Most of us would have been fired if we behaved the way Pete Hegseth did at Fox’s 2016 Christmas party. Fox News promoted him.
I’ve been writing about how the revelations that have raised questions about Hegseth’s suitability to be secretary of the Defense Department also raise questions about Fox News. Yesterday, I wrote, ‘Thanks to NBC News’ reporting, it’s clear that Hegseth’s drunkenness and unprofessional conduct was no secret at Fox.
New reporting from The New York Times reveals more:
The “Fox & Friends” Christmas party at a New York bowling arcade in 2016 was a low point. Mr. Hegseth, who was married to his second wife, with whom he had three children, was having an affair with Ms. Rauchet, a producer on the show.
Her husband, suspecting an affair, showed up at the party even though the event was limited to Fox News employees, and Mr. Hegseth, who had been drinking, was upset to see him, according to people with knowledge of the incident.
Employees reported that Mr. Hegseth caused a disturbance, a complaint that the human resources department addressed directly with him, according to one of the people with knowledge of the situation. After Mr. Hegseth and Ms. Rauchet disclosed their relationship to Fox News in late 2016, Ms. Rauchet was transferred to a comparable job within Fox News.
The Times further reports that Fox’s human resources department “looked into” Hegseth’s conduct at the party “and discussed it with him, according to a person with intimate knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.”
What’s not included in The Times’ article is that Fox promoted Hegseth to cohost anyway after that 2016 incident. Hegseth was a contributor at Fox until he became cohost in 2017.
It’s not as if that was a one off.
More from The Times:
The following December, Mr. Hegseth got so drunk at a wedding of a Fox News producer that he struggled to stand upright in a men’s bathroom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the episode who declined to be named for fear of retribution. Friends asked a producer who was there to get Mr. Hegseth a ride home so he could make it to the set by 6 a.m., they said.
The Times also noted that Hegseth’s lawyer said that neither of the above incidents are true.
But NBC News and The New Yorker reported on many more such episodes of drunken, disreputable and worse behavior, including allegations of sexual assault and "handsy" behavior.
As I wrote yesterday, it’s clear that Hegseth’s drunkenness and unprofessional conduct was no secret at Fox.
NBC reporters spoke to three current and seven former Fox News employees. "Everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air,” one former Fox employee told NBC.
“Three current employees said his drinking remained a concern up until Trump announced him as his choice to run the Pentagon, at which point Hegseth left Fox,” NBC also reported.
One current and two former Fox employees talked about having to call Hegseth to make sure he didn’t oversleep because they knew he’d have been out partying the night before his Fox & Friends weekend morning show cohost gig.
Yet, if Hegseth is to be believed, The Times reporting indicates Fox never insisted he go to any kind of treatment or counseling for his drinking.
This is nowhere near as significant as Hegseth’s complete and utter unsuitability for the job of Secretary of Defense. But Donald Trump chose Hegseth because he liked him on Fox so much (Hegseth has no other “qualifications”). Had Fox acted responsibly in the first place, this whole Hegseth debacle might have been avoided.
Meanwhile, Hegseth sounds like a typical alcoholic promising never to drink again if he can just pretty please get the job he is totally unqualified for.
From The Times again:
[Hegseth] said that while “I never had a drinking problem” or sought counseling or treatment for alcohol abuse, he would become a teetotaler as secretary of defense.
“This is the biggest deployment of my life and there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it,” he said.
If any of you know alcoholics, you know that Hegseth almost certainly would be unable to keep this promise.
Senators, this is reason enough not to put this man in charge of our armed forces. Sadly, there are plenty more reasons, too.
(Hegseth image via Crooks and Liars screen grab)
Scooter is correct. Hegseth has repeatedly told everyone who and what he is. We should believe him.
It’s honestly concerning that the fall-back of many sane Americans today seems to be a faint hope that maybe these guys will just be so incompetent that they won’t be able to accomplish anything. Right. How’d that work out last time?
