GOP senator offers curious defense for Pete Hegseth drinking claims: ‘There’s a lot of alcohol that flows through Washington’

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin offered up an unusual defense for Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth amid claims he has a drinking problem, arguing there’s “a lot of alcohol that flows through Washington.”

This week, NBC News reported that Hegseth’s drinking habits worried a number of his former colleagues at Fox News, who claimed that he often smelled of alcohol before going on air. Hegseth would complain about being hungover and acted like “the rules didn’t apply to him,” according to ten current and former Fox News employees who spoke to the outlet.

Hegseth left Fox News after President-elect Trump selected him to lead the Department of Defense.

Mullin, in conversation with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, defended Hegseth against these claims.

Tapper played the Oklahoma senator two clips.

The first showed Hegseth on a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show claiming he “never had a drinking problem,” and the second featured Hegseth on The Will Cain Show describing how he would want a drink at 10 a.m. and “self-medicate” using alcohol after returning from serving in Iraq.

Mullin went on to claim Hegseth never said he had a drinking problem in the second clip.

“Jake, that wasn’t him saying he had an alcohol problem,” Mullin said. “That was him being honest. Unfortunately, a lot of our combat vets have come back and face the same thing.”

“They’ve had a lot of experience that the regular population doesn’t,” he continued. “They have these memories, these thoughts, these sounds, the smells that are still coming back to them and they turn to drinking with their buddies. That doesn’t mean that they had a drinking problem.”

Tapper responded by noting that needing an alcoholic drink at 10 a.m. is “a drinking problem.”

“Well, then there’s a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem,” Mullin shot back. “There’s probably a lot of media that has a drinking problem too.”

“There’s a lot of alcohol that flows through Washington, D.C. on a regular basis, and I wouldn’t say that people are alcoholics or they have a drinking problem because of that,” he added.

Many of Hegseth’s former colleagues at Fox News have also defended him from these claims.

Fox & Friends Weekend host Will Cain called the claims “100 percent bulls***” and “horses***.” Rachel Campos-Duffy, who co-hosted the morning show with Cain and Hegseth until Hegseth’s recent departure, agreed with Cain and said NBC didn’t reach out to her for their report.

“The losers at NBC News never reached out to me either. Will Cain is right – your story IS horse****. You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story?” Campos-Duffy posted on X. “Worth repeating, NBC News used ‘anonymous’ sources & unconfirmed stories to smear Pete Hegseth as a drunk on the job & never once asked his FOX & Friends coworkers who sit right next to him???”

A Trump campaign spokesperson also said that claims Hegseth has a drinking problem are untrue.

“These disgusting allegations are completely unfounded and false, and anyone peddling these defamatory lies to score political cheap shots is sickening,” the spokesperson told NBC News. “As a decorated combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize that, and he is treating his nomination as the most important deployment of his life.”

Hegseth is also facing sexual assault allegations by a woman who alleges he trapped her in a hotel room in 2017. The veteran reached a financial settlement with the woman after authorities didn’t charge him.

Hegseth has denied all wrongdoing, claiming the encounter was consensual.