Ex-Biden official snaps at MSNBC host after being confronted over 'alcoholic' Pete Hegseth

MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire received swift pushback from a guest on Friday morning when he tried to correct them after they called Donald Trump's secretary of defense nominee an "alcoholic."

Invited to "Morning Joe" talk about Trump's first four days in office, Rahm Emmanuel, who served as President Joe Biden's United States ambassador to Japan, went on the attack against the controversial ex-Fox News personality Pete Hegseth who has been battered by accusations of sexual assault, public intoxication and financial improprieties.

Speaking of Hegseth, the blunt-talking Emmanuel told the MSNBC host, "I don't think you have to fight every one of them [Trump nominees] but where you have clear stance like, I think the idea of the secretary of defense, an alcoholic and a person with drinking problems and other types of character and judgment issues."

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"[He] should be nowhere close to advising the president on nuclear issues," he added. "You've got 12 nuclear aircraft carriers, 30 plus nuclear submarines –– this person clearly is not qualified to be in the Situation Room and advise."

Given a chance to respond, Lemire told his guest, "We'll see the vote for Pete Hegseth later tonight. We should note he, of course, has denied the allegations that he is an alcoholic –– he says he would stop drinking if confirmed, Mr. Ambassador."

Emanuel fired right back.

"You know, the one thing here –– I don't agree with Donald Trump; I admire the fact that he has never had a drink...," Emanuel interrupted. "But once you have a drinking problem, you always have a drinking problem and that job is not stress-free."

"I have been in this situation," the former Barrack Obama chief of staff lectured. "You are two seats, the secretary of defense, down from the president of the United States. You have a million plus men and women under your command and that person should be nowhere close to advising the president, given what he has shown when he was just running a small veterans operation he couldn't handle the stress."

"You know, the stress of a secretary of defense is in the situation room, live or die, boots on the ground or not? Nowhere, and every senator knows it," he concluded.

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