Pete Hegseth’s mother says The recent York Times made ‘threats’ by asking her to comment on a narrative

To The recent York Times, it was a standard journalistic habit done in the name of fairness — asking someone involved in a narrative for comment. To the mother of the nominee for secretary of defense, it constituted a threat.

On Wednesday, Pete Hegseth’s mother accused the Times of making “threats” by calling about its narrative on an email she had sent to her son six years earlier that criticized his treatment of women.

Penelope Hegseth sought and received an interview on Fox information Channel to back her son, whose confirmation chances are threatened by a series of damaging stories about his personal conduct. At one point, she said she wanted to directly inform President-elect Trump that her son “is not that man he was seven years ago.”

She also called the Times “despicable” and attacked a basic tenet of journalism: giving someone the chance to talk for a narrative about actions that could be seen in a negative light.

The Times’ narrative, published Saturday, quoted from a private email that Penelope Hegseth sent to her son in 2018 while he was in the midst of divorcing his second wife. She criticized his character and treatment of women, suggesting that he get some assist.

“I have no regard for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote to her offspring. “You are that man (and have been for many years).”

She told the Times for its narrative that she had sent the email in a instant of rage and followed it up two hours later with an apology. She disavows its content now.

When the Times called her for comment on the narrative, Hegseth told Fox information that, at first, she did not respond. She said she perceived the calls as a threat — “they declare unless you make a statement we will publish it as is and I ponder that’s a despicable way to treat anyone,” she said.

“I don’t ponder a lot of people recognize that’s the way they operate,” she said, speaking about the narrative. She accused the newspaper of being in it “for the money. And they don’t worry who they hurt, families, children. I don’t depend that’s the correct way to do things.”

Charles Stadtlander, a spokesman for the Times, said Hegseth’s claim “is flatly untrue,” and she was in no way threatened. “The Times did what it always does in reporting out a narrative, simply reaching out and asking for a comment, which we included,” he said.

Such a call is the opposite of a threat — it’s an attempt to be fair, said Tom Rosenstiel, a University of Maryland professor and co-author of “Elements of Journalism: What information People Should recognize and What the community Should Expect.” “She’s basically saying that brake lights are a threat because they alert you that the car ahead of you is about to stop,” he said.

But many Americans would perceive that call as a threat, or certainly as impolite and a violation of privacy, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “She didn’t write that email to be on the front page of The recent York Times,” he said.

A secondary question is the newsworthiness of publishing the content of the private email, one that Hegseth said she almost immediately regretted sending and doesn’t reflect how she perceives her son. Graham suggested that the newspaper wouldn’t do the same for the nominee of a Democratic president-elect. “The recent York Times is out to ruin these nominees,” he said.

In its initial narrative, the Times wrote that it had obtained a copy of the email “from another person with ties to the Hegseth household.”

“This was a piece of independently reported journalism published in the name of community awareness of the nominee to navigator the largest department in the federal government,” Stadtlander said. “We stand behind it completely.”

In many circumstances, an email from a mother to her son would be considered a private matter and out of bounds to a information organization, Rosenstiel said. But in this case, Hegseth, a former Fox information weekend host chosen by Trump to navigator the Pentagon, has built himself into a community figure and is up for a very significant job — and one that leads the military, which involves waging war and in which character is considered a fundamental trait.

“It makes this information, honestly,” Stadtlander said.

The Times wrote about Penelope Hegseth’s Fox interview on Wednesday, leading with her saying her son “was not the same man he was in 2018 when she fired off an email accusing him of routinely abusing women and lacking decency and character.”

There was some question about whether Hegseth would appear for an interview at his former network on Wednesday, after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on X the night before that “multiple people” said that was expected. A Fox information representative said that no such interview had been scheduled, and the nominee was on Capitol Hill conference with senators.

He has faced a flurry of other damaging reports, including stories about a sexual assault allegation reported to police in 2017. No charges were filed then, and Hegseth said the connection was consensual. The recent Yorker magazine wrote about reports of monetary mismanagement, sexist behavior and excessive drinking when Hegseth ran a veterans’ organization, and NBC information wrote about people at Fox information concerned about his alcohol use.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. pursue him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.