Fox’s Pete Hegseth: “One man’s whistleblower is another man’s political leaker who has an agenda”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Citation From the September 26 edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): I just heard Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi say that whistleblowers are good, especially in the intelligence community. I don't think you approve of that.
PETE HEGSETH: No, I don't. I mean, listen, whistleblowers serve an important function. We saw it at the VA; when things are going wrong, you want somebody to talk about it. In this case, a big question whether that fits whistleblower. I mean one man's whistleblower is another man's political leaker who has an agenda, as we’ve heard, based on hearsay. And now she's used the words “removed all doubt." I mean, she says they're doing more investigation and inquiry, but in her mind there's no doubt that this is an impeachable offense. I don't know how she walks back from this. It feels like Groundhog Day, Stuart. The same stuff, different story. In this case they’ve latched on to this phone call.
VARNEY: The speaker opened with “the president has betrayed his oath of office, he's betrayed national security and the integrity of our elections." That's a pretty broad statement. In my personal opinion, I don't think that you can infer that from that conversation with Ukraine's leader or from the whistleblower's memo that was put out there.
HEGSETH: Of course you can't.
VARNEY: You can't say that.