Hegseth getting Kavanaugh'd?

With Pete Hegseth being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of Defense, it was inevitable the proverbial long knives would come out. And while we shouldn't object to heavy scrutiny of someone's background given they're being considered for such a vital position in our government, we should all be outraged over bad faith framing of said scrutiny. 

This was the headline of a New York Times piece:

 

Pete Hegseth’s mother accused her son of mistreating women for years. 

If you only went by the headline, you'd ascertain this was a recent development and that Hegseth is so toxic that his own mother is willing to throw him under the bus. 

As we delve further into this piece, this accusation was levied in an email Penny Hegseth sent to her son back in 2018.

“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.”

But you have to get to the fourth and fifth paragraphs to realize that Mrs. Hegseth doesn't still carry that anger she conveyed in that 6-year old email.

(I)n a phone interview with The New York Times on Friday, (Mrs. Hegseth) said that she had sent her son an immediate follow-up email at the time apologizing for what she had written. She said she had fired off the original email “in anger, with emotion” at a time when he and his wife were going through a very difficult divorce.

In the interview, she defended her son and disavowed the sentiments she had expressed in the initial email about his character and treatment of women. “It is not true. It has never been true,” she said. She added: “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.” She said that publishing the contents of the first email was “disgusting.”

The timing of this is important. The email was written about a year after the occasion of Pete and girlfriend Jenny having a daughter together (Pete was still married to wife #2 when Jenny became pregnant). But the couple had yet to marry since Pete was either going through or had just finalized acrimonious divorce proceedings. He and Jenny finally married in 2019 and have been together ever since. So despite his obvious moral failings with his first two wives in addition to the well documented hookup in Monterey, California while Jenny was home with a 2-month old, is it possible Pete has turned over a new leaf? His mother seems to think so, which is important context for this story. But that wouldn't have made for a good clickbait-y headline I guess. 

In the end, Pete will have to answer for these indiscretions. But once he provides retorts, can there possibly be any inquiries for how he'd head up a department that has failed audits for several years running now? 

-----------------------------------------