When Pete Hegseth was announced as Donald Trump’s secretary of defense nominee, Newsmax did its Trump Regime Media duty and heavily hyped him. That support continued as the nomination progressed. For instance:
- Sen. Tuberville to Newsmax: Hegseth Is Change Agent for DOD
- Pentagon Nominee Hegseth: Trump Told Me to ‘Keep Fighting’
- Trump Says Defense Nominee Hegseth a ‘Winner’
- Navy SEALs, Veterans to March for Hegseth Confirmation
There was also a Nov. 26 column (though not categorized as an opinion piece) by Dan Rice declaring that “Hegseth’s nomination aligns perfectly with the demands of this precarious historical moment. What makes Hegseth the right choice isn’t a conventional résumé — it’s his role as a great communicator, a skill set that has proven transformative for leaders in tumultuous times.”
Then the controversies kicked in again. The New Yorker published a report featuring claims of drunken sexual misconduct during his tenure leading veteran advocacy organizations, and a letter Hegseth’s mother wrote to her son surfaced that stated he is an “abuser of women” and go “get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” Hegseth’s apparent response to the latter was to make his mother do a right-wing media apology tour; Jeremy Frankel noted her claimed apology in a Dec. 1 article:
Penelope Hegseth immediately apologized to her son, Pete Hegseth, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, after sending an email accusing him of abusing women, she told The New York Times.
In 2018, Penelope Hegseth wrote in an email to her son: “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 told the Times that she had written the email “in anger, with emotion” while her son and his wife were going through a divorce.
She defended her son in the interview, disavowing the sentiments of her original email about his character and treatment of women.
“It is not true. It has never been true. I know my son. He is a good father, husband,” she said, adding that it was “disgusting” to publish the contents of the first email.
No mention, of course, of the impression it leaves that Hegseth’s mom was forced to do a media tour to salvage his reputation (such as it is). but a Dec. 4 article by Mark Swanson and Charlie McCarthy noted “multiple reports” that Trump “is considering replacing Pete Hegseth, his nominee for defense secretary, with Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
Meanwhile, one of Newsmax’s own hosts turned on Hegseth. Greg Kelly cited the criticism of Hegseth’s mom to argue on his Dec. 3 Newsmax show that he should withdraw:
I am not going to go through the entire thing, but if his mother said this even at one point, got a problem. Doesn’t mean can’t be secretary of defense, but not now. And I’m sorry to do this. “You’re 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 goes on and on. She also says that she and her husband, they love Pete, they are praying for Pete, and they want him to get some help and take an honest look at himself. This is all the way back in 2018. It just came to light. Country needs some time to absorb this. Pete can make a contribution, a big one, unlimited, quite frankly, but not right now.
Interestingly, Newsmax did not report this development, even though it came from one of its own hosts. It wasn’t until Dec. 5 — after he suggested that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be a good replacement — that it was decided an article about it by Sandy Fitzgerald was in order:
Pete Hegseth, defense secretary nominee, has “serious baggage” and is not the right pick, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the “perfect fit” that President-elect Donald Trump needs, Newsmax’s Greg Kelly said.
“No one’s perfect, but it’s a perfect fit,” Kelly said Wednesday on his program, “Greg Kelly Reports,” about Florida’s Republican governor. “Administrating the Pentagon, the biggest federal bureaucracy, and making it lethal again and not woke and all those things. I think it’s a perfect fit.”
[…]Hegseth, meanwhile, “hasn’t done nearly enough for MAGA to warrant the Department of Defense job,” and his “baggage,” including reports of sexual misconduct and alcohol use, along with reports of an email his mother wrote him and then rescinded, are also concerns, said Kelly.
“There are some problems here, sorry, big time,” he added.
“According to Pete’s lawyer, Pete is blackmailable,” Kelly said. “[He was] blackmailed by a woman who falsely accuses him, but he pays money to her, anyway. Is he a new man?”
It wasn’t until the eighth paragraph that Fitzgerald noted that “Kelly earlier this week questioned Hegseth’s nomination, commenting Monday on his program that the Fox News host and military veteran has a ‘lot to offer,’ but ‘the secretary of defense thing is not going to happen. It just can’t, not after what we’re learning about.'” There was no explanation for why Newsmax failed to note Kelly’s criticism then.
Salvage mode followed, with a Dec. 6 wire article noting that Hegseth said he “spoke to the president elect this morning. He said, keep going, keep fighting.” Hegseth also threatened his accusers, as detailed in a Dec. 6 article by Nicole Weatherholtz:
Pete Hegseth’s lawyer threatened to sue his client’s sexual assault accuser for extortion if Hegseth’s nomination for secretary of defense collapses.
The woman who has accused Hegseth of sexual assault may not be guilty of criminal extortion, Tim Parlatore told CNN, but he could still file a lawsuit against her for civil extortion.
Weatherholtz made sure to add that Trump said “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
UPDATE: Kelly continued to bash Hegseth, including on the Dec. 5 edition of his show. Newsmax hasn’t pointed that out to its readers.