Pete Hegseth was involved in a “disturbance” at a Fox & Friends Christmas party after his mistress’ husband turned up uninvited to the gathering, according to a bombshell new report.
After the incident, the human resources department at Fox News was called in and discussed it with Hegseth, an unnamed source told The New York Times.
The latest disclosure came as Hegseth was battling to save his nomination as Donald Trump’s secretary of defense amid speculation over allegations involving infidelity, heavy drinking, and an accusation of sexual assault.
The Christmas party was at a New York bowling arcade in 2016 when he was married to his second wife Samantha Deering, the mother of three of his children. At the time, he was reportedly having an affair with TV producer Jennifer Rauchet after they met while working on Fox & Friends.
According to the Times, Hegseth had been drinking and was “upset” to see Rauchet’s husband turn up at the festivities that were supposed to be restricted to Fox News employees.
Rauchet was later transferred to another equivalent Fox News job after the couple disclosed their relationship. She had a baby with Hegseth in August 2017 and the couple wed in 2019.
The Times also reported that Hegseth got so drunk at the wedding of a Fox News producer the following December that he had trouble standing in the men’s bathroom and his friends asked another producer to arrange a ride home to enable him to make it back onto the set of his morning show by 6 a.m. the next morning.
In a separate report, the Washington Post quoted two unnamed former colleagues as saying that Hegseth drank a display of warm beers that were used in a St Patrick’s Day holiday segment on Fox & Friends Weekend after the show went off air at 10 a.m.
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told the Daily Beast: “These are all false anonymous claims that were debunked by people who were actually there and not hiding behind anonymity.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.
Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran, has said that his drinking has never become a problem and his lawyer insists that a 2017 incident in Monterey, California that resulted in a complaint of sexual assault stemmed from a consensual encounter.
The Trump pick told Megyn Kelly in an interview that the stories were part of a media “smear” campaign.
