With Wednesday’s Today (and ABC’s Good Morning America), an NBC flagship newscast covered a smear perpetuated by its own website that Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee have a sworn affidavit from secretary of defense pick Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-law alleging he abused his second wife. The problem? Said ex-wife denied it.
In other words, the NBCNews.com piece from a former longtime Huffington Post hack is the equivalent of the second and third false smears against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to try and thwart his confirmation. And, sure enough, the affidavit originated with Senate Armed Services Committe Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), who was part of said Kavanaugh character assassination campaign.
Co-host Craig Melvin made it seem ominous in speaking to White House correspondent Garrett Haake: “Garrett, let me ask you, while I have you, about something else here. Trump’s nomination for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. What more can you tell us about those developments?”
Haake also gave it plenty of credibility by describing it as “very interesting developments” before explaining “[s]enators received an affidavit from Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, accusing him of threatening conduct toward his second wife, Samantha Hegseth” and came about thanks to Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) having “sought a statement from her on her personal knowledge about Mr. Hegseth’s fitness for this position.”
Haake spelled out what would be a scary set of claims while conceding Samantha Hegseth has denied the claim. However, notice how he tried to concoct some sense of hope for Hegseth haters:
Now, among the allegations, an escape plan and a code word Samantha developed in case she ever felt the need to get away from her husband, which apparently happened once. Hegseth’s lawyer dismissed the allegations and Samantha Hegseth, for her part, said in a statement, “there was no physical abuse in her marriage.” Now, we should also note that, in 2021, both Pete and Samantha Hegseth signed a court documents saying that neither of them claimed to be the victim of domestic abuse.
ABC had 35 seconds with co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos tossing to senior political correspondent Rachel Scott to explain why Hegseth’s “facing new allegations now.”
In true hack-job fashion, Scott also painted this as bad news bears regardless of whether the woman in question says it happened or not:
Senators on the Armed Services Committee, George, have obtained a sworn affidavit from the former sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth who claims that he was abusive of his second wife, so much so he had to hide in the closet and that they had a code word in case she needed help. Now, she does acknowledge that she never witnessed any sexual or physical abuse and an attorney for Hegseth is denying these allegations, including those allegations of abuse flat out. His nomination, though, is moving forward, with a vote expected as early as this week, George.
To see the relevant transcripts from January 22, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).
