On Sunday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., pushed back against a line of questioning and prompts from CNN's "State of the Union" about President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, and whether he has a drinking problem.
After showing Mullin clips of Hegseth telling "The Will Cain Show" in 2021 that going out for drinks with "buddies" leads to "self-medication," anchor Jake Tapper asked how the congressman reconciles that with Hegseth "now claiming that he's never had an issue with alcohol."
"That wasn't him saying he had an alcohol problem," Mullin replied. "That was him being honest.
"Unfortunately, a lot of our combat vets have come back and faced the same thing: that they're sitting there. And they, they were, they had their identity in the service. They had a job to do. They were responsible for certain things.
"And they get out of the service, and they're back, and they're sitting there twiddling their thumbs. They've had a lot of experiences that the regular population doesn't. They have these memories, these thoughts, these sounds, the smells that are still coming back to them," he said.
"And, and they turn to drinking with their buddies. That doesn't mean that they had a drinking problem. That means that every combat veteran has had the same issues. That's why they have VFW set up. That's why they have American Legion set up. What he was describing is what most combat veterans have faced."
Mullin then added, "Now, if he did have a drinking problem, that would be obvious. But to make something out of it that isn't there, just because he's going through secretary of defense, the media should be ashamed of themselves."