The Pete Hegseth controversy continued for another day. And while the story could drag on for a while, the end feels predictable. The former Fox News host is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, but a series of troubling stories have put Hegseth’s nomination in jeopardy.
The stories include allegations of sexual assault, financial mismanagement and drunken behavior, as well as a damning email he received from his mother, and obtained by The New York Times, in which she called her son an “abuser of women.”
Hegseth went on the attack Wednesday, dismissing the allegations in an interview with Megyn Kelly. He made comparisons of his treatment to those that Brett Kavanaugh faced during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Hegseth told Kelly, “It is the classic art of the smear. Take whatever tiny kernels of truth — and there are tiny, tiny ones in there — and blow them up into a masquerade of a narrative about somebody that I am definitely not.”
Hegseth also attacked the press in an essay in The Wall Street Journal. He wrote about his military service and his work with the Concerned Veterans for America. He then wrote, “Since then, I’ve been at Fox News — where I saw my work as a continuation of my mission to fight for America. Again, the legacy press has used anonymous sources to try to discredit even that.”
That appeared to be a reference to an NBC News report that talked to 10 current or former Fox News staffers who said Hegseth’s drinking concerned them.
Hegseth wrote, “The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and tear me down. It’s a textbook manufactured media takedown. They provide no evidence, no names, and they ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman, because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity. That is the only thing they are right about.”
However, a troubling story in all this is not from an anonymous source. It’s from his own mother. In a 2018 email to her son, Penelope Hegseth 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.”
Penelope Hegseth appeared on Wednesday’s “Fox & Friends” on Fox News and defended her son.
She said, “I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emotions. I wrote that as a parent. … I wrote that out of love. And about two hours later, I retracted it with an apology, but nobody's seen that.”
She added, “Pete is a new person. … He’s redeemed, forgiven, changed. I just hope people will get to know who Pete is today, especially our dear female senators, that you would listen to him, listen with your heart to the truth of Pete. … He doesn’t misuse women.”
Penelope Hegseth also made a bizarre claim about being threatened by The New York Times. She claimed the threat was the Times telling her that it would publish an article about her email before she granted the Times an interview. She said, “Some of those attachments or descriptions are just not true, especially anymore. That’s the first thing they do. They say, ‘Unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is. And I think that’s a despicable way to treat anyone.”
In a statement, New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said, “This claim is flatly untrue, and in no way was Ms. Hegseth threatened. The Times did what it always does in reporting out a story, simply reaching out and asking for a comment, which we included. This was a piece of independently-reported journalism published in the name of public awareness of the nominee to lead the largest department in the Federal government. We stand behind it completely.”
Yeah, that’s how fair journalism works. A news outlet reports a story and, as a part of its report, reporters reach out to those in the story and ask if they would like to comment. And, by the way, the Times did include Penelope Hegseth’s comments in its original story.
Hegseth vowed in his Kelly interview, as well as his essay, and to reporters on Wednesday that he has no intention of giving up. He said, “I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way. … Why would I back down?”
Even though Trump might be publicly supporting Hegseth, behind the scenes is a different story. There are reports that Trump already is considering moving on from Hegseth, and is thinking about nominating either Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or Florida Republican Congressman Michael Waltz for defense secretary.
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Michael D. Shear wrote, “Mr. Trump has told people close to him that he likes the idea of giving Mr. DeSantis the job, saying it would be a ‘big story’ if he resurrected Mr. DeSantis after defeating him. The president-elect has also praised Mr. DeSantis’s ability to run the state of Florida, where Mr. Trump lives, and has mentioned that he is ‘a Navy guy.’”
