According to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke to NBC News, Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as defense secretary, drank in a way that disturbed his colleagues at Fox News.

Two of those people said that during Hegseth’s time as co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him more than a dozen times before he went on the air. The same two people and one other person said that he appeared on television during his time there after hearing him talk about his hangover during preparations or on set.

One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him just last month and heard him complaining about his fall hangover.

None of the sources NBC News spoke with could recall an instance in which Hegseth missed a scheduled appearance because he had been drinking.

“Before it went on the air, everyone was talking about it behind the scenes,” said one of the former Fox employees.

On Sunday night, the New Yorker raised concerns about Hegseth’s drinking in two jobs he held at nonprofit veterans organizations before joining Fox. “A previously unpublished whistleblower report about Hegseth’s tenure as president of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013 to 2016 describes how he was repeatedly drunk while in office – to the point that he had to be removed from the organization’s office “Events,” the magazine reported.

According to the New Yorker, Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, responded: “We will not comment on outlandish allegations made about the New Yorker by a petty and jealous, disgruntled former employee of Mr. Hegseth.” Contact us if “You’re making your first attempt at real journalism.”

This account of Hegseth’s time at Fox News is based on NBC News interviews with three current and seven former Fox employees, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

Three current aides said his drinking was a problem until Trump announced he had decided to run the Pentagon. At this point, Hegseth left Fox.

“He’s such a charming guy, but he just acted like the rules didn’t apply to him,” said one of the former employees.

A spokesman for the Trump transition team said: “These vile allegations are completely baseless and false, and anyone spreading these defamatory lies to get political cheap shots is disgusting.” A decorated combat veteran, Pete has never done anything to jeopardize this could, and he sees his nomination as the most important commitment of his life.”

Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, referred NBC to the Trump transition spokesman’s statement. Fox News did not respond to requests for comment.

Tasks around the clock

Former colleagues’ descriptions of Hegseth’s behavior during his tenure at Fox News raise questions about his ability to carry out the around-the-clock duties that come with running the Pentagon and its 3 million civilian and military employees.

A secretary of defense typically works around the clock and may need to respond to a crisis that suddenly arises at night or on weekends.

In February 2023, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was awakened at 3 a.m. local time on a trip in Manila that often involves socializing with other high-ranking officials to a call about a Chinese spy balloon flying over the U.S. mainland

Likewise, the attack began on October 7, 2023 in Israel around midnight Eastern Time.

And the Defense Department is responsible for protecting U.S. cities and infrastructure from potential airborne threats similar to the Sept. 11 attacks. At any time of the day or night, the Secretary of Defense could be asked to decide whether a civilian aircraft should be shot down. In any case, the wrong decision could mean the death of innocent people.

“For the sake of national security, I really hope he’s stopped drinking,” one of the former Fox employees said.

“He shouldn’t be defense secretary,” another former Fox employee said. “His drinking should be disqualifying.”

In 1989, the Senate rejected then-President George H. W. Bush’s nominee for defense secretary, former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, in part because of concerns about Tower’s past binge drinking.

As a co-host, Hegseth had to be at work early on weekend mornings. On a show that began at 6 a.m. ET, his co-hosts arrived around 4 a.m. to get ready and get their hair and makeup done; According to three sources, male co-hosts typically arrived at 5 or 5:15 a.m., 45 minutes before they went on air.

A current and two former Fox employees said they felt like they had to “babysit” Hegseth because he drinks and stays late at night. “We had to call him to make sure he didn’t oversleep because we knew he was going to party the night before,” one of them said. Another said: “Morning TV is stressful and often Pete made it even more stressful.”

According to these three sources, Hegseth sometimes arrived just 20 minutes or less before the show began, which stressed out his colleagues. They said Hegseth’s makeup sometimes had to be done during filming because his colleagues had very little time due to his late arrival. Sources could not say whether his tardiness was due entirely to alcohol.

The whistleblower report, detailed in the New Yorker, claimed there had been repeated cases of Hegseth He drank heavily at work events, including a team outing to a strip club in Louisiana in November 2014 where he was so drunk that he “had to be prevented” from getting on stage to dance with the strippers.

According to two former employees, Hegseth also drank heavily at some social events with Fox News colleagues, with one of the former colleagues saying he would get “absolutely wasted.”

Last month, police in Monterey, California, released records of a 2017 investigation into allegations that Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room following a Republican women’s convention. The accuser, identified in the files as “Jane Doe,” believed someone might have put something in her drink.

Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged.

“This police report confirms what I’ve been saying all along,” Hegseth’s attorney, Parlatore, told NBC News last month. “The incident was fully investigated and police determined the claim was false and no charges were laid.”

Hegseth also confirmed that he paid the woman an undisclosed severance package. Parlatore previously told NBC News that at the “height of the MeToo movement,” Hegseth “ultimately decided to settle for a significantly reduced amount.” Parlatore also said his client was “innocent collateral damage in a lie that the plaintiff clung to in order to maintain her marriage.”