Penelope Hegseth, the mother of Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, backtracked on her remarks in an email calling her son a serial “abuser of women.”
Hegseth sat down for an interview with Fox & Friends Wednesday morning to salvage her son’s prospects as several controversies threaten his confirmation.
Among the scandals is a 2018 email Hegseth sent to her son calling his a serial “abuser of women” and urging him to seek help.
“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote to her son in the email obtained by the New York Times. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
On Wednesday, Hegseth slammed NYT as “despicable,” adding that her son had been going through a “difficult” divorce at the time and that she wrote the email “in haste” and apologized for sending it within two hours.
Since being named Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Hegseth has faced criticism for his treatment of women and his professional conduct.
A police report from 2017 released last month detailed allegations of sexual assault against Hegseth, which he denied. He has also faced criticism for saying women should not serve in active combat.
New disturbing allegations were also revealed by The New Yorker from a previously undisclosed whistleblower report from 2015 detailing Hegseth’s time as the head of Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) from 2013 to 2016.
The report said Hegseth was repeatedly intoxicated on the job and was forced to step down “in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.”
NBC News reported Tuesday that some of Hegseth’s colleagues at Fox News were concerned about his drinking habits.
In Wednesday’s interview Hegseth said she doesn’t believe that any of the allegations against her son are true.
“He’s been through difficult things, I’m not going to list them by name,” she said, adding that her son is “a changed man.”
“We really believe that he is not that man he was seven years ago. I’m not that mother and I hope people will hear that story today and the truth of that story,” Hegseth said. “I am here to tell the truth. To tell the truth to the American people and tell the truth to senators on the hill, especially female senators. I really hope that you will not listen to the media and you will listen to Pete.”
