The concerted corporate media effort to derail a cabinet pick of President-elect Donald Trump took another swing with stories from a former coworker described as “insanely jealous.”
Unlike the typical approach of the justice system, the leftist court of public opinion routinely adopts a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach — especially when it comes to anyone in Trump’s orbit.
Now, after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration for Attorney General, a focus on Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth drummed up a “decade-old allegation made by a jealous former coworker.”
Such was the reporting by Breitbart News ahead of the latest “hit piece” produced by the New Yorker titled, “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History.”
In it, the outlet added to the previously alleged sexual assault, for which the nominee had never been charged, and coverage of a private email from Hegseth’s mother, with an insider’s claims about how the Minnesota Army National Guard member had behaved as the head of the veterans-advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).
On top of faulting Hegseth for allegedly getting “completely drunk” with CVA adviser and Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Dakota Mayer after a June 2014 Defend Freedom Tour event, where she claimed they’d behaved “like fraternity members” flirting with a singer on the tour, the woman wrote:
“Just about all of the staff/advisers/contractors who created the organization and built it have been cut. All of the original people were brought on by Joe Gecan. Almost all are over 45+ years old and veterans. It seems obvious the young CEO, Pete Hegseth, and his team have no appreciation for anyone having more experience than them and, therefore, to keep in CVA. This can be perceived as age and veteran discrimination. Look at all of the staff and advisers cut and you will see a definite trend.”
However, as the New Yorker laid out a case arguing mismanagement of CVA, and the organization Vets for Freedom before that, along with acknowledged infidelities that led to two divorces before his third marriage and return to the Christian faith of his upbringing, Breitbart News added another layer to the story.
Ahead of the release Sunday, Breitbart detailed how the New Yorker was readying “a massive hit piece on Hegseth, using decade-old allegations made by a jealous former coworker that is now being recirculated as he prepares for Senate confirmation.”
“Some described the former coworker as being on the ‘periphery of Trump world’ for the past decade, and wanting to become a Fox News host and becoming insanely jealous of Hegseth,” the piece detailed, “particularly after he was considered for secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs during the first Trump administration.”
Also refuted were claims that Hegseth was a “part-timer” who was “parading around as a combat veteran,” as Breitbart reminded that his military honors included a combat infantryman badge, “awarded to those in combat.”
It was at that time that the claims against Hegseth had originally been composed, similar to how the New York Times had obtained and published details from a 2018 email sent to him “in anger” from his mother Penelope Hegseth.
“It is not true. It has never been true,” she told the Gray Lady over the phone regarding the depiction of her son’s character and behavior while she was upset about his second divorce. “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.”
Much like the claim that the latest screed was rooted in jealousy, despite Penelope slamming the report as “disgusting,” a source at the paper informed Breitbart that the reporter responsible had “said that Pete Hegseth can’t be SECDEF and that she’s going to see to it.”
“I kind of looked at her like she was crazy and wondered how she was going to see to it,” added the source, “but now I guess I don’t have to anymore.”
Contrasting the claims published in the New Yorker, Breitbart shared a statement from U.S. Army veteran Sam Rogers, who’d worked and volunteered at CVA.
“When you do grassroots advocacy work you meet people where they are, sometimes it’s a church, sometimes it’s a bar, sometimes it’s a hospital. When I reached out to my VA hospital for my third Afghanistan tour and asked for a counseling appointment over mid-tour leave, I was told they were scheduling 6-9 months out and that I should call back after my deployment.”
“Pete Hegseth led the organization that ultimately secured the most significant veteran healthcare reforms in my lifetime that kept many veterans from suffering similar — though [President] Joe Biden has aggressively undone some of that work on behalf of the VA’s labor union.”
Rogers went on to state, “Pete’s work got me into public policy advocacy work and showed a real third way for veterans who wanted to see change in politics. He has far more in common with the shared experiences of regular troops than the retired generals sitting on defense boards making money off of the broken systems they perpetuated.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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