VIDEO: Mark Kelly grills Trump cabinet pick on being a sloppy drunk

After that, Pete Hegseth might need a drink.

On Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee began its confirmation hearing for Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s problematic choice to run the Department of Defense. Hegseth has military experience but has never run a large organization and faces allegations of sexual harassment, rampant misogyny, alcohol abuse and public intoxication.

In theory, the hearing is a chance for senators to vet the credentials of the person tabbed to oversee the U.S. military and a budget of more than $850 billion. In practice, it’s political theater — most senators already know how they’ll vote.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is no exception, which is why the Democrat already had an anti-Hegseth op-ed ready to promote before the hearing began. But that didn’t stop him from putting the screws to the former Fox News host, mostly over Hegseth’s sordid history of getting absolutely and inappropriately drunk off his ass.


For seven minutes, the Air Force veteran and former astronaut pestered Hegseth to confirm or deny the myriad reports of his drunkenness. After most questions, Hegseth managed a non-answer: “Anonymous smears.”

A good name for a cocktail, perhaps, but not a convincing response to “Did you once pass out in the back of a party bus?”

Kelly wasn’t stingy with the dirty details, even if Hegseth was less than forthcoming in his answers. The Arizona senator outlined the scope of Hegseth’s drinking problem, referencing allegations reported by the New Yorker in early December.

When Hegseth was the president of Concerned Veterans of America, was he carried out of a 2014 Memorial Day event in Virginia? True or false?

“Anonymous smears,” Hegseth replied.

"Just true or false. Very simple," Kelly reiterated.

Was Hegseth drunk at a CVA event in Cleveland that same year? What about during an event in North Carolina? Or at a CVA Christmas party in Washington, D.C.? Was it true or false that he had to be carried to his room? What about the party bus? THE PARTY BUS?!

Each time, the answer was the same: “Anonymous smears.”

Kelly continued. Did Hegseth take staffers, including young female employees, to a strip club in Louisiana in 2014? Finally, Hegseth answered definitively.

“Absolutely not,” he said, although he tossed in another “anonymous smears” for unintentional comic effect.

At the end of his grill session, Kelly acknowledged the obvious. It’ll be a “no” on Hegseth from the senior senator from Arizona.

“You say you have had personal issues in your past. Yet when asked about those very issues, you blame an anonymous smear campaign. Even when many of these claims are not anonymous,” Kelly said. “Which is it? Have you overcome personal issues? Or are you the target of a smear campaign? It can't be both.

“It is clear to me that you are not being honest with us or the American people, because you know the truth would disqualify you from getting the job,” Kelly added.

Hegseth didn’t have a hangover already, that hearing might have given him one.