President-elect Donald Trump has no second ideas about his alternative of Pete Hegseth as secretary of protection, his workforce informed The Publish Wednesday, regardless of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough claiming in any other case.
The “Morning Joe” co-host had dished on a sitdown between Trump, Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski on the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday.
“I’ll say on background, in our dialog on background, there are a few issues that shocked us,” recounted Scarborough, 61. “Certainly one of them was, when his identify got here up, there was not a flinch, however a noticeable ‘we received issues right here.’”
When pressed by others on the set, the previous Florida congressman confirmed he had been referring to Hegseth, a Fox News personality and longtime Army National Guardsman.
“These weren’t the phrases [used],” Scarborough added. “However I’ll simply let you know that was the takeaway.”
“Scarborough is improper,” Trump transition communications director Steven Cheung informed The Publish. “Pete Hegseth devoted his whole life as a warrior for the troops and for our nation. Pete served our nation as an Military Fight Veteran who did excursions in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For his actions on the battlefield, he was embellished with two Bronze Stars, in addition to a Fight Infantryman’s Badge.
“He’s an extremely robust and good candidate that can combat to place America First,” Cheung added. “With Pete as our Secretary of Protection, America’s enemies are on discover and our navy will likely be nice once more.”
Hegseth, now 44, was accused in 2017 of sexual assault by a staffer at a conservative group.
His lawyer told The Post in an interview that the embellished veteran was “blackmailed” into paying off his accuser out of worry for his profession on the peak of the #MeToo motion.
“Principally, he was completely harmless. He did nothing improper right here,” mentioned the lawyer, Timothy Parlatore. “We went by means of a mediation and finally settled for much lower than what she wished. And that ought to have utterly buried it.
“He had method too many drinks, and in keeping with video surveillance and eyewitness testimony, this lady who was sober took benefit of him, and he or she was the aggressor,” Parlatore added.
“She took him by the arm and he or she led him as much as his room.”
White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation dinner in Washington, on April 25, 2015. REUTERS
Hegseth, a religious Catholic, has been married 3 times and has fathered 4 kids. He has additionally adopted three kids from his present spouse’s first marriage.
On Tuesday evening, Hegseth known as into the Republican Nationwide Committee’s religion engagement prayer name and spoke in regards to the assaults towards him following his nomination.
“While you arise for good and proper and true, and religion and perception in Jesus Christ, the world will come after you,” the nominee mentioned at one level after providing a prayer for the president-elect and his incoming administration.
MSNBC didn’t instantly reply to an inquiry from The Publish.