The mother of President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled Secretary of Defense-designee Pete Hegseth slammed the “despicable” New York Times after it published a withering email she sent her son — and said she hopes “senators will not listen to the media” about him.
Penelope Hegseth, who sent a scathing email to her son during his rocky second divorce calling him an “abuser of women,” thanked Trump for believing in him, telling “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning, “He’s not the man he was seven years ago” and that “I’m not that mother” either.
The 2018 email, leaked to the New York Times, accused him of “dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling” and saying he needed to be “called out.”
Penelope Hegseth told Fox News host Steve Doocy she wrote the message in the heat of the moment — and apologized to her son two hours later in a second email that had not been leaked.
His mother criticized the New York Times, saying the publication “threatened” her when calling to ask for a comment on the situation.
“They call you and threaten you. They say, ‘Unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is,’” she told Doocy. “I think that’s a despicable way to treat anyone.”
Despite the intense media scrutiny on her son, including allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement, Penelope Hegseth insisted her son has changed and is deserving of the nomination.
“I want people to look at Pete and understand him for who he is today,” she said. “And to disregard the media — that was seven years ago — and most of that was misinformation.”
When asked about that change and to share things about her son that Americans may not know, she described a “faithful patriot” and devoted father.
“He loves this country. He’s fought and almost died for this country. He’s a good dad. He’s an amazing son and father and that’s the Pete I want people to know,” Penelope Hegseth said.
“I want to say one more thing, I believe he’s the man for the job, but more than that, I believe he’s the man for such a time as this,” she added.
Pete Hegseth, a 44-year-old Army veteran and former Fox News personality, may still face an uphill battle getting Senate confirmation as some Republicans have started to express concerns over the allegations about his treatment of women, alcohol abuse and overall ability to run the Pentagon.
Despite reports that Trump has been considering replacing Pete Hegseth with his own one-time 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Penelope Hegseth said she thinks things are still solid between her son and the incoming commander-in-chief.
“The other night I heard that everything is good,” she said. “I think Trump is a good man and he picked some good nominees, and I think the senators need to listen.”
DeSantis, a former member of the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps who served as a legal adviser to SEAL Team One, is on a shortlist of potential defense secretary candidates presented to Trump by transition officials before he went with Hegseth, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The list has recently been dusted off and presented to Trump again as allegations about Hegseth, which some senators like South Carolina GOPer Lindsey Graham have described as “disturbing,” continue to surface.
Sources who spoke to the Journal cautioned that Trump, 78, could settle on a different replacement for Hegseth should his nomination fail.
Despite mounting criticism, Hegseth has remained on Capitol Hill this week trying to drum up support for his nomination, meeting with GOP senators and discussing his plans to overhaul the Pentagon, which has repeatedly failed annual budget audits even as recruitment is flagging.
Days after receiving the nomination, reports that he faced sexual assault allegations in 2017 emerged.
On Sunday, the New Yorker also published allegations from unnamed former employees at Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, nonprofit veterans’ advocacy groups led by Hegseth between 2007 and 2016.
The two former employees, emails and a 2015 whistleblower dossier all indicated that Hegseth was asked to step down from the organizations because he got “totally sloshed” at events and looked the other way when male members of his senior management sexually harassed female associates.
Sean Parnell, who served as a senior adviser at CVA from 2013 to 2016, categorically denied all the allegations in an interview with The Post on Tuesday.
“If you read that article, I mean, I think you come away thinking that CVA was some sort of slush fund for parties or something — and nothing could be further from the truth,” Parnell said.
Hegseth was never charged in the 2017 case — and his lawyer has asserted that all recent allegations of impropriety and misconduct are “false.”
