‘Shocked By It!’ Ex-Trump CNN Analyst Stunned By Bombshell Email From Hegseth’s Mom On Abusing Women
Former Trump Secretary of Defense and current CNN analyst Mark Esper said he was “shocked” by an unearthed email from Pete Hegseth’s mother on the subject of abusing women.
Hegseth — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of defense — is among a raft of cabinet picks who are facing uphill confirmation battles. Last month, news outlets, including Mediaite, obtained a copy of a police report from an alleged sexual assault containing graphic and disturbing details of the woman’s allegations.
Over the weekend, The New York Times dropped a bombshell 2018 email from Penelope Hegseth to her son in which she called him “an abuser of women.”
Mrs. Hegseth claimed she quickly sent an apologetic follow-up email but did not provide it to the paper.
On Monday’s edition of CNN This Morning, anchor Kasie Hunt asked Esper how the revelation might affect Hegseth’s confirmation:
KASIE HUNT: Sir, you’ve obviously done the job of Secretary of Defense President Trump filling out his cabinet, and he has nominated the veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for that role over the weekend.
The New York Times reported on an email that his mother had sent to him amid a contentious divorce. And this is what she wrote about again, her own son. Quote, “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.”.
This is obviously a man in Texas who’s going to have to endure a committee hearing before the United States Senate.
What do you think something like this says about his fitness to lead the department?
MARK ESPER: Yeah, I saw that story as well. And you’re kind of shocked by it!
It’s one thing to have your political opponents attack you, but it’s pretty damning when your mother, you know, a letter is uncovered where your mother is talking about your character and integrity and how you treat women.
Look, I think for any nominee, the longer you are out there exposed, the more there is for opponents, critics, skeptics, the media, others to kind of pick at your resume, at your experience, what you’ve said and done in the past.
And at this point in time, you know, Trump has done a good job in terms of proposing a full cabinet at this point in time. But they’re going to sit out there for the rest of December, early January, and they really won’t have nomination hearings until after January 20th.
So that’s a long time to be out there. And you can expect that more is going to come out with all this nominees over time. And that’s kind of the danger of when you’re nominated for these positions.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
