Mother of a Trump choice has slammed his treatment of women

[MsAmerica]

I'm not sure if this would be of interest here, but it's getting a lot of coverage in U.S. news and a lot of chatter in forums.

Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, basically putting him charge of the enormous U.S. military. His main background is as a host on the right-wingy Fox news channel - and he's mocked for being a weekend host, not even good enough to be a weekday host.

Apart from his being totally unqualified, unsavory things are surfacing, such as an allegation of a sexual assault. And some awful things he's said in interviews. And a possible history of alcoholism. He reportedly was once chanting "Kill all Muslims!"

And then the New York Times obtained a copy of an email his mother once sent him, slamming him for his treatment of women. (She actually sounds like a good person.) Of course, she's now in an awkward position, but clearly her attempts to deny it won't fly.

Pete Hegseth's Mom Once Called Him an 'Abuser of Women,' Adding to His Controversies as Defense Sec Nominee
https://people.com/pete-hegseth-mom-email-abuser-of-women-8754720

Pete Hegseth's Mom Called Him An 'Abuser Of Women' In Email
The New York Times obtained a copy of an email sent by the mother of Trump's chosen defense chief, who has a history of sexual misconduct allegations.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseths-mom-abuser-new-york-times_n_674b2a1de4b05dd8881573a6

Pete Hegseth’s mom accused him of ‘abusive behavior’ against women in 2018
Hegseth’s mother condemned his treatment of women in an email sent when he was going through an acrimonious divorce. She told the Times that she sent the email “in anger” and has disavowed her accusations.
www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/pete-hegseth-mom-email-abusive-women-2018-divorce-rcna182284

He sounds like an all round great choice to be head of the US Military. :-S

To be honest there’s no point getting embroiled in this stuff. There’s nothing you can do except be perpetually outraged. Maybe switch off the news and relax

Utter nonsense about him not being qualified.

His military career i-

While at Princeton, Hegseth joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps in 2001.

After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard.

In 2004, his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an infantry platoon leader and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, Iraq, where he served first as an infantry platoon leader and later as civil-military operations officer.

During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.

Senator Marsha Blackburn -

x.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1864038393769869627

www.compactmag.com/article/smearing-pete-hegseth/

I have to say that you post makes me very suspicious. It looks to be an unattributed (i.e. plagiarized) cut-and-paste with a suspicious number of links.

And even if you like the idea of an alcoholic woman-abuser, his meager experience does not qualify him to suddenly be in charge of a department that apparently is 2,000,000 people.

Maybe take a break from mumsnet and relax

Agreed, I’m not sure being in the army means you’re capable of running the whole thing.

Trumps appointments are not based on experience or credibility in the relevant field.

They are purely based on giving positions of power to people who will be loyal to him because of what they stand to gain.

As such, it's no surprise that that these include individuals whose backgrounds lack any moral compass.

In fact I'd go so far as to say, being devoid of any sense of social responsibility or individual sense of innate "goodness" is a prerequisite for an appointment in the Trump administration.

He hires in his own image. This should not be a surprise to anyone.

Agree, @ChristmasFox.

"I was a sales clerk at Harrod's over the Christmas holidays, and now I'm qualified to run the whole corporation."

I applaud his mother for what she wrote in the initial email to her son.
It's a pity more mothers and fathers don't call out bad behaviour by their offspring.

It's a pity she has kind of retracted it saying it was written in anger and in emotion and she says she immediately apologised for sending it to him in a separate email.

@MsAmerica

"I have to say that you post makes me very suspicious. It looks to be an unattributed (i.e. plagiarized) cut-and-paste with a suspicious number of links."

It's a direct cut and paste from Wiki:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth

See early military deployments.

Yes he has military experience but there is no shortage of way more qualified candidates for this job.

Then perhaps the poster could learn to include an attribution instead of passing it off as her own words.

Excuse me, but I strongly disagree. There are cased where public outcry has derailed appointments.

Well said!

He likes having other abusive misogynist men around him. Birds of a feather and all that.

I'm British but live in America, and this is how I deal with the politics here.

Ugh I'm so disgusted at the gushing headlines about him on every news paper today. He's just a cheque book waving bully and man baby, with a stupid 'let's not talk politics" dance.

I'm not surprised at the comment and there's sure to be more.

And now the U.S. has a Secretary of Defense who is not only unqualified for the job, but also noted for sexual assault, falling-down-drunk alcoholism, and extreme financial mismanagement.

Yes. It's always a good idea to ignore what's going on in the world. 🙄

That way we can pretend nothing awful is happening and just bumble along.

Being uninformed is really dumb. One doesn't have to get het up or infuriated at all.