A new whistleblower report suggests that Pete Hegseth was often drunk and created a hostile environment for women while he was president of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), The New Yorker revealed Sunday.
Hegseth, who is a former Fox News host and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, was president of CVA from 2013 to 2016. The seven-page whistleblower report was written by seven of his former employees, who claimed that Hegseth was often intoxicated and at times had to be physically carried out of work events.
“His behavior was embarrassing in front of the team, but not surprising; people have simply come to expect Pete to get drunk at social events,” the report states.
With Hegseth as president, CVA was a “hostile workplace” that “ignored serious accusations of impropriety,” including the sexual assault from a female employee, per the whistleblowers' account.
The former CVA employees shared several anecdotes involving Hegseth, including one where he got allegedly got drunk on an official tour of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in 2015 and began chanting “Kill All Muslims!” Though he was married at the time, Hegseth and other male staff sexually pursued women in the organization and categorized them as “party girls” or “not party girls.”
The New Yorker’s report is just the latest bit of damning information about Hegseth and his treatment of women. Last month, a report revealed an accusation of sexual assault against Hegseth. The alleged assault took place at a Republican women’s conference in 2017 where Hegseth was a keynote speaker. Hegseth maintains that the encounter was consensual, but he also paid an undisclosed sum of money to the woman who made the accusation, The Washington Post reported.
Last week, The New York Times reported that Hegseth’s own mother accused him of abusing women in a 2018 email. "On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say get some help and take an honest look at yourself," Penelope Hegseth wrote.
The former National Army Guard officer, if he's confirmed to lead the Pentagon, has promised to get rid of diversity initiatives in the military and pursue a "war on woke."
When asked questions for The New Yorker's report, Hegseth's lawyer, Tim Parlatore, declined to provide substantive comment.
“We’re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s," he told the magazine.
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