Hegseth: ‘I Look Forward to the FBI Background Check,’ Pres. Trump Told Me ‘To Keep on Fighting’

EXCERPT:

HEGSETH: "I mean, in addition to personal witnesses and all of that, it was fully investigated at the time years ago, and I was completely cleared. That’s why, Sean, you know what I look forward to? I’m looking forward to the FBI background check. I look forward to the actual, under oath, conversations with senators as we go through the process, because, again, this is what the left does. It’s the anatomy of a smear. They take something and they add anonymous sources and contortions and flat out lies, and then they try to try you in the media before you can even get into the doors with senators. And this is where I give so much credit to President Trump. He’s got a backbone of steal. He never backs down. He called me and said, 'Pete, you keep fighting.' And when he picked me, he said, 'It's because I know you can do this. You have to be tough as hell, stare these folks down, and stand up for the change that needs to come to the Defense Department for our men and women in uniform.' So if he can endure what he’s done; Sean, then I can stick up to this lying press and fight on for the American people and our war fighters."