Pete Hegseth Live Updates: Nominee's mother recants calling son 'abuser'

President-elect Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and his mother Penelope are doing damage control as she lambasted the "despicable" New York Times after it released a scathing email she wrote her son, saying she hopes "senators will not listen to the media" about him. Penelope Hegseth, who sent the email to her son during his rough second divorce, labeling him an "abuser of women," praised Trump for believing in him. She told Fox & Friends in an interview on Wednesday morning that "he's not the man he was seven years ago" and that "I'm not that mother." The 2018 email, released to the New York Times, accused him of "dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, and belittling" and stated that he needed to be "called out." Penelope Hegseth told Fox News anchor Steve Doocy that she typed the letter in the heat of the moment, adding that she had apologized to her son two hours later in a separate email that was not disclosed. "Disregard the media. That was seven years ago, most of it is misinformation," she said. This comes as the president-elect has discreetly floated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a possible DOD choice if Hegseth's chances falter. According to sources, Trump has suggested DeSantis as a possible backup to visitors at Mar-a-Lago. Other sources said that Trump has been contemplating DeSantis, and that the two have discussed the possibility.

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