Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary is looking increasingly tenuous as new revelations about the ex-Fox host’s past history with women come to light.
A letter written by his mother in which she referred to him as an “abuser of women” for whom she had “no respect” drew gasps across the political media spectrum. Penelope Hegseth’s acidic denunciation of her son was published by The New York Times. In a follow-up letter she apologized; she did so as well in an interview with the Times, saying that her tone in the letter had been angry and emotional because of a particularly trying time in the family. But what she did not do was invalidate the content of the letter, wherein she said her son “lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his power and ego”.
Hegseth’s relationship-busting child that he fathered with a producer who worked at Fox while he was still married to his second wife will also, no doubt, continue to generate discussions about his character. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair dropped the latest bomb — Hegseth admitted to five affairs during his first marriage alone, which itself lasted just four years.
But Hegseth’s alleged problematic treatment of women is now just one of his issues. The second is the fog of questions emerging around his use or abuse of alcohol, and his conduct in such situations.
His management of a major veterans’ group, Concerned Veterans for America, is now under the microscope. According to a whistleblower report obtained by The New Yorker, the group Hegseth once lead was forced to institute a “no drinking” policy at events in 2014 as a direct response to his behavior.
“I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary,” one CVA figure told The New Yorker.
Hegseth soon reversed the “no drinking” policy. Then, that same month, he was allegedly “so drunk [at an event that] he tried to get on the stage and dance with the strippers”. He has not addressed these claims, but they are, of course, damaging and come at an extremely inconvenient time.
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