The mother of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, pleaded her son’s case Wednesday as his future nomination appeared to be in jeopardy in the Senate over allegations involving drinking and sexual assault.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” Penelope Hegseth addressed an email that she wrote to her son in 2018, whose details were published by The New York Times last week, that accused him of mistreating women for years.
“I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emotions. I wrote that as a parent,” she told the network, explaining that it was during a time when Pete Hegseth was “going through a very difficult divorce.”
“I wrote that out of love,” she continued. “And about two hours later, I retracted it with an apology, but nobody’s seen that.”
Penelope Hegseth told the Times later that she regretted the email, which NBC News has not obtained. She also told the newspaper that she immediately apologized to Hegseth for sending it and that she said her statements in the email were not true.
Hegseth’s lawyer declined to provide a statement but passed along one from the Trump transition team that said: “It is 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 entire purpose of this exercise is to malign Mr. Hegseth.”
Hegseth has denied that he mistreated women and an allegation of sexual assault in 2017, saying the encounter was consensual; he later reached an undisclosed settlement with his accuser. Hegseth also did not respond Tuesday evening to questions about the drinking allegations.
On Wednesday, Hegseth vowed in a post to X that he would not end his bid to be Trump’s secretary of defense, saying, “The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of @realDonaldTrump—and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth.
“Our warriors never back down, & neither will I.”
Asked on “Fox and Friends” about the allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use, infidelity and financial mismanagement, Penelope Hegseth said, “Our job as parents [is] 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 — any of it.”
“He doesn’t misuse women, no. He’s been through some difficult things,” she added. “I’m not going to list them by name, but I would just say that some of those, some of those attachments or descriptions, are just not true, especially anymore.”
She said she wants people to judge her son for who he is today and not what he may have been like seven years ago, saying most of the reports are “misinformation.”
“Pete is a new person. He’s redeemed, forgiven, changed. I think we all are after seven years,” she said, again calling her son a “changed man.”
Penelope Hegseth also said she believes her son is qualified to be secretary of defense, adding that his work as a TV host on Fox News has prepared him for the job, teaching him to be a good communicator who can think on his feet and take charge.
Asked if she thinks the negative reports about her son have become a distraction for the beginning of Trump’s second term, she said, “To a degree, but I think it can be overcome.”
