Following an accusation by a prominent civil rights attorney that Pete Hegseth, the formerFox News host nominated by Donald Trump as defense secretary, is “known to be a white supremacist,” his colleagues reacted to the remarks on Saturday, denying the accusation.
Sherrilyn Ifill, former director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund, made the remarks during an appearance on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes on Thursday while discussing Trump’s surprise pick of Hegseth for the key Cabinet position.
“This is someone who is known to be a white supremacist, known to be an extremist, whose book is basically about his opposition to the advancement of Black officers to the top brass,” Ifill told Hayes.
She added: “And the military is actually a very important area for Black advancement. By the way, the Department of Defense has 3 million employees. There’s no evidence that this man has ever run anything. The fact that he is a veteran is simply insufficient. Because these are two very, very important positions, they strike me as eminently dangerous.”
Hayes interjected to say that Hegseth would deny being a white supremacist.
After receiving pushback from Hayes, Ifill said, “If you read what he’s written about the people in the military—about gay people in the military, about women in the military, about Black people in the military, especially in supervisory positions—he is an extremist. That is absolutely true.”
In his 2024 book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, Hegseth, who is a New York Times bestselling author, spoke out against the military’s drive to increase diversity among higher-ranked officers.
“Take it to the racist bank: Black troops at all levels will be promoted simply based on their race,” he wrote in a section cited by The Washington Post. “Some will be qualified; some will not be.”
Newsweek has reached out to Hegseth via his attorney’s email and Ifill via the Legal Defense Fund email for comment.
Reacting to Ifill’s remarks, Hegseth’s colleagues on Fox & Friends Weekend, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Will Cain and Joey Jones, denied the accusations on Saturday that Hegseth is a “white supremacist.”
“If he was a white supremacist, I think we’d know and I hope that he has the time, which I’m sure he doesn’t because he’s preparing for his hearings and everything before the Senate, that woman deserves to be sued. That is defamation,” Campos-Duffy said.
Cain stated: “I got to be honest with you, I’m not objective. I am biased. This is one of the people who I feel like I know best in my life who I would vouch for their character. That being said, we do know him best as some people in this world. That ridiculous opinion is based upon what she accuses him of being against DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion]. So, merit is now racist is what she’s suggesting. And the fact that he has tattoos.”
Jones added: “The one thing I do know about Pete Hegseth is if he’s confirmed as Secretary of Defense, he will not seek retribution with his National Guard unit or with that person. He’ll treat everyone the exact same and give them all an opportunity to be the best fighting force our country’s ever seen.”
John Lamparski/Getty Images
The accusations come as Hegseth previously revealed he was one of 12 National Guard members who were removed for President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration because he was “deemed extremist” due to his Jerusalem Cross tattoo on the chest.
Hegseth told former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan’s podcast that the Jerusalem cross tattoo—one large cross with additional smaller crosses in each quadrant—has no connections to extremism and is “just a Christian symbol.”
Hegseth also has the Christian motto “Deus Vult” (God wills it) tattooed on his arm. Steven Monacelli, a journalist who covers politics and extremism, wrote on the social media platform Bluesky Hegseth’s tattoo signifies “how steeped he is in far-right Christian nationalist ideology.”
Meanwhile, this comes as the choices from Trump have raised concerns that the president-elect is deciding his next Cabinet based on loyalty rather than experience. Critics argue that Hegseth has no senior command experience despite serving in the military. Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, serving in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Associated Press. He would leave the service with the rank of major.
Hegseth left the Army in 2021, according to Reuters, after being labeled an “extremist” he said, and that the Army did not want him. In his book, Hegseth also wrote that the feeling was mutual, “I didn’t want this Army anymore either.”
Hegseth’s appointment as defense secretary will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate next year in a simple majority vote. With the GOP controlling the upper chamber next year with a current 52-47 seat majority, Hegseth cannot afford to have more than three Republican senators vote against his nomination.
A number of security experts and Pentagon officials have spoken out against Hegseth’s nomination, while several Trump allies have voiced support for the move.
