Pete Hegseth’s Mother Defends Her Son’s Character on Fox Show
- ️https://www.nytimes.com/by/jennifer-s--forsyth
- ️Wed Dec 04 2024
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The mother of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be defense secretary appeared on the network where her son worked to say that he was a changed man.
- Dec. 4, 2024
Penelope Hegseth, Pete Hegseth’s mother, said Wednesday morning that her son was not the same man he was in 2018 when she fired off an email accusing him of routinely abusing women and lacking decency and character.
“Pete is a new person,” Mrs. Hegseth said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “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,” she said, adding, “He doesn’t misuse women.”
Her appearance came after The New York Times published an email she wrote as Mr. Hegseth was in the midst of a contentious divorce from his second wife. She told The Times in an interview Friday that she did not believe what she said in that email and that she had apologized to her son in a follow-up email.
It also came in the wake of allegations of alcohol abuse and mismanagement of nonprofit organizations published this week in an article in The New Yorker. Mr. Hegseth has also faced the revelation of a police complaint by a woman who claimed that he raped her at a political conference in 2017. The investigation resulted in no charges and Mr. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, has said the encounter was consensual.
The combined fallout has jeopardized Mr. Hegseth’s chances to lead the Defense Department in the next Trump administration, as President-elect Donald J. Trump is said to be discussing other options for the role.