Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who Donald Trump selected as his Secretary of Defense pick, is facing an uphill battle as rumors swirl that he will be replaced by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. A controversy continues to brew over an 2018 email that his mother, Penelope Hegseth, sent to her son claiming that he abused many women. That said, the president-elect still reportedly believes in Hegseth, at least according to him.
What did Trump say to Pete Hegseth during the controversy over his mother’s email?
Pete Hegseth said that Donald Trump told him, “Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.” This is according to a statement he made to CBS News on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, December 4.
Multiple sources within Trump’s transition team revealed Tuesday night that Trump was considering DeSantis for defense secretary in his stead, despite the Florida governor being a former opponent to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
This comes after a scathing email from his mother was revealed, sent during Pete Hegseth’s divorce to his second wife, Samantha Deering. As noted by The New York Times (via Newsweek), Penelope wrote that he was “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.”
The letter continues, “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.”
Since the revelation, Penelope responded in an interview with Fox News that her son “is a new person” and that he’s “redeemed, forgiven, changed.” She says her email needs to be put into the context of “a very difficult divorce.” Hegseth divorced Deering in 2017 after he cheated on her with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet. Penelope also says she allegedly wrote an apology to Pete Hegseth several hours after the original email.
