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The mother of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth made some phone calls to U.S. senators to help land her son a job as the country’s Secretary of Defense, The Hill reported on Wednesday.
Hegseth was nominated for the post last month by President-elect Donald Trump, who has appointed several former Fox News personalities to his looming administration because being on TV apparently means you can run the government. Although he is a former Army infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, his nomination nonetheless stunned the Beltway because the Department of Defense is like, pretty big and employs more than two million people.
Hegseth quit his Fox gig last month upon being nominated, but another Hegseth appeared on Wednesday’s Fox & Friends to do damage control. His mom, Penelope Hegseth, defended her son and explained her scathing 2018 email to him in which she called him “an abuser of women.”
“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,” she wrote in the email, which was obtained by The New York Times. “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.”
Penelope said she sent her son another email that day apologizing, saying it was written in anger.
“Go back seven years, if we all went back seven years, we would see maybe we are not the people we are today,” she said on Fox News. “Pete and his wife were going through a difficult divorce, a very emotional time and I’m sure many of you across the country understand how difficult divorce is on a family.”
Just hours later, The Hill reported that Penelope was making calls to senators whose support her scandal-plagued son will need if he is to be confirmed as the next head of the Pentagon, as one does.
“Pete Hegseth told RSC members his mom has been making calls to senators on his behalf, per source,” reported Mychael Schnell.
Unsurprisingly, the report drew widespread mockery.
“Alpha male,” deadpanned a former Republican congressman. One reporter compared Hegseth to Simpsons character Milhouse Van Houten, who once famously insisted, “But my mom says I’m cool.”
On BlueSky, The Daily Show posted a Fox News clip from earlier this year in which Hegseth mocked a report claiming that some Gen-Z job applicants have brought a parent to the interview.
“Is that how you got this job?” Jesse Watters asked Hegseth.
“I brought my aunt and my mom,” Hegseth joked. “They can vouch for me!”
Soon after Hegseth got the nod, several troubling reports emerged. In 2017, a woman alleged to police in Monterey, California, that he raped her in a hotel room. The investigation ended without charges, and Hegseth made a payment to the woman, who signed a non-disclosure agreement. He denies the accusation.
Meanwhile, The New Yorker reported that he mismanaged the funds at Concerned Veterans for America by using them on “partying” and “hookups.” The report also said Hegseth fostered a toxic and sexist work environment.
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair cited two sources who said Hegseth informed his first ex-wife that he had five affairs while they were married.
The same day, NBC News reported that one former Fox News colleague smelled alcohol on Hegseth “on more than a dozen occasions,” which Hegseth denies.
Republicans will control the Senate 53 to 47, meaning Hegseth can only afford to lose three Republican defections – assuming all Democrats vote against him. It remains to be seen if his mom has the pull to land him the job.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
