NYT publishes leaked email from Pete Hegseth's mother in hit piece on Trump nominee

Liberals in D.C. and elsewhere are doing whatever they can to try and derail President-elect Donald Trump's key Cabinet picks, and the nomination of Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department is no exception.

A reporter from the New York Times penned a piece this week that included a 2018 email from Hegseth's mother to her son in which she called him “an abuser of women” and asked him to engage in deep self-reflection, as The Guardian reports.

Private email used in NYT hit piece

In the private, leaked message from Penelope Hegseth to Pete Hegseth, the clearly agitated mother lamented her son's treatment of women and suggested that his character was grossly lacking.

The message, in part, read, “You are 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.”

She went on, “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.”

Hoping her words might prompt change in her son, Penelope Hegseth implored him to “get some help and take an honest look at yourself.”

The Times' report came amid lingering controversy regarding a 2017 sexual assault claim leveled against Hegseth, one which was investigated by police but resulted in no criminal charges.

Subsequent clarification offered

In the wake of the Times' decision to publish the private email between a mother and her son, Penelope Hegseth told the outlet that she sent the message at issue “in anger, with emotion” related to Pete Hegseth's second divorce.

She also noted that she immediately apologized in a follow-up message.

Not only that, but Penelope Hegseth also defended the man now tapped to lead the Pentagon, saying that the description of him that she leveled in the initial email “has never been true.”

It is not just Penelope Hegseth who has criticized the Times for its use of the email message in a hit piece targeting her son, with Trump communications director Steven Cheung offering his take on the situation as well.

“The New York Times and other outlets are despicable for using an out-of-context snipped of an illegally obtained private email exchange between a mother and her son that does not accurately reflect the entirety of the conversation,” Cheung said, but whether this latest dent in Hegseth's reputation will harm his chances of Senate confirmation, only time will tell.