MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough thinks Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled nominee for defense secretary, “needs help, not the nuclear laws.”

Scarborough’s comments on Wednesday Morning Joe came the morning after some of Hegseth’s former Fox News colleagues expressed concern about it NBC News about his alleged drinking habits and claimed he would openly discuss his hangovers and lack of sleep before going on air and even show up to work smelling of alcohol.

A spokesperson for the Trump transition team called the allegations “disgusting” and “baseless,” while some of Hegseth’s other Fox News colleagues also denied the reported claims.

This report followed a New Yorker Article from the weekend that also included allegations about Hegseth’s past drinking habits while leading veterans advocacy groups, including that he was picked up from work events, prevented from dancing with strippers, and that he shouted anti-Muslim statements, among other alleged misconduct . A lawyer for Hegseth told the magazine the claims were “outlandish” and blamed it on a “petty and jealous disgruntled former employee.”

To Morning JoeScarborough claimed the show heard from a “reliable source within Fox News” last week who confirmed some of the claims in the NBC report. He later said that “two things can be true at the same time” and praised Hegseth’s military service. The former Fox & Friends weekend The host served in Afghanistan and Iraq as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and also served at Guantanamo Bay.

“Everything we have read about Pete Hegseth and his first deployments to combat zones suggests that he did a great job in his first deployments, was honorable and was respected in uniform by those around him,” Scarborough said. “But we also know that many men and women come back from war zones and may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m not saying that’s the case here. I don’t know what the case is here, but looking at the pattern of behavior since he returned from combat, it’s very obvious that he – obviously – needs help.”

He further referenced an email Hegseth’s mother reportedly wrote to her son in 2018 during his divorce from his second wife. In it she called him a “woman molester.” The New York Times. “On behalf of all women (and I know there are many) who have abused you in any way, I say… get help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth allegedly wrote in the message. She denied the sentiments of the email to the Just in an interview and said they “were never true” and instead called Hegseth a good father and husband.

“I know she’s trying to be a good mother and defend her son now that this is out,” Scarborough said. “But what she wrote is consistent with what people have said before, during and now after. So it appears – and I think the Trump transition team believes this – that this is a man who needs help, not the nuclear laws.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.

This week’s allegations related to Hegseth’s drinking come after he was previously under investigation in 2017 over an allegation of sexual assault. Hegseth was never charged and maintains that the encounter was consensual, his attorney said The Washington Post that Hegseth paid his accuser an undisclosed sum under a nondisclosure agreement because she fears her allegations could lead to him being fired from Fox.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is considering removing Hegseth as his nominee for defense secretary and replacing him with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.