lies” being spread about him and mean a real investigation.
“First of all, I’ve never had a drinking problem,” Hegseth said. “No one has ever approached me and said, ‘You really should get help for your drinking.’ Never asked for advice, never asked for help, but you know how you deal with the monsters you see when they come back from battle? The battlefield is sometimes with that bottle.”
Hegseth says he will quit drinking
During the interview, Pete said that as soldiers are not allowed to drink during deployments, he would treat his Patongon job as a deployment and give up drinking. “This is the biggest deployment of my life, and I won’t have a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it,” he said.
After Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination to be Trump’s attorney general, Hegseth emerged as the most controversial choice to have second thoughts, reports claim. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is being considered to replace Pete Hegseth, but Hegseth dismissed the speculation.
Alcohol abuse is one of the many complaints against him. His mother, Penelope Hegseth, accused him of abusing women in a 2018 email. But his mother clarified that it was written hastily and in a different context with deep emotions when Pete and his first wife were going through a difficult divorce.