Pete Hegseth Sits Down With Megyn Kelly to Take Blowtorch to Liberal Media’s Smears

Curtis Houck
December 4th, 2024 7:09 PM

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Shortly after his mother went on Wednesday’s Fox & Friends in support of his nomination to become defense secretary, Pete Hegseth sat down with fellow former Fox News host Megyn Kelly for over an hour on her eponymous SiriusXM show to discuss in detail the coordinated smear campaign by the liberal media and the Washington establishment that Kelly equated to the despicable character assassination against Brett Kavanaugh.

Hegseth started with the admission that he and his team will “do more talking because, for so long, what was said about me, what has been said about me — it was so ridiculous and all anonymous that we didn’t want to give it oxygen,” but their “ridiculous narrative” has forced his hand “to stand up and tell the truth.”

 

 

He added that, in the end, it’s the opinion of senators who matter and their questions, not “the hyenas in the hallway trying to chirp at my wife and I as we walk down the hallway.”

Kelly even made Kavanaugh into a verb in asking this question: “Do you think you’re being Kavanaughed right now?”

 

 

Hegseth noted one senator earlier Wednesday had told him just that, paraphrasing their warning to him: “That’s what they’re trying to do to you. That’s their playbook. Get ready for more and they’re going to make it up, just like they have so far. All anonymous. All innuendo. All rumor. Nothing sourced. No verification and they’re just going to keep doing it because you’re a threat to them.”

“Kavanaugh stood up and he fought and he won and hopefully, Republicans have learned that lesson...[W]hat you’re seeing right now with me is the art of the smear. It is the classic art of the smear. Take whatever tiny kernels of truth...and blow them up,” he added.

Hegseth went onto point out the liberal media cling to anonymous sources, but saw no point in speaking with “the legions of people from who I served with,” “from the multiple veterans organizations that I very proudly ran,” and Fox News (click “expand”):

HEGSETH: [A]nd what they never quote — and we’ll get into this too — are the legions of people from who I served with in combat, multiple tours, from the multiple veterans organizations that I very proudly ran and I really want to get into that and my time at Fox News. They never asked the people closest to me.

KELLY: No.

HEGSETH: They never asked the people who were involved directly. And, when they do, and I’ve got a list right here of — of — of people and — Will Cain and my hosts at Fox News have come out — all the folks at Fox & Friends have all come out and said this is not Pete and we worked with Pete for 10 years, every single morning, every single day. They never ask those people.

KELLY: Yeah.

HEGSETH: And that’s what a smear looks like. It’s a couple anonymous nuggets, usually from disgruntled people who were fired for cause who are jealous or want a little — a little bit of retribution and so, they peddle stuff to reporters who are interested in the truth. They’re interested in smearing someone who supports Donald Trump’s agenda. It’s really clear. I’m in the middle of it, but you know, I’m surrounded by a great team. I got a wonderful wife. We love this country. We love Jesus Christ, our Savior. And we’re going to fight like hell. There’s no reason to back down. Why would we back down? Do you know how many guys I’m hearing from right now, the guys I served with? Gals that I worked with at CVA and elsewhere? “Don’t stop.” The guys are like — it’s always, sir, you know — “don’t stop, sir!” “Please, keep going.”

KELLY: They’re behind you.

HEGSETH: “You — you are fighting for us.” like, “You are our voice.” “We’ve never had a voice like this before.”

Kelly dug deeper through specific allegations about sexual misconduct and excessive drinking. On the latter, she brought it up as the crux of the hit piece from The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer that was all done “anonymously” as well as the one from NBC making entirely anonymous claims about his conduct at Fox News.

She also pointed out the NBC story “oddly includes a Pentagon correspondent [Courtney Kube], which is very interesting to me.”

“Why would a Pentagon — like, it does make me wonder whether some of their sources are working there,” she asked, to which Hegseth chuckled it’s a sign “maybe there’s some people in the Pentagon who don’t want me to be the secretary of defense, which wouldn’t surprise me.”

On his Fox conduct, Hegseth had a simple retort of “check the tape” before returning to the issue of anonymous sources: “All of those allegations are anonymous. All of them are unsubstantiated. No one’s putting their name on it. No one can point to an actual incidence, any actual place, an actual piece of evidence, none of it.”

Hegseth took a few minutes to torch Mayer’s salacious claim about an escapade to a Louisiana strip club:

Kelly then disclosed that, on the Fox News/drinking claims, she was “the reason you became a contributor there and that was primetime night, you know, hits that you were doing with me and never once, not even the hint of alcohol or any alcohol problem.”

Hegseth doubled down on this being “the anatomy of the smear” that what the left is “trying to do is” have him “prove a negative.”

He also got down to brass tacks about the reality of how, between his morning show hosting duties and primetime hits as a guest, he was in proximity to dozens of people at Fox and no prior issues of drinking came up despite what he described as a place that “leak[ing] like a sieve.”

They later closed with The New York Times hit job against Hegesth and his mother and the leak of a 2018 e-mail she sent to him amid his second divorce.

Hegseth and Kelly refused to pretend to be outraged, admitting this is what they do. After crediting The Times for at least speaking to his mother, he admitted it was a difficult time. 

Instead of focusing on the redemptive factor, he noted, the liberal media have tried to paint Hegseth as having a tenuous relationship with his mom:

To see the relevant transcript from SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show on December 4, click here.

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