The mother of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense secretary, reportedly sent him an email in 2018 raising concerns about his treatment of women, according to the New York Times.
In the email, Penelope Hegseth told her son that he had routinely mistreated women for years and displayed a lack of character.
“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,” Hegseth wrote to her son.
“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,” she added.
Hegseth told The Times in a phone interview on Friday that she sent her son an “immediate” apology after, adding that she wrote the email “in anger, with emotion” due her son’s personal struggles with his wife at the time.
“It is not true. It has never been true,” she told The Times. “I know my son. He is a good father, husband,” she said.
Hegseth, a Fox News host, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017 and paying her off. The allegation surfaced after he was nominated by Trump to lead the Pentagon.
He has denied the allegations and has not been charged in the incident.
Hegseth is also facing backlash for saying women should not serve in combat roles and his plan to purge what he calls “woke” policy and leadership at the Pentagon.
In a statement the Trump transition team slammed The Times for publishing the letter.
“The New York Times is despicable for using an out-of-context snippet of an illegally-obtained private email exchange between a mother and her son that does not accurately reflect the entirety of the conversation,” Trump’s communications director Steven C beings wrote. “In subsequent emails, Mrs. Hegseth expressed regret for her emotional message and apologized.”
