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Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who has been named as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, is facing fresh controversy this week after The New York Times published a 2018 email in which his mother accused him of being “an abuser of women.”
According to the Times, Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, sent the email in April 2018, three months before his divorce decree was issued. In the email, she expressed dismay at her son’s treatment of his then-wife, Samantha Hegseth, calling his behavior “despicable and abusive” and telling him to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself.”
She wrote:
You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and 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.
I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.
...
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.
The Times said it obtained a copy of the email from someone “with ties to the Hegseth family.” Penelope Hegseth told the news outlet that she sent the email “in anger” during her son’s divorce and that she immediately followed up with another email to apologize. She also disavowed her first email, saying her accusations are not true and that her son “is a good father, husband.”
Hegseth did not immediately provide the Times with a copy of the follow-up email. (Neither MSNBC nor NBC News has obtained a copy of either email.) Pete Hegseth’s lawyer declined to comment, but Trump’s transition team provided a statement, saying it was “shameful but not surprising that the NYT is publishing a story about one out of context snippet from an illegally obtained private conversation between a mother and her son.”
The report about his mother’s scathing rebuke adds another layer of controversy to Pete Hegseth’s expected nomination for secretary of defense. His lack of experience in a prominent leadership role — among other reasons — has raised alarm among Democrats. Since Trump announced Hegseth as his pick, the former Fox News host’s history of controversial comments has resurfaced, and a 2017 sexual assault investigation against him has come to light. (No charges were filed against Hegseth in the investigation, and he has maintained that the encounter was consensual.)
Hegseth’s confirmation will likely come down to Senate Republicans, who have a slim majority in the next Congress. Although several of them have expressed somewhat half-hearted support for Hegseth, his confirmation appears far from certain.