Panelists on CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip clashed Monday night over claims about Pete Hegseth’s alleged misconduct.
A visibly exasperated Leigh McGowan—an influencer known as PoliticsGirl online—sighed deeply at one point, and also waved her arms in the air as she and former Republican Rep. Scott Taylor, tore lumps out of one another. Scott said he knows Hegseth personally and even called him a friend on X ahead of the broadcast.
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The barbed to and fro threatened to spill over at points but host Abby Phillip managed to keep some sense of decorum. Even still, McGowan and Taylor jostled over the array of accusations against Hegseth.
The ex-Fox News host and former Army National Guard officer, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as secretary of defense, has come under intense scrutiny over an alleged sexual assault and reports about him being drunk at work events and other misconduct. Hegseth denies all wrongdoing.
McGowan made clear that she finds the alleged behaviour unbecoming of a man potentially set to hold such a prestigious and powerful government position. She then referred to a report Sunday in The New Yorker which detailed Hegseth’s alleged drunken behavior and a sexist culture he allegedly oversaw while running the nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America.
“There’s a lot of things that Pete has allegedly done,” McGowan said. “And whether it is that he’s stolen from the organizations he’s run, or he has endless drunken escapades, or he has white nationalist tattoos, or he’s raped women—” she said before Taylor barked: “Oh my God.”
“You just gonna sit here and defame the dude?” he asked pointedly.
“No,” McGowan replied. “That’s all reported. But here’s what I’m saying. The biggest thing people need to understand—”
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Taylor replied.
After Phillip clarified that Hegseth had actually been accused of financial mismanagement at his nonprofits and not stealing, the heated discussion continued.
McGowan listed important duties of the secretary of defense before adding: “On the alcohol alone, you cannot give someone a job like that who has a drinking problem, someone who might be incapacitated for multiple reasons in a key moment.”
Taylor jumped in and again claimed McGowan was “defaming” Hegseth. “You don’t know him,” Taylor said. You don’t know he has a drinking problem. What he said—”
“I’m not his best friend, which you apparently are,” McGowan interjected.
Taylor looked visibly annoyed as Phillip was forced to intervene once again to restore order. McGowan then passionately made her final argument.
“It is not partisan to say that Pete can’t do this job. It is practical,” she said. “It is about keeping the country safe. It is about the safety of our troops. He is being hired—he is being potentially hired—to run the world’s largest and most lethal military force. You cannot play games with that. And this man has too many skeletons in his closet to put him in charge of such a large organization.”
A lawyer for Hegseth dismissed the recent New Yorker allegations as “outlandish claims” and attributed them to “a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate.”
