'A sex crime!' Fox News pundit smacks down panelist for downplaying Hegseth as 'womanizer'
Fox News pundit Lucy Caldwell called out OutKick founder Clay Travis after he called Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary nominee, an alleged "womanizer" instead of acknowledging sexual assault allegations.
During a Sunday panel discussion on Fox News, Travis condemned media coverage of Hegseth's nomination.
"Look, they've come after Pete Hegseth with everything they got," Travis complained. "They started with, oh, he's a womanizer. You can't trust him. His wife's fabulous. They have a fantastic family. He's doing really well."
"Not a womanizer!" Caldwell interrupted. "Accused of a sex crime! Not a womanizer! Accused of a sex crime! That's totally not the same thing. There's a police report about it."
"Let's not use the term womanizer," she continued. "Defend it. But don't say womanizer. That's not what's at issue here. An alleged sex crime is what's at issue here."
"Hold on, Lucy!" Travis exclaimed. "What you are doing is everything that's wrong with the way these are covered. You said accused of a sex crime. He was actually cleared of a sex crime. They investigated. The woman lied. There was no basis for it."
"He wasn't prosecuted," Fox News host Howard Kurtz noted.
"He was cleared!" Travis repeated.
"No! Wrong!" Caldwell argued. "Incorrect!"
"100% true!" Travis said. "They investigated him in Florida — I mean, in California. They found there was absolutely no crime that had occurred at all. That is the truth."
"That's not what happened!" Caldwell insisted.
In fact, police in Monterey, California, did not clear Hegseth of sexual assault allegations. Police forwarded the investigation results to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office, which chose not to prosecute.
The potential criminal offense was listed as "Rape: victim unconscious of the nature of the act."
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In a statement, the District Attorney's Office said Hegseth was not prosecuted because "no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
Hegseth later came to a settlement out of court with his alleged accuser.
Watch the video below from Fox News.