The 'sad, sad' truth about Pete Hegseth

He can't manage his zipper, let alone the Pentagon

By Sam Bellamy

Donald Trump should have asked Penelope Hegseth, Pete’s mom, to help vet candidates for his Cabinet. She certainly would have done a better job than the president-elect’s servile inner circle.

Unless you’re taking a mental health break from the ongoing Trumpster fire, you’ve probably learned by now that Pete’s mother sent him a withering email in 2018 castigating him for his treatment of women.

“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,” she wrote. “… 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.”

The New York Times received a copy of the email from someone associated with the Hegseth family and published a story about it the day after Thanksgiving.

Penelope Hegseth called the paper’s decision “disgusting,” and Trump’s reliably rabid spokesman Steve Cheung said it was “despicable.” It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to hear that Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, is already preparing to prosecute The Times staff for treason or some other trumped-up charge.

Pete’s mother says she later apologized for the email and explained that she sent it because she was upset with how her son was reacting to divorce proceedings with his second wife, Samantha, who left him after he fathered a child with (and later married) a co-worker at Fox News.

“Son,” she wrote, “I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent.”

Of course, she isn’t the only person to speak up about Hegseth’s character and behavior.

A woman attending a political conference in 2017 in California reported to police that he had raped her there. Police investigated and filed no charges. Hegseth denied the allegations but struck a deal with the woman a couple of years later to say no more about their sexual encounter.

The silence didn’t hold, of course, and others have emerged to tell stories about Hegseth’s boorish behavior and habit of denigrating women, just as his mom did. This week, The New Yorker reported that he 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.”

Hegseth’s misogynist attitude seems to have shaped his views about women serving in the military. He contends they’re a dangerous distraction in many settings and criticizes the Defense Department’s efforts to make the military more hospitable to women, people of color, and lesbians and gay people.

“There aren’t enough lesbians in San Francisco to man the 82nd airborne,” he has said. “And in trying to cater to that, [the military] lost the boys from Tennessee and Kentucky and Oklahoma, the traditional dudes who did it because they wanted, they loved their country, or they wanted the adventure, or they, you know, wanted to try tough things, or they need an up and out of their community, whatever it is they’re like, if I want to do the woke crap, I could go to the local community college or local college.”

The National Guard barred Hegseth from serving on security detail at President Biden’s inauguration after learning that he sported two tattoos favored by extremist groups. Hegseth says the tattoos reflect his Christian views, glossing over the likelihood that he also knew the signals they send to white supremacists and other batshit enthusiasts.

Hegseth detests diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, ignoring – like so many conservatives – the fact that such efforts were launched to overcome historic, well-documented failures to advance deserving people simply because they aren’t privileged white guys like him.

“Suddenly, after George Floyd … after defund the police, it became faddish to insinuate that the military ranks are infected with racists, that it’s all these white nationalists under the radar, the tattoos just waiting to pop up, and ultimately, on the recruiting side, what you’ve done is you Bud Lighted yourself,” he has said, referring to the beer company’s employment of a transgender TikTok influencer to promote their product.

Never mind research showing a surge in extremists serving in the military, including a recent Associated Press analysis showing “more than 480 people with a military background accused of ideologically driven extremist crimes from 2017 through 2023.” That number includes 230-plus arrested for beating cops, vandalizing the Capitol or otherwise supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection. The very same people Trump has pledged to pardon.

In her email, Penelope Hegseth expressed a hope that her son might find an influencer of his own to set him straight. “It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women,” she wrote.

It’s unlikely a strong man will be found among Sens. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz or other quisling Trumpers who risk bone breaks contorting themselves in defense of Trump’s increasing contemptible judgment and behavior.

Republicans undoubtedly will engage in what-aboutism to dismiss Hegseth’s excesses, pointing to Bill Clinton’s affair with an intern, et al, and the allegations of bad behavior by JFK, FDR and other Democratic icons. And Capitol Hill, as erstwhile Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz recently pointed out, isn’t exactly inhabited by monks.

But that certainly isn’t the sort of precedent that Republicans should consider when reviewing Hegseth’s nomination. His piggishness is just part of the problem. Yes, he’s served in combat, but he has no experience running anything remotely close in size to the Defense Department. He joins the rogue’s gallery of Trump Cabinet picks who are unqualified, incompetent, morally and ethically handicapped or just plain dumbasses.

Penelope asked her son a very direct question in her email, choosing words that echoed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow’s query to Joe McCarthy. “For you to try to label her as ‘unstable’ for your own advantage is despicable and abusive,” she wrote of her son’s attacks on his second wife. “Is there any sense of decency left in you?”

We all know the answer to that. Decency is so hard to locate in Trump’s world, we couldn’t even frack it out.

America will soon find out how many senators care enough about the U.S. military – and our national security – to say no to the man who infamously called enlistees “suckers and losers,” to soundly reject Hegseth’s nomination.

Those epithets apply better to anyone who supports Hegseth, a man whose primary focus in life should be better managing his zipper, not a $800-billion year Pentagon budget.