President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Protection decide Pete Hegseth defended his management of two veteran advocacy teams Wednesday amid allegations of misconduct throughout his tenure.
The 44-year-old Military veteran and former head of Vets for Freedom and Involved Veterans for America has confronted allegations of drunken sexual impropriety and monetary mismanagement stemming from his time working the teams, which he forcefully denied in a Wall Avenue Journal op-ed Wednesday.
“Like veterans coming back from any battle, we drank beers to handle the truth of what we had confronted,” Hegseth wrote, referring to his time as govt director of Vets for Freedom.
“However we by no means did something improper, and we handled everybody with respect,” he added. “We had a brand new mission and fought for it.”
Hegseth blamed the “tactical mistake” of overspending in help of John McCain through the 2008 presidential race for the rationale he has been accused of mismanaging the group’s funds.
“We had been a bit naive, so we doubled down on our political spending on the very finish, when different teams pulled again,” he wrote. “It was a tactical mistake, which left us in debt (like most political campaigns). However I stayed with the group till all of the debt was paid off and excellent contracts negotiated.”
After his tenure at Vets for Freedom, Hegseth served because the CEO of Involved Veterans for America.
The secretary of defense-designate fumed that media studies have made it appear as if he ran CVA like “a school frat home.”
“We had tons of of workers and hundreds of volunteers—but based mostly on the nameless accusations of some disgruntled workers, the legacy media has made it sound as if we ran a school frat home,” Hegseth wrote. “That’s simply unfaithful.”
The Minnesota native was adamant that he was not pressured out of his management place at CVA – as reported by The New Yorker earlier this week.
“What’s true is that as our group grew, there was an inner distinction of opinion about its future,” Hegseth wrote. “I wished to interact in international coverage; our donors didn’t.”
“Finally, the group and I parted methods,” he added. “The sensation was mutual, and the group’s management wrote me a glowing letter once I left.”
“Few teams in Washington ever accomplish as a lot as we did,” he stated of his time at CVA.
In his op-ed, Hegseth went on to slam the media for “peddling nameless story after nameless story, all meant to smear me and tear me down.”
“It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown,” he wrote, defiantly noting that he seems ahead to “an trustworthy affirmation listening to with our distinguished senators—not a present trial within the press.”
Hegseth’s op-ed follows a report within the Wall Avenue Journal Tuesday indicating that Trump, 78, is contemplating tapping Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to exchange his embattled decide to steer the Pentagon.
If all Senate Democrats and 4 Senate Republicans vote in opposition to Hegseth’s nomination, he would fail the affirmation vote.
A GOP supply acquainted advised The Submit Wednesday that there are at present zero Republicans who would vote in opposition to Hegseth at his affirmation listening to.
Supply hyperlink
