WATCH: Pete Hegseth Shuts Down Media ‘Smear Campaign’ Against Him In Passionate Retort

U.S. Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) opened up Tuesday’s hearing on Pete Hegseth’s nomination with the question all audience members had waited hours to hear Hegseth answer: is there any truth to reports that he abused alcohol and sexually harassed women during his career, and if so, should it disqualify him from leading the U.S. Department of Defense?

A fiery Hegseth retorted that media outlets like the New York Times and New Yorker have concocted a “smear campaign” against him, bullying his mother into answering questions about a disavowed email she sent her son years ago or pestering Fox News employees for negative anecdotes about his time on the set of “Fox & Friends.” It is not in the interest of such outlets to report the truth, said an agitated Hegseth, only an agenda. “The media in America today, sadly, doesn’t care about the truth. All they’re out to do, Mr. Chairman, is to destroy me. And why do they want to destroy me? Because I’m a change agent and a threat to them because Donald Trump was willing to choose me, to empower me, to bring the Defense Department back to what it really should be, which is warfighting.” For nearly a minute and a half, the unabashed Hegseth struck a defiant tone, doubling down on his commitment to see the nomination process through to the floor of the Senate later this week.

“So I’m willing to endure these attacks,” he continued, “but what I will do is stand up for the truth and for my reputation. False attacks, anonymous attacks, repeated ad nauseam, printed ad nauseam as facts. We have provided… on-the-record statement after on-the-record statement from people who have served with me, worked with me at Fox News, Concerned Vets, Vets for Freedom, you name it. From the top of the chain to the bottom, from people who say I treat them with respect, with kindness, with dignity. That’s men, that’s women, that’s Black, that’s white, that’s every background.” His remarks ostensibly referenced a letter, released by the Trump transition team last month and signed by former military men and women who served under Hegseth while stationed in Guantanamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere praising his leadership. Former Fox News colleagues of Hegseth have also spoken publicly about his cordial nature on set.

Before he was done, Hegseth reminded the committee of Republicans and Democrats that he wasn’t going to quit in the face of baseless accusations and hit pieces. “I pride myself on being a leader of people and being a professional. I’m not a perfect person, as has been acknowledged. Saved by the grace of God, by Jesus and Jenny,” he said about his wife, eliciting a chuckle from the audience. “But redemption is real, and God forged me in ways I know I’m prepared for.”

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