‘Mouth-Breathing Idiot’: White House Staffer Flames Matthew Yglesias Over Hegseth ‘Bourbon’ Myth

Phillip NietoFeb 15th, 2025, 5:35 pm
 

White House Deputy Communications Director Alex Pfeiffer called out journalist Matthew Yglesias for indulging a conspiracy theory alleging Pete Hegseth was drinking bourbon at an overseas press conference.

Recently, users on social media began floating a bizarre claim that the Secretary of Defense was sipping on bourbon or some sort of alcohol at the podium during a NATO summit in Europe.

Prior to leading the Pentagon, Hegseth faced an uphill battle during his Senate confirmation process that involved allegations that he abused alcohol during his time at Fox News. Hegseth has repeatedly denied all the accusations.

Regardless, users pointed to a video that shows Hegseth sipping from a glass during a recent press conference as evidence of his alcoholism. The liquid appeared brownish in a screen capture shared online. Reactions attacking Hegseth ranged from seemingly sarcastic to actually taking the strange idea seriously, despite the fact that video from other angles clearly showed the glass did not in fact have brown liquid but simply clear water.

 

As the bourbon legend grew and spread, Yglesias chimed in with his own post, offering a minor hedge while still promoting the conspiracy theory.

“I assume this is a trick of the light and he’s not actually throwing back bourbon on camera, but it’s interesting that the water looks brown,” he wrote, leaving open the possibility it was actually brown liquor and not just water.

That was when the White House comms deputy responded, sending a furious tweet referring to the journalist as a “mouth-breathing idiot.”

“It’s interesting that an alleged intellectual is actually a mouth-breathing idiot,” Pfeiffer wrote. “Or does he just think his followers are? Less than a month into the new admin, and Matt is trying to make drinking water a scandal.”

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