Pete Hegseth’s mother said Wednesday that she “doesn’t believe” any of the allegations of sexual impropriety and workplace misbehavior that have dogged President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Pentagon.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends designed to salvage her son’s faltering prospects, Penelope Hegseth even went so far as to call an email that she wrote in 2018, in which she told her son he was an “abuser of women,” mostly “misinformation.”
“That was seven years ago, and most of it is misinformation,” she said, explaining that she wrote the message “in haste, with deep emotions, as a parent.”
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“It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women,” she wrote to her son, according to a New York Times report. “We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character.”
She told Fox & Friends cohost Steve Doocy her emotions were stirred by the fact that “Pete, and his wife were going through a difficult divorce.”
Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Deering, filed for divorce in 2017 after he fathered a child with a producer at Fox News who is now his third wife.
She said, two hours after sending her email, her husband told her she “should think through things more.”
Mama Hegseth asserted that it was her parental duty to appear on TV and clarify that what she wrote had been wrong: “Our jobs as parents are to correct. They are to speak truth. And I am a passionate person like Pete, and sometimes emotional words come out. I don’t believe any of that is true.”
Nevertheless, she repeatedly suggested that Hegseth was not exactly a model citizen at the time that she wrote the email, stating he is “not the Pete from seven years ago” and agreeing with Doocy’s characterization that he is a “changed man.”
Hegseth also clearly wanted shore up her son’s standing with Trump, who is reportedly considering canning his nomination and replacing him with Florida Governor Ron Desantis.
There were periods when she looked directly into the camera to address Trump, thanking him for his “belief in my son.”
Hegseth told Doocy that Trump and her son “talk often” and that, as far as she knows, he still has the President-elect’s backing: “The other night I heard everything is good.”
She also reserved vitriol for the press, in particular the Times, telling Trump and the American people to “not listen to the media” but to “listen to Pete.”
“I came to take on New York City, to take on the New York Times,” she said at one point, repeatedly describing the Times efforts to reach her for comment as “threats.”
“It feels almost criminal when reporters call you and threaten you,” she told Doocy. “They are in it for the commission and the money and they don’t care who they hurt. Families, children.”
The Times did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The thrice-married Hegseth’s behavior towards women has become a central concern in his bid to lead the Pentagon, which prompted his mother’s appearance on the friendly conservative morning chat show.
A year before she wrote her e-mail a woman accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room. A police investigation did not result in charges and Hegseth paid the woman a settlement because he feared the allegation, which he strenuously denies, would harm his then-career as a Fox News host.
Other concerns regard a whistleblower report submitted at Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group he ran from 2013 to 2016.
Staff alleged Hegseth and other members of the group’s management team sexually pursued their female employees, informally dividing them into two camps they described as “party girls” and “not party girls.” He has denied the allegations.
After leaving the veterans group, Hegseth went on to work at Fox News for a decade, including hosting the weekend edition of Fox & Friends.
His mother made an unusual suggestion regarding his experience in television, claiming all cabinet nominees should do a one-year stint at Fox News before entering government.
“I think being a TV news host prepares you for most things in a position like this,” she said. You’re a good communicator, you have to think on your feet, take charge, everybody should do a year with Fox.”
