President-elect Donald Trump has no second thoughts about his choice of Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, his team told The Post Wednesday, despite MSNBC host Joe Scarborough claiming otherwise.
The “Morning Joe” co-host had dished on a sitdown between Trump, Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday.
“I will say on background, in our conversation on background, there are a couple of things that surprised us,” recounted Scarborough, 61. “One of them was, when his name came up, there was not a flinch, but a noticeable ‘we got problems here.’”
When pressed by others on the set, the former Florida congressman confirmed he had been referring to Hegseth, a Fox News personality and longtime Army National Guardsman.
“Those weren’t the words [used],” Scarborough added. “But I will just tell you that was the takeaway.”
“Scarborough is wrong,” Trump transition communications director Steven Cheung told The Post. “Pete Hegseth dedicated his entire life as a warrior for the troops and for our country. Pete served our country as an Army Combat Veteran who did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For his actions on the battlefield, he was decorated with two Bronze Stars, as well as a Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
“He is an incredibly tough and smart candidate that will fight to put America First,” Cheung added. “With Pete as our Secretary of Defense, America’s enemies are on notice and our military will be great again.”
Hegseth, now 44, was accused in 2017 of sexual assault by a staffer at a conservative group.
His lawyer told The Post in an interview that the decorated veteran was “blackmailed” into paying off his accuser out of fear for his career at the height of the #MeToo movement.
“Basically, he was totally innocent. He did nothing wrong here,” said the lawyer, Timothy Parlatore. “We went through a mediation and ultimately settled for far less than what she wanted. And that should have completely buried it.
“He had way too many drinks, and according to video surveillance and eyewitness testimony, this woman who was sober took advantage of him, and she was the aggressor,” Parlatore added.
“She took him by the arm and she led him up to his room.”
White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, on April 25, 2015. REUTERS
Hegseth, a devout Catholic, has been married three times and has fathered four children. He has also adopted three children from his current wife’s first marriage.
On Tuesday night, Hegseth called into the Republican National Committee’s faith engagement prayer call and spoke about the attacks against him following his nomination.
“When you stand up for good and right and true, and faith and belief in Jesus Christ, the world will come after you,” the nominee said at one point after offering a prayer for the president-elect and his incoming administration.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post.
