‘He should get a drink or something’: CNN guest smacks down Hegseth's new campaign
CNN contributor Kara Swisher ripped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Saturday for his ongoing campaign to restore controversial statutes and names across the country, taking aim at the Pentagon chief’s "concerning' drinking habits.
Hegseth has successfully pushed for the restoration of the names of several Army bases named after Confederate generals, and has also supported President Donald Trump’s push to “reframe America’s historical narrative” by restoring previously toppled statues, many of them honoring the Confederacy or controversial figures that were toppled down during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
“We recognize our history, we don't erase it, we don't follow the woke lemmings off the cliff that want to tear down statues,” Hegseth told Fox News on Thursday.
Swisher, responding to a clip of Hegseth’s comments, offered the Defense secretary a cheeky suggestion.
“History for me but not for thee kind of thing,” Swisher said. “I mean Hegseth... he should get himself a drink or something.”
Swisher’s comments were an apparent reference to Hegseth’s alleged drinking habits, which have been widely reported in the media, with his drinking reportedly worrying a number of his past colleagues.
A sworn statement from Hegseth’s sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, recounted a number of incidents where Hegseth had passed out from heavy drinking, including one incident where he was forcibly removed from a strip club while in military uniform. While a co-host on Fox News’ Fox & Friends, former employees told NBC News that they “smelled alcohol on him” on more than a dozen occasions while on set.
Hegseth has denied the allegations, however, and characterized them as a “smear campaign.”
On the matter of re-erecting controversial statutes, however, Swisher said Hegseth’s ambitions were misplaced.
“One of the things that's really critical here is I think they should have taken those Confederate statutes and put them in a museum,” Swisher said.
“It's not about destroying them or erasing history, it's putting them in the proper place. They don't believe a place of honor, but they do deserve to be looked at and discussed. And I think probably there was a little too much on the left that's like 'take them all down and get rid of them,' and what it did is play into the hands of the right.”
