Penelope Hegseth, the mother of Donald Trump’s current and embattled nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, appeared on the cable network where her son Pete works, to urge the U.S. Senate, and especially “female Senators,” to disregard media reports—which include allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive alcohol abuse, financial mismanagement of two veterans’ organizations, and tattoos suggesting a link to Christian nationalism. She insisted her son is a changed man and should be confirmed.

In a sit-down one-on-one interview with Fox News co-host Steve Doocy, who called her “Penny,” Penelope Hegseth on Wednesday said the letter she sent her son, which The New York Times published late last week, does not reflect the man he is today, or the mother she is. But when asked if she would testify on her son’s behalf before the U.S. Senate, she refused to commit.

According to The Times, Penelope Hegseth told her son in a 2018 email, “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself.”

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“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,” she wrote, according to The Times.

The paper also reported Hegeth in her letter stated that she still loved her son. She reportedly apologized for the letter hours later.

On “Fox & Friends,” Penelope Hegseth began by saying, “let me make two statements first and one is to President Trump. And I want to say thank you for your belief in my son. We all believe in him. We really believe that he is not that man he was seven years ago. I’m not that mother.”

“So the other thing I want to say is, I am here to tell the truth, to tell the truth to the American people and tell the truth to the senators on the Hill, especially our female senators. I really hope that you will not listen to the media and that you will listen to Pete.”

The media reports about Pete Hegseth—the weekend “Fox & Friends” co-host President-elect Donald Trump has picked to run the most lethal and well-funded military in all of history—that Penelope Hegseth is asking the U.S. Senate to “not listen to” are numerous, and highly-damaging.

Mother Jones on Monday published “A Running List of the Allegations Against Pete Hegseth.”

It does not yet include the latest NBC News report that says, “Ten current and former Fox employees say Trump’s pick for defense secretary drank in ways that concerned his co-workers.”

But it does characterize the current allegations against Hegseth under the headings: “Mismanagement, a Drinking Problem, and Sexually Inappropriate Behavior,” “Rape Allegation,” and, “His Mother Called Him ‘an Abuser of Women’.”

Penelope Hegseth made clear her goal in appearing on Fox News was as much to help get her son confirmed as it was to “discredit the media and how they operate.”

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“I came to take on New York City, to take on the New York Times,” she also said.

She explained that when she was called recently by reporters about the letter she wrote her son Pete in 2018, “I let a few phone calls go, but then they call you and say, they threaten you. That’s the first thing they do. They say, ‘unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is.’ And I think that’s a despicable way to treat anyone.”

When asked what her “message” is to The New York Times, she replied, “I would say I don’t think the way you operate is, it feels almost criminal when reporters call you and threaten you. I don’t think a lot of people know that’s the way they operate. And they are in it for the commission, for the money, and they don’t care who they hurt — families, children. I just I don’t believe that that is the right way to do things.”

Doocy asked, “Do you think that’s just the way they try to get the story?”

“Oh, of course,” she replied. “It’s their job, but I can take the opposite view.”

Critics have blasted Penelope Hegseth’s interview, and Pete Hegseth for not withdrawing his nomination to become U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Journalist Gretchen Carlson, the now former longtime Fox News host whose sexual harassment lawsuit helped bring down Fox News chief Roger Ailes, blasted Penelope Hegseth:

“OMG — watching Hegseth’s mom interview on Fox & Friends — twice calling out to GOP female Senators to believe him — saying Pete has changed over 7 years. She is the one who wrote the email annihilating him for his treatment of women & is now saying it’s not true.”

As did others.

“Hegseth can do the ‘never back down’ shtick all he wants but when the nomination reaches the ‘have his mommy say nice things on TV’ phase and she’s not willing to commit to testifying as a character witness, feels like it’s in a pretty bad place,” observed Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). He added, “if someone was foolish enough to nominate me for something senate confirmed … [I] am extremely confident that my mommy would not hesitate to testify in my defense.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, “Penelope Hegseth’s main message was that Pete is a changed man. That’s the narrative his allies have been pushing in private, as well. But a changed-man narrative is premised on ugliness in the man’s past.”

Watch the videos below or at this link.

Pete Hegseth’s mom Penelope on Fox & Friends makes a direct appeal on behalf of her son to Trump pic.twitter.com/dsQFEuGlYg

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2024

Penelope Hegseth goes full MAGA on Fox & Friends by attacking the media for coverage of a letter she wrote to her son Pete criticizing him for his abusing behavior pic.twitter.com/95ylJkAhVE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2024

Penelope Hegseth claims the New York Times’s reporting is “almost criminal” (they reported on an email she sent) pic.twitter.com/J5y1WFPDCs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2024

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Despite facing allegations of sexual assault, “aggressive drunkenness,” financial mismanagement of veterans’ organizations, and a report his colleagues “smelled alcohol on him before he went on air,” at Fox News “as recently as last month,” U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) stated Tuesday that the standards for confirming presidential cabinet nominees have “evolved.” As a result, he indicated he is inclined to support Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Donald Trump’s next U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Saying that “of course” the multiple allegations against Hegseth are “concerning,” Senator Cramer told CNN’s Manu Raju (video below) on Tuesday, “I look forward to visiting with Pete, and I’m interested in who Pete Hegseth is today, and who he is going forward.”

Raju added that later, Senator Cramer “told me … that he is leaning yes, in supporting Pete Hegseth’s nomination, and I asked him if the standards have now changed in the United States Senate? Remember the last time the Senate voted down a defense secretary nominee or any cabinet nominee was in 1989. That was John Hightower over allegations of womanizing and also excessive drinking, including drunkenness.”

“And Cramer told me, ‘yes, the standards have evolved.’ And he says, ‘grace abounds,’ and he wants to see if Hegseth is in fact is a different person going forward.”

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Tuesday evening NBC News reported that “Ten current and former Fox employees say Trump’s pick for defense secretary drank in ways that concerned his co-workers.”

“Two of those people said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of ‘Fox & Friends Weekend,’ which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air. Those same two people, plus another, said that during his time there he appeared on television after they’d heard him talk about being hungover as he was getting ready or on set.”

“One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this fall,” NBC News added.

On Sunday, The New Yorker published a bombshell report revealing in part that a “previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events.”

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“The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the ‘party girls’ and the ‘not party girls.’ In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting ‘Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!'”

That New Yorker report also alleges that a “trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.”

Mother Jones on Monday published “A Running List of the Allegations Against Pete Hegseth.”

The article, which has not been updated yet to include the latest NBC News allegations, characterizes them under the headings: “Mismanagement, a Drinking Problem, and Sexually Inappropriate Behavior,” “Rape Allegation,” and, “His Mother Called Him ‘an Abuser of Women’.”

CNN’s Manu Raju also talked with U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-MA), who said, “As I’ve repeatedly said to you, I believe that we need an FBI background check to evaluate the allegations. We need to have the normal committee process of questionnaires, and questionnaires about this background and we also need to have a public hearing.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Susan Collins on Hegseth: “I believe that we need an FBI background check to evaluate the allegations, we need to have the normal committee process of questionnaires and..questionnaires about his background, and we also need to have a public hearing.” pic.twitter.com/uZo2tZC8gO

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 3, 2024

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly set to nominate Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire defense industry investor and major Trump megadonor—despite his lack of military or organizational leadership experience—for the second-highest position at the U.S. Department of Defense, Deputy Defense Secretary. The Washington Post first broke the news on Tuesday afternoon, which comes as Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Defense, Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, faces mounting criticism and negative press amid numerous scandals including alleged sexual assault, “aggressive drunkenness,” and financial mismanagement of veterans’ organizations.

Trump has already offered the job to Feinberg, according to the Post, calling it “a decision that could elevate a longtime political supporter with investments in defense companies that maintain lucrative Pentagon contracts.”

“Feinberg is the co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and which previously owned the private military contractor DynCorp,” the Post reports. “DynCorp was acquired by another defense firm, Amentum, in 2020. During the first Trump administration, Feinberg led the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which provides the U.S. leader advice on intelligence assessments and estimates and counterintelligence matters.”

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“The deputy defense secretary typically manages day-to-day operations of the massive bureaucracy with a combined workforce of more than 3 million service members and civilian employees,” the Post explained.

The current Deputy Defense Secretary is Kathleen Hicks. She holds a master’s in national security studies, and her PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hicks started her career at the Pentagon as a civil servant in 1993. For three years she was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) before returning to the Pentagon under President Barack Obama in 2009. She has served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for strategy, plans, and forces, and Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for policy.

In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden chose Hicks to lead “the 23-person agency review team’s assessment of defense and national-security related issues,” Defense Daily reported.

“These teams are composed of highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government. The teams have been crafted to ensure they not only reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration, but reflect the diversity of perspectives crucial for addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges,” the Biden transition team said in a statement, according to Defense Daily.

Feinberg has a bachelors’ from Princeton.

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In 2021, The New York Times reported that the four Saudis “who participated in the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi received paramilitary training in the United States the previous year under a contract approved by the State Department, according to documents and people familiar with the arrangement.”

“The training was provided by the Arkansas-based security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management,” the Times reported.

In July of 2017, a New York Times report noted Feinberg’s ties to the now far-right podcaster and political strategist Steve Bannon, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, have developed proposals to rely on contractors instead of American troops in Afghanistan at the behest of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations.”

A 2012 Rolling Stone profile of then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, included this statement from Feinberg.

“’We try to hide religiously,’ explained Steven [sic] Feinberg, the CEO of a takeover firm called Cerberus Capital Management that recently drove one of its targets into bankruptcy after saddling it with $2.3 billion in debt. ‘If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person,’ Feinberg told shareholders in 2007. ‘We will kill him. The jail sentence will be worth it.’ ”

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Image via Reuters