Penelope Hegseth joined “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning to defend her son, and she took direct aim at legacy media for running with a series of attacks on decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth since President-elect Donald Trump selected him to be Secretary of Defense.
Her appearance follows a number of hit pieces accusing her son of everything from sexual misconduct to excessive drinking and sexist behavior — along with a New York Times report that included the publication of a private email sent by Penelope to her son amid a contentious divorce — and she accused the media of only looking for the bad.
WATCH:
PENELOPE HEGSETH: @PeteHegseth is “the most faithful patriot of this country … he has fought and almost died for his country. He’s a good dad, he’s an amazing son and father — and that’s the Pete I want people to know.” pic.twitter.com/3sgSVvfVm7
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 4, 2024
“Thank you for your belief in my son. We all believe in him. We really believe that he is not the man he was seven years ago. I’m not that mother, and I hope people will hear that story today and the truth of that story,” Penelope told “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy.
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“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 you will listen to Pete,” she continued.
Doocy asked Penelope to clarify the email in which she had accused her son of being “abusive to women,” among other things.
“Go back seven years, which, if we all went back seven years, we would see maybe we are not the people we are today. They were going through, Pete, and his wife at the time 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. There’s emotions,” she said. “We say things and I wrote that in haste, I wrote that with deep emotion, I wrote that as a parent. About two hours later, my husband tells me I should think through things more. Pete and I are both very passionate people. I wrote that out of love, and about two hours later, I retracted it with an apology and nobody has seen that. It was a difficult time.”
Penelope then turned her attention to the media, adding, “I want to say something about the media. Part of today is to discredit the media and how they operate. When they contact you, I let a few phone calls go. But then they call you and they threaten you, that’s the first thing they do. ‘Unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is.’ I think that is a despicable way to treat anyone, threats are dangerous and they are hard on families.”