WEBVTT 00:01.233 --> 00:03.233 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour." 00:03.233 --> 00:06.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% A buried whistle-blower report has come to light raising fresh concerns about the 00:06.300 --> 00:09.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% fitness of president-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon. 00:09.900 --> 00:13.266 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Former FOX News host and defense secretary-delegate 00:13.266 --> 00:18.266 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill today. 00:24.166 --> 00:26.133 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% QUESTION: Misspent funds, mistreatment of women, 00:26.133 --> 00:28.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% intoxicated on the job, do you have any comment about that reporting at all? 00:28.100 --> 00:30.133 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% AMNA NAWAZ: He refused to answer media questions while meeting with Alabama 00:30.133 --> 00:32.433 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville ahead of a potential confirmation battle next year. 00:34.400 --> 00:37.100 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% "The New Yorker"'s Jane Mayer investigated Hegseth's time leading two nonprofits 00:37.100 --> 00:41.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% for military veterans and uncovered allegations of financial mismanagement, 00:41.733 --> 00:45.666 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% sexual impropriety and personal misconduct. She joins us now. 00:45.666 --> 00:48.400 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Jane, it's good to see you. Thanks for being with us. 00:48.400 --> 00:50.600 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% JANE MAYER, "The New Yorker": Thanks for having me. 00:50.600 --> 00:53.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: So, you reviewed documents. You also spoke with Hegseth's former colleagues 00:53.966 --> 00:58.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% at these groups that he ran. What kind of picture did they paint of Hegseth as a leader? 01:01.666 --> 01:06.666 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JANE MAYER: It really was a picture that was, I would say, increasingly alarming in some ways. 01:08.733 --> 01:13.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% It was a picture of a leader who was pushed out of his leadership positions in two groups that 01:15.800 --> 01:20.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% were for veterans because there were so many concerns about his financial mismanagement 01:22.200 --> 01:26.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% and his personal conduct. So -- and these were relatively small groups with relatively small 01:28.800 --> 01:33.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% budgets. And the first group had only 10 people working at it, Veterans for Freedom. 01:35.866 --> 01:39.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And it raised a lot of questions about how he would manage the largest department in the 01:41.466 --> 01:46.433 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% federal government, the most lethal and largest military in the world. 01:48.300 --> 01:50.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Jane, there's also specific allegations of alcohol abuse, 01:50.466 --> 01:54.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% some stories and anecdotes you relate people telling you about Hegseth getting 01:54.033 --> 01:57.933 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% so drunk he had to be restrained or carried back to his hotel room. 01:57.933 --> 02:01.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% There's one incident from May of 2015, when he's on official business traveling 02:01.933 --> 02:05.633 align:left position:30% line:77% size:60% in Ohio. He and someone else from the organization gets so drunk, 02:05.633 --> 02:09.333 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% they're chanting and yelling at the hotel bar. What happens there? 02:09.333 --> 02:13.333 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JANE MAYER: Yes, I mean, this comes from a letter that was written by a member of the organization, 02:13.333 --> 02:18.000 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% this veterans group called Concern Veterans for America, which Hegseth was leading at the time. 02:18.000 --> 02:23.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And this member of it wrote a letter to the managers there, saying that Hegseth's 02:25.100 --> 02:28.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% behavior was despicable and embarrassing, because what he did was, he ended up closing 02:28.900 --> 02:33.900 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% down the bar at 2:30 in the morning, chanting and screaming: "Kill all Muslims. Kill all Muslims." 02:35.833 --> 02:40.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And it was just so completely beyond the pale really for the veterans that worked 02:43.033 --> 02:48.033 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% in this group. And so -- and I think maybe alarming also to think about 02:50.166 --> 02:53.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% someone leading the Pentagon who has voiced such attitudes and been so out of control. 02:55.500 --> 02:58.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: In your piece, you also quote Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, 02:58.233 --> 03:02.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% who says: "Much as we might be sympathetic to people with continuing alcohol problems, 03:02.433 --> 03:05.900 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% they shouldn't be at the top of our national security structure." 03:05.900 --> 03:09.666 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Jane, from your reporting, do we know if any of Mr. Hegseth's 03:09.666 --> 03:14.133 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% reported issues with alcohol persist to this day? 03:14.133 --> 03:17.600 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% JANE MAYER: I mean, I think it's a very good question you as. And 03:17.600 --> 03:22.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% "The New Yorker" submitted many questions to Mr. Hegseth and to his lawyer and gave him 03:24.266 --> 03:28.733 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% two days to answer them. And instead of answering any of the questions or 03:28.733 --> 03:32.866 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% refuting anything in the story, they just said they would have no comment. 03:32.866 --> 03:37.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% So, obviously, this is of utmost importance. We need to know whether someone who might be the 03:39.666 --> 03:44.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% top person in the Defense Department has a very serious alcohol problem. 03:46.200 --> 03:48.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Jane, there's also now a body of reporting looking into Hegseth's personal story 03:48.900 --> 03:53.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% as well, multiple marriages and infidelities that have been documented, also troubling 03:53.233 --> 03:58.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% details from a police report related to a sexual assault allegation back in 2017. 04:00.233 --> 04:03.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% This weekend, "The New York Times" also published an e-mail from his mother in 2018, 04:03.900 --> 04:07.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% in which she says in part: "On behalf of all the women, and I know it's many, 04:07.866 --> 04:12.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% you have abused in some way, I say get some help and take an honest look at yourself." 04:14.166 --> 04:15.633 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We should note that his mother has since disavowed 04:15.633 --> 04:17.933 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% those comments in speaking with "The New York Times." 04:17.933 --> 04:22.400 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% But, Jane, what does your reporting show about any of this as a pattern 04:22.400 --> 04:27.400 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% of behavior and also that sexual assault allegation from 2017? 04:28.800 --> 04:30.800 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% JANE MAYER: Well, I mean, we have to say, of course, 04:30.800 --> 04:34.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% that he has denied sexually assaulting this woman. She's anonymous at this point. 04:37.033 --> 04:40.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But the thing that has brought much attention to this is that he failed to disclose to the 04:42.200 --> 04:45.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% transition staff that he had secretly struck up a settlement with this woman and has 04:48.166 --> 04:51.866 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% been paying her and that they also struck up a nondisclosure agreement to try to keep it secret. 04:53.900 --> 04:58.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And so the Trump administration has decided not to have the FBI investigate potential 05:00.633 --> 05:05.333 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% Cabinet officers. So they didn't have the FBI doing a background check. And Pete Hegseth 05:05.333 --> 05:10.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% never told the transition staff that this was in his background. It just came up because a friend 05:12.433 --> 05:15.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% of the woman's actually went to the transition team and said, did you realize this about him? 05:15.600 --> 05:20.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% So these tales from the past in his life just seem to be surfacing one by one by one. 05:24.400 --> 05:26.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Jane, the Trump team was reportedly blindsided 05:26.833 --> 05:29.233 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% by some of the recent reporting about Hegseth. 05:29.233 --> 05:34.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% From your sources, does it seem like all the potentially damaging allegations are now out 05:36.266 --> 05:40.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% in the open, that everything that senators need to weigh is out there and reported? 05:40.133 --> 05:43.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JANE MAYER: No, I actually don't think so, because, just today -- I mean, this story came 05:43.700 --> 05:48.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% out in "The New Yorker" just around midnight last night. And, by today, people have been 05:51.700 --> 05:56.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% calling me all day long with more examples of this kind of behavior from Pete Hegseth. 05:58.400 --> 06:03.100 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% So, I don't think we really, truly know the whole story yet. 06:03.100 --> 06:05.733 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% AMNA NAWAZ: That is Jane Mayer of "The New Yorker" joining us tonight. 06:05.733 --> 06:07.566 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% Jane, thank you. Good to see you. 06:07.566 --> 06:09.900 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% JANE MAYER: Thanks so much for having me.