Pete Hegseth insisted Wednesday morning that he will not drop out of consideration to be the next Secretary of Defense.
The president-elect is weighing replacing Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to a Wednesday morning report.
But Hegseth, 44, called the report just another ‘smear.’
Another report from the New Yorker this week alleged the Army National Guard veteran would get intoxicated at work events to the point of needing to be carried out.
‘Our warriors never back down, & neither will I,’ Hegseth wrote in an X post.
Hegseth told reporters at the Capitol that he spoke with Trump Wednesday morning and they are both on board with him not withdrawing his name.
‘Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter,’ he said.
Also a veteran, DeSantis was one of the remaining two candidates in the primary bid to replace Trump on the 2024 Republican ticket.
But now he might be in consideration to join the next administration.
Pete Hegseth and his wife Jennifer Rauchet walk hand-in-hand in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill for meetings with senators on Tuesday, December 3
A spokesperson for the Governor did not immediately respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment on the latest reporting and whether DeSantis would consider vacating his role to lead the Pentagon.
‘I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers,’ Hegseth said in a Wednesday post after the latest report emerged he could be replaced.
‘The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of Donald Trump —and me,’ he continued. ‘So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth.’
Hegseth included a 2005 image of himself alongside three other Army National Guard members holding rifles and wearing uniform and flak.
Trump senior advisor Jason Miller told Fox host Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday morning that claims Hegseth will be replaced is just noise.
‘Until we hear it from President Trump, then it’s all just chatter,’ he told Fox Business when asked if the president-elect is considering going with DeSantis instead.
Since Hegseth, 44, came under the spotlight when he was nominated two weeks ago, he’s been accused of sexual assault and getting too intoxicated while on the job to the point of being forced out of a leadership role for a veterans group.
And an email emerged from 2018 where the former Fox News host’s mother Penelope Hegseth called him ‘an abuser of women’ when he was divorcing his second wife Samatha to be with Jennifer Rauchet
She now claims she immediately took back the allegation and regretted making it.
The letter, addressed April 30, 2018, was leaked to the New York Times.
She wrote: ‘I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out.’
‘You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.’
When the NYT reached her for comment, Penelope, an executive business coach, gave a different story and took back what she’d written years prior.
‘It is not true. It has never been true. I know my son. He is a good father, husband.’
She called the Times ‘disgusting’ for publishing the email and claimed it was written ‘in anger, with emotion’ at the time Hegseth and Samantha were divorcing.
Hegseth was mobbed by members of the press as he met with senators on Capitol Hill Monday and Tuesday and was badgered with questions about reports he drank too much on the job
Hegseth’s former colleagues are also coming out of the woodwork to defend him after an NBC News report claims 10 current and former Fox News staffers said they were concerned about his drinking and could smell alcohol on him ‘as recently as last month.’
While the Fox staffers remained anonymous in the NBC report, many others went on-the-record to defend Hegseth this week.
‘Bulls***. 100 percent bulls***. Actually…horses***,’ reacted Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain. ‘Your story is horses*** NBC News.’
‘Put my name on it. On the record,’ he continued. ‘It’ll be your only on the record source. Signed, The guy who sat next to him for 8 hours every week for five years starting at 6am.’
Former Fox News host Dan Bongino also described the allegations as ‘HORSES***.’
And Fox contributor Nicole Saphier wrote: ‘I have routinely sat on the couch with Pete Hegseth for 8 years. Not once did I suspect he had consumed anything other than an egg sandwich and coffee before going on air.’
‘These hit pieces are getting laughable,’ wrote contributor Joey Jones, who claimed he is ‘disgusted by the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath’ and has ‘never EVER seen Pete drink like that, and have never smelled alcohol on his breath at work.’
