‘100 Percent Bullsh-t’: Fox News Talent Shoot Down NBC’s Smear Campaign Against Pete Hegseth
Current and former Fox News talent are calling bull on legacy media’s latest smear campaign to sink Pete Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, NBC News dropped a malicious hit piece against the Army veteran and former “Fox and Friends Weekend” host, in which 10 allegedly former and current network employees supposedly claimed that Hegseth displayed signs of a drinking problem in the workplace. Curiously, none of the alleged anonymous sources referenced by authors Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube, and Sarah Fitzpatrick identified themselves, citing “fear of retaliation.”
The left-wing outlet’s trafficking of slanderous and unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing by Hegseth bears a striking resemblance to the smear tactics deployed by media hacktivists in their bid to defeat Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court nomination. Lacking any journalistic integrity, these so-called “reporters” ran with any and all claims laundered by the judge’s accusers with virtually no pushback or skepticism.
The publication of Tuesday’s hit piece received immediate pushback from Hegseth’s former Fox colleagues and network contributors and guests, who all shot down the allegations of unprofessional workplace conduct.
On X, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Will Cain called NBC’s story, “Bullsh-t. 100 percent bullsh-t. Actually … horsesh-t,” and noted in a follow-up post that he “was not contacted by anyone at @NBCNews” regarding the allegations against Hegseth.
“Your story is horsesh-t @NBCNews. Put my name on it. On the record. It’ll be your only on the record source,” Cain wrote. “Signed, The guy who sat next to him for 8 hours every week for five years starting at 6am.”
“Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy similarly confirmed on X that “the losers @NBCNews never reached out to [her] either,” and pushed back on the story’s allegations.
“@willcain is right — your story IS horsesh-t,” she wrote. “You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story?”
[READ: The Police Report About Pete Hegseth’s Alleged Sexual Assault Vindicates Him Of Criminality]
Campos-Duffy’s daughter and Fox News guest Evita Duffy-Alfonso also voiced her support for Hegseth, writing on X, “I stand with Pete and his beautiful family in the face of these smears.”
Federalist Editor-in-Chief and Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway said she has “nothing but good things to say about Pete and the anonymously sourced stories don’t match [her] personal experience in any way. Quite the contrary, in fact.”
“I can’t stand the propaganda practice of using anonymous sources to smear political opponents, as NBC does here,” Hemingway wrote on X.
Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe said she has “guest co-hosted with [Hegseth] numerous times before,” and that “Not once did this happen. Not once [has she] heard this from others.”
“This is such a disgusting and false smear. It is wrong and malicious,” she wrote on X.
“I have routinely sat on the couch with @PeteHegseth for 8 years,” wrote Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox contributor. “Not once did I suspect he had consumed anything other than an egg sandwich and coffee before going on air.”
Radio host and frequent Fox News guest Dan Bongino called the allegations against Hegseth, “100 [percent] HORSESH-T.”
Fox News contributor and veteran Johnny Joey Jones said the hit pieces against the defense secretary nominee “are getting laughable,” and noted that he’s “disgusted by the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath” and has “never EVER seen Pete drink like that, and have never smelled alcohol on his breath at work.”
[READ: Media Lie About Pete Hegseth’s Christian Faith To Falsely Smear Him As Racist]
Former Fox News producer Breanna Morello said she’s “never heard” of the allegations against Hegseth “in [her] life,” noting how the alleged Fox employees cited in the NBC report “are anonymous.”
“Everyone spoke highly of him and still does til this day,” Morello wrote on X.
Former Fox producer and independent journalist Kyle Becker detailed on X how he saw Hegseth “numerous times while working at Fox News,” and “[n]ever got the impression he was ever drunk.”
“No bloodshot eyes. No slurred speech. No disheveled appearance. No wobbly gait. Nothing,” Becker wrote. “I’m also calling bullsh-t.”
Fox News contributors Guy Benson, Sara Carter, and numerous other network employees and guests have come out in defense of Hegseth against the unsubstantiated claims published by NBC News.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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