Pete Hegseth, the ivy league-educated Iraq War veteran and prominent FOX News program host, has emerged as Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet-level nominee since he was selected as the new director of the Department of Defense last month.

The mainstream media, and the Democrats, have targeted Hegseth as unqualified and unfit to serve because of allegations of sexual improprieties, public drunkenness, and mismanagement of the two small veterans organizations he ran after completing his military service and before he was hired by FOX News in 2014 as an on-air personality.

Last week, it was announced that Hegseth would sit for his first live interview on Fox & Friends, the morning show that since 2017 he co-hosted on the weekends.

Instead, it was his mother Penelope Hegseth who showed up to defend her son.

But last night, Hegseth appeared live by remote on Sean Hannity’s FOX News prime time (ET) program for a six-minute interview. It was a friendly encounter with his friend and colleague Hannity. Minus Hannity’s questions and comments, Hegseth had less than four and a half minutes of airtime.

The transcript below was provided by FOX News media. The video of the interview can be watched here. The transcript has been slightly edited for content and to eliminate some of Hannity’s rambling.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  Now, last month our friend former FOX colleague Pete Hegseth was chosen by president-elect Donald Trump to be his defense secretary.

Now, since President Trump's announcement, Pete has faced, well, the predictable slew of allegations about pretty much everything, a personal relationship in which he was fully investigated, exonerated, and his time in the military. Oh, and he might have had a drink or two too much on occasion.

Pete has been on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers discussing his upcoming confirmation hearings. Today, Pete had his second meeting with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst.

After the meeting, Senator Ernst said she looks forward to supporting Pete through this process.

Pete Hegseth joins us now with more. Sir, welcome back. Great to have you.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE:  Hey, Sean. Thanks for having me.

HANNITY:  Let's talk about the meeting with Joni Ernst today.

HEGSETH:  Absolutely.

Sean, it was a great meeting. I mean, people don't really know this. I have known Senator Ernst for over 10 years. I knew her when she was a state Senator running to be the first female combat veteran, and we supported her in that effort and have continued to, because you get into these meetings and you get to listen to senators.

It's an amazing advise-and-consent process. And you hear how thoughtful, serious, substantive they are on these key issues that they pertain to our Defense Department.

And Joni Ernst is front and center on that.

So, [being] able to have phone calls and meetings time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important. And the fact that she's willing to support me through this process means a lot.

And I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don't support women in the military. Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women who serve, raise their right hand to defend this country and love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe.

So, I'm not presuming anything, but, after President Trump asked me to be his secretary of defense, should I get the opportunity to do that, I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women, for the amazing contributions they make in our military.

Pete Hegseth on Hannity, FOX News Channel, Dec. 9, 2024
Screenshot by Peter B. Chowka. Used with permission of FOX News Media

HANNITY:  Let me ask you this. There are more liberal senators, like Lisa Murkowski [and] Susan Collins. Have you had a chance to speak with them up to this point?

HEGSETH:  We will be meeting with Senator Collins on Wednesday and Senator Murkowski on Tuesday.

And let me tell you, Sean, the founders got this right. This is not a trivial process. This is a real thing, advise and consent of a nominee who the president has chosen. And I'm so grateful that President Trump would have the faith in me to lead the Defense Department or to choose me to do that.

But this is my advise-and-consent process, meeting with all the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and they all have great questions. And my answers are for them, Sean. The left has tried to turn this into a trial in the media, a show trial.

And we're not going to let that happen. I'm going to walk into the door of every one of these senators just as an open book, willing to answer their questions, because they deserve answers. I have heard great things about all of these senators and the questions they want to ask.

And we look forward to earning these votes. That's what it's about ultimately, earning the votes through the committee and through the entire U.S. Senate. And, hopefully, I will have the honor of being able to stand up for our war fighters. That's what this is all about. It's all about the men and women who put the uniform on for us. They want someone who's kicked down doors...

HANNITY:  Well, let me ask this.

HEGSETH:  ... had their back in the past in that top spot.

HANNITY:  The media mob doing what they predictably do.

You had a consensual relationship. It was investigated. You were fully exonerated. And correct me if I'm wrong here. Wasn't there videotape evidence that was largely responsible for exonerating you?

HEGSETH:  I mean, in addition to personal witnesses and all of that.

It was fully investigated at the time years ago. And I was completely cleared. And that's why, Sean, you know what I look forward to? I look forward to the FBI background check. I look forward to the actual under oath conversations with senators as we go through the process, because, again, this is what the left does, Sean.

It's the anatomy of a smear. They take something and then they add anonymous sources and contortions and flat-out lies. And then they try to try you in the media before you can even get into the doors with senators.

And this is where I give so much credit to President Trump. He's got a backbone of steel. He never backs down. He called me and said: "Pete, you keep fighting."

And when he picked me, he said: "Pete, it's because I know you can do this. You're going to have to be tough as hell, stare these folks down and stand up for the change that needs to come to the Defense Department for our men and women in uniform."

HANNITY:  Well, let's talk about that.

HEGSETH:  So, if he can endure what he's done, Sean, then I can stick up to this lying press and fight on for the American people and our war fighters.

HANNITY:  OK.

So, when Reagan became president, he talked about what he called a gap of vulnerability militarily. We had planes that couldn't fly, ships that couldn't go out to sea. I want to know about your vision for the Department of Defense.

For example, Putin and Xi, Russia, China, they have hypersonic missile technology. I am of the strong belief future wars will be fought from air-conditioned offices. The nature of warfare is changing. Military technology is key. I feel like, right now, we are behind.

I love the president's idea of an Iron Dome. If we can protect the entire country, I think that would be his greatest legacy in the end if he follows through with that. And how do you deal with DEI in the military? How do you deal with recruitment problems we have had in the military?

We have about a minute left.

HEGSETH:  Well, there's a lot to be done.

First of all, you salute the commander in chief who got those 76 million votes and is going to chart the way. And I will give him advice and counsel along the way.

I will just say what he told me. Return the Pentagon to the war fighters, Pete. Get in there and clean out all the social justice, politically correct garbage on top, and get back to lethality, war fighting, accountability, meritocracy, and readiness.

And guess what? Ninety-five percent of the people in that building, in the Pentagon and that wear the uniform, that's all they want to do anyway. And so we're going to –  when you return to that, it changes the culture of an institution that now stands up straight. You address that recruiting crisis. You address the retention crisis.

Sean, I can't tell you how many families have reached out to me and said, my son or daughter wasn't going to join and now they are after President Trump was elected and you were chosen to be SecDef. Same with retention.

And then the rest of the world takes notice of that, Sean. So I'm not going to get ahead of the president on policy or what our posture will be, but we will be strong.

HANNITY:  Yes.

HEGSETH:  And we will have peace through strength, as Donald Trump has said, and we will put America first.

That's what he's asked me to do at the Pentagon, and that's my promise to the American people and our war fighters led by President Donald Trump.

HANNITY:  All right, Pete, we appreciate you being with us. Good luck in the process. Democrats are not going to be nice to you. That part, I can promise.

Notwithstanding the sources of much of the negative reporting about Hegseth, the questions about his suitability for this extremely high-level role in President-elect Trump’s new administration are substantial. Substantial enough that a die-hard Trump and MAGA supporter, NEWSMAX’s Greg Kelly, came out strongly against Hegseth last Thursday Dec. 5 on his prime time program. Meanwhile, a number of Republican Senators appear to be on the fence at best about supporting Hegseth’s nomination if and when it comes to a vote in the upper house of the Congress next month.

It is also not exactly accurate that Hegseth was exonerated by the Monterey, California police after he was questioned about allegations of raping a woman during a conference there in November 2017. The police report of the incident, released on Nov. 20, 2024 after numerous media requests, is online here, and it paints a different story. Authorities’ failure to charge or indict a person accused of a crime does not constitute an exoneration.

Further, Hegseth’s attorney admitted that his client paid the woman who had alleged that he sexually assaulted her and as part of the deal bought her silence in the matter which she has maintained to this day.

The New Yorker, in a lengthy story by Jane Mayer, “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History” published on Dec. 1, 2024, detailed Hegseth’s background that critics, and even some friends like Greg Kelly, have cited in their opposition to Hegseth. On Dec. 3, NBC News, citing ten sources – current and former FOX News colleagues of Hegseth’s – alleged that he was often drunk or hungover before and during his early morning on-air co-hosting roles on the FOX News Channel on Saturday and Sunday mornings including recently.