One of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks has had his conduct in the past come under scrutiny- not just from the media and political reviews, but now, from the nominee’s own mother.
According to a New York Times report on Friday, the mother of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Defense, wrote her son a letter in 2018, about his mistreatment of women, including the two women, at that time, to whom he had been married. The Times has obtained and published the letter.
Pete Hegseth’s own mother told him in 2018 that she had “no respect” for him over how he has “abused” women. https://t.co/KVijrbBSJv
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 30, 2024
“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’s mother, Penelope, wrote in the letter, which arrived amid Hegseth’s divorce from his second wife. Penelope also forwarded the email to the ex-wife, and another family member shared it with the newspaper.
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“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,” the letter said, as reported by the Times.
Man Pete Hegseth’s mom thinks he’s a real piece of shit. pic.twitter.com/EO3lXXbwTC
— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) November 30, 2024
In a new interview, Hegseth’s mother told the Times that she subsequently apologized for sending the letter, that she no longer stands by the views she expressed in it, and chastised the newspaper for publishing it.
““It is not true. It has never been true,” she told the newspaper in the interview, adding that, “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.”
Even on top of the sexual assault allegation that Hegseth faced in 2017, the nominee has something of a colorful marital history, which includes three marriages, and at least one child delivered by a woman who was not his wife at the time.
Hegseth, who spent the last several years as a Fox News weekend host, is a military veteran who, during the first Trump presidency, successfully urged Trump to pardon several soldiers who had been accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
