After President-elect Donald Trump's landslide victory, mainstream media has focused attention on his attempts to withdraw his cabinet nominations, and most recently on defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.
What Breitbart News learned: new yorker He is preparing to publish a blockbuster work about Hegseth. The allegations draw on allegations from a decade ago by jealous former colleagues and are being replayed in the media as he prepares for Senate confirmation.
The allegations date back to 2014 and were made by a former female co-worker who worked with Hegseth and was fired from Concerned American Veterans (CVA), a conservative veterans' advocacy group.
The former colleague has been on the “periphery of the Trump world” for the past decade, wanted to be a Fox News host, and was described as being unusually jealous, especially after Hegseth was considered for secretary of Veterans Affairs during the war. Some people did. First Trump administration.
That's when she wrote and distributed a screed attacking CVA for age discrimination and detailing allegations that several of the organization's leaders, including Hegseth, allegedly drank alcohol at staff parties and after-work events in 2014. It was.
She accused Hegseth of being “grossly intoxicated” at a staff Christmas party, and during a Get Out the Vote trip in North Carolina, where volunteers gathered in a hotel war room after finishing door knocking at 6 p.m. He said he drank beer. She said some of the CVA staff, including Hegseth, went out drinking and returned at 1 a.m.
She also claimed that after an event on the Defend Freedom Tour in June 2014, Hegseth got “completely drunk” with CVA advisor and Medal of Honor recipient Marine Dakota Meyer, and that during another tour, Hegseth and CVA The advisor claimed to have been flirting with the singer. Touring and “acting like a fraternity member.”
She also lashed out at Gold Star wives, criticizing them for being “extremely emotional” when giving presentations about her husband's death in Afghanistan, drinking constantly and once vomiting in public. . A former colleague accused Hegseth of giving her a ride.
In 2014, Hegseth was a 34-year-old National Guard captain who had just returned from his second war tour, a deployment to Afghanistan as part of a surge.
Former colleagues attacked Hegseth as a “part-time worker” and “walking around as a veteran,” claiming that Hegseth “works behind the wire and has never performed any combat action.”
This suspicion was completely false. Hegseth served in combat in Iraq in 2005, leading a platoon of about 40 people into Baghdad and Samara. He is currently a retired Army Sergeant. Maj. Eric Geressi, who served with Hegseth, said: washington post The fighting was “particularly intense”.
“The enemy really threw everything at us,” Gelessi said. post. “Suicide bombers, mortars, rockets, you name it.”
Hegseth's military awards include the Combat Infantryman Badge, which is awarded to those who serve in combat.
Near the end of her screed, a former colleague accused CVA of age discrimination and cutting experienced veteran staff, including herself.
She writes: “Nearly all of the staff, advisors, and contractors who founded and built the organization have been cut. All of the original people were brought in by Joe Zekan. Almost all of them are veterans over 45 years old. A young CEO. It's clear that Pete Hegseth and his team have no value whatsoever in anyone more experienced than themselves, and that's why CVA This could be seen as age and veteran discrimination. If you look at all the staff and advisor reductions, you can see a clear trend.”
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