Although some of President-elect Donald Trump's picks for his incoming administration are almost certain to receive bipartisan confirmation in the U.S. Senate — including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for secretary of state and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for interior secretary — others are extremely controversial. And one pick that is drawing vehement criticism from both the left and the right is Fox News star Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary.
Hegseth's critics have been arguing that although he is a veteran, he lacks the experience necessary to lead the U.S. Defense Department. Moreover, critics warn, Hegseth has faced a sexual assault allegation (although he hasn't been charged with anything) and embraces dangerous Christian nationalist views.
Now, bombshell reporting by journalist Jane Mayer in The New Yorker gives Hegseth's critics more arguments to use against him.
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Mayer, in an article published on December 1, reports that "Hegseth's record before becoming a full-time Fox News TV host, in 2017, raises additional questions about his suitability to run the world's largest and most lethal military force."
"A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct," Mayer explains. "A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth's tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events."
Mayer continues, "The detailed seven-page report — which was compiled by multiple former CVA employees and sent to the organization's senior management in February 2015 — states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization's female staffers, whom they divided into two groups — the 'party girls' and the 'not-party girls.'"
According to Mayer, a separate letter of complaint alleges that during a visit to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on May 29, 2015, a drunken Hegseth was chanting, "Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!"
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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, discussed the alcohol abuse allegations against Hegseth.
Blumenthal told Mayer, "Much as we might be sympathetic to people with continuing alcohol problems, they shouldn't be at the top of our national-security structure. It's dangerous. The secretary of defense is involved in every issue of national security. He's involved in the use of nuclear weapons. He's the one who approves sending troops into combat. He approves drone strikes that may involve civilian casualties. Literally life-and-death issues are in the hands of the secretary of defense, and entrusting these kinds of issues to someone who might be incapacitated for any reason is a risk we cannot take."
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Jane Mayer's full report for The New Yorker is available at this link (subscription required).