CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) about President-elect Donald Trump’s SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth‘s recent claim that he’s “never had a drinking problem” — despite previously describing struggles with alcohol after his military deployment.
When Tapper said: “When you’re talking about drinking at 10 in the morning, that’s a drinking problem,” Mullin interrupted and said, “Well, then there’s a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem.”
Mullin added, “And yeah, there’s probably a lot of media who have a drinking problem, too.”
Tapper: When you’re talking about drinking at ten in the morning, that’s a drinking problem.
Mullin: Well, then there’s a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem… and there’s probably a lot of media that has a drinking problem too. pic.twitter.com/1Sk9qv1TA4
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 8, 2024
Mullin claimed he never really drank in his life, “so I really don’t understand that but there’s a lot of alcohol that flows through Washington, DC on a regular basis.”
After specifically saying there’s “a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem,” Mullin said: “I wouldn’t say people are alcoholics or they have a drinking problem because of that. I don’t see it at all. I don’t see that being a problem. And I really wish that the media would move on and focus on what he can bring as Secretary of Defense.”
Objecting to the suggestion that alleged alcohol abuse is not a red flag because a lot of alcohol “flows” in Washington, Eric Columbus, who served as special litigation counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives’ Office of General Counsel from 2020 to 2023 and in political appointments at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, responded sarcastically to Mullin’s comments.
“Senator Mullin,” Columbus wrote, “makes a convincing case that Hegseth is not the only person who should not be Secretary of Defense.”
