Penelope Hegseth’s attempt to dispel concerns about her son, defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, by vouching for him on Fox News seemingly did not immediately sway people.
On Wednesday morning, Penelope appeared on Fox & Friends to downplay the severity of a harsh email she sent to her son in 2018 after an extramarital affair ended his second marriage. Asserting that her son was no longer the person he was seven years ago, Penelope asked Senators to ignore media reports.
But lawmakers and people online did not seem moved by Penelope’s plea.
“I’d hate to put my mom on there. She would have chewed my a** out,” Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville told The Independent.
“One can sympathize with maternal love and concern for a son. But I think all of us are struck by the fact that whether the emails she’s referring to, that she wrote her own son, was written in haste or not, how many of us have received an email like that from our mothers? I never did,” Representative Gerry Connolly said on CNN.
Those feelings were amplified after Mychael Schnell, a reporter from The Hill, claimed Hegseth told Republican Senators his mother was making calls to lawmakers on his behalf.
“Real men need their moms to call Senators for them,” Sarah Longwell, the founder of GOP Accountable, responded on X.
In her 2018 email, Penelope called her son a longtime women abuser who “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.”
That was after Hegseth fathered a child with a Fox News producer while married to his second wife.
At that time, Hegseth was also subject to a sexual assault allegation from an unnamed woman. That allegation never resulted in formal charges and Hegseth says the sexual encounter with the unnamed woman was consensual. However, he later paid her as part of a non-disclosure agreement.
Penelope told Fox News on Wednesday she wrote the email to her son in “haste” and later apologized to him – something, she claimed, the media excluded from reports.
“She is the one who wrote the email annihilating him for his treatment of women & is now saying it’s not true,” Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News host, wrote on X.
Amy McGrath, a Marine Corps veteran and former political candidate, said on X, “Hegseth’s mom calls him a ‘changed man.’ That may be so, but don’t you think he should hold just ONE other actual leadership position where he doesn’t get fired for personal misconduct and financial mismanagement BEFORE he goes in charge of the entire DOD?”
Trump tapped Hegseth, a veteran of the Army National Guard and former Fox News host, to serve in his cabinet as defense secretary. Some have raised concerns about Hegseth’s lack of experience and qualifications for the job.
But he also faces a slew of disreputable accusations that risk hurting his chance of being confirmed. That includes the allegation of multiple extramarital affairs and sexual assault, as well as sexism in the workplace and drinking alcohol during work hours.
Those allegations have only emerged through recent media reports which Hegseth, his mother and other allies claim are politically motivated.
Vice President-elect JD Vance claimed the media was “trying to destroy” Hegseth and pointed out that Penelope wrote the email while emotional and apologized for it.
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing media personality, echoed Vance, calling the reports a “coordinated character assassination” and highlighting the fact that Penelope was now defending her son.
But David Axelrod, a senior political commentator for CNN, pushed back on media critics.
“For all the yammering about ‘Fake News’ and ‘enemies of the people,’ how much would we know about Pete Hegseth’s mistreatment of women and his apparent problem with alcohol if not for probing by intrepid journalists, who have done the vetting Trump did not?” Axelrod wrote on X. “This is why a free media is essential to a working democracy–to shine a bright light in dark corners.”
Hegseth said despite the allegations he will not step out of the running for the position. Trump has publicly remained committed to him as well.