Repubilcan Sen. Markwayne Mullin hit back at CNN host Jake Tapper as he defended Pete Hegseth’s claim that he never had a drinking problem.
Appearing for an interview on the show State of the Union Sunday, Mullin said journalists had been “hypocritical” by questioning Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick for once admitting that he would use alcohol as self-medication while serving in the US Army.
“For the media to go after him and start describing that as a drinking problem, it’s individuals that don’t understand combat veterans because they’ve never been there,” he told Tapper.
“They’ve never been in combat. They’ve never seen the horrific stuff that comes by that they’ve never tasted the dirt in their mouth. They’ve never heard the horrible sounds in their ears. They’ve never had the sights that they can’t get rid of. They’ve never had the dreams in the middle of the night.
“I think it’s hypocritical for them to even question that,” he added.
Tapper opened his question by showing two clips with apparently contradicting claims from Hegseth, the former Army National Guard officer who is facing increased scrutiny as he vies for the job leading US national defense.
The first clip from a recent interview on the Megyn Kelly showed Hegseth claiming he did not suffer from alcoholism and “never sought counseling.” The second clip showed Hegseth on the “Will Cain Show” podcast in 2021 saying he would turn to drinking at the end of the day when he served in the army.
“I look around at 10 o’clock and say, What am I going to do today?” Hegseth said in the second clip. “I don’t know. How would I drink some beers? How would I go have lunch and have some beers? How would I meet my one or two buddies and have some beers? And one beers leads to many, leads to self medication, it leads to [a feeling that] ‘I’ve earned this’.”
Mullin insisted these comments offered no proof that Hegseth had any problems.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our combat vets have come back and face the same thing. They’re sitting there and they had their identity in the service. They had a job to do. They were responsible for certain things.”
“They get out of the service in their back, and they’re sitting there twiddle their tongues. They’ve had a lot of experiences that the regular population doesn’t. They have these memories, these thoughts, these sounds, the smells that are still coming back to them and they turn to drinking with their buddies. That doesn’t mean that they had a drinking problem.”
He then turned his ire to the media saying, journalists “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“They should put themselves in their shoes and every other combat veteran’s shoes,” he said.
Tapper rejected Mullin’s fiery remarks, claiming he had always shown war veterans respect in his reporting.
“I have done a lot of coverage of veterans and a lot of coverage of combat, and while I’ve never worn the uniform, I think I do have an understanding of the need of our valiant troops when they come home to self medicate. What I’m saying is, when you’re talking about drinking at 10 in the morning, that’s a drinking problem,” he said.
But Mullin again suggested that it’s others who need to look in the mirror.
“There’s a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem,” Mullin responded. “There’s probably a lot of media that has a drinking problem too. There’s a lot of alcohol that flows through Washington, DC on a regular basis, and I wouldn’t say that people are alcoholics or they have a drinking problem because of that.”
Tapper, however, shot down his argument.
“A drunk reporter who’s drinking at 10am, for whatever reason, is not in charge of the three-million-person Defense Department. And so there is a difference,” Tapper retorted.
