Breathtaking lying to the public about giving vast power to shockingly awful people

Yesterday, I heard a truly bizarre news segment that NPR aired. It was like being on a different planet populated by things that are not human. NPR reported that Pete Hegseth's mom (her son Pete is DJT's horrific pick for Secretary of Defense) was interviewed by Faux News and she was wonderful. She was reported to be strong and persistent in her defense of her son who is a truly goooood boy. NPR went on to speculate at how articulately she defended her good boy, musing that maybe she would be a good pick for a cabinet post.

My understanding is that Pete is a LGBQT-hater, a sex predator, and drunken alcoholic slob who likes to grab 'em by whatever naughty bits he can reach. In his world there are "party girls" and "not-party girls." Pete is the degenerate whack job and cruel woman-hater that DJT wants to run the US military.

I thought to myself, wait a minnit, didn't Pete's mom criticize Pete for being a cruel woman-hater? Yup, she sure did:

Text of the Email That Pete Hegseth’s Mother Sent Him

Penelope Hegseth sent the email to her son in 2018 as he was in the middle of a divorce from his wife, Samantha.

The following is the text of the email that Penelope Hegseth sent to her son, Pete Hegseth, on April 30, 2018. One sentence was redacted by The New York Times for privacy reasons.

Son,

I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..

You are 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. 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.

I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.

Sam is a good mother and a good person (under the circumstances that you created) and I know deep down you know that. For you to try to label her as “unstable” for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.

I know you think this is one big competition and that we have taken her side… bunk… we are on the side of good and that is not you. (Go ahead and call me self-righteous, I dont’ care)

Don’t you dare run to her and cry foul that we shared with us… that’s what babies do. It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women

We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character. I don’t want to write emails like this and never thought I would. If it damages our relationship further, then so be it, but at least I have said my piece. [Redacted]

And yes, we are praying for you (and you don’t deserve to know how we are praying, so skip the snarky reply)

I don’t want an answer to this… I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… 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…

Mom

But now everyone is reporting that mom feels bad about her email and she has apologized to her good boy son for her bad, bad 2018 email. 

And now she lashes out at the NYT, saying the NYT threatened her:

To The New York Times, it was a standard journalistic practice done in the name of fairness — asking someone involved in a story for comment. To the mother of the nominee for secretary of defense, it constituted a threat.

On Wednesday, Pete Hegseth’s mother accused the Times of making “threats” by calling about its story on an email she had sent to her son six years earlier that criticized his treatment of women.

Penelope Hegseth sought and received an interview on Fox News Channel to support her son, whose confirmation chances are threatened by a series of damaging stories about his personal conduct. At one point, she said she wanted to directly tell President-elect Trump that her son “is not that man he was seven years ago.”

CBS News reported:

Penelope Hegseth, appearing on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning, said her son and his wife at the time were going through a "very difficult divorce" when she wrote the email in 2018, noting that she wrote it "in haste" and with "deep emotions."

"I wrote that out of love," she said. "And about two hours later, I retracted it with an apology email, but nobody's seen that." [Well then madam, why didn't you give it to Faux, who would have been overjoyed to splash it all over the screen?]

Hegseth's mother said she was appearing Wednesday on Fox to "tell the truth" to the American people, and to Republican senators on the hill — "especially our female senators."

Hegseth's mother encouraged the senators to "listen to Pete," noting that part of the reason she appeared on Fox was to "discredit the media." She added that she called Fox on Tuesday saying she wanted to speak out on the issue, noting that "I would do anything for my son."

  USA Today:

Penelope Hegseth said during the Fox News interview that Pete Hegseth, 44, is not the same man he was seven years ago.

“Pete is a new person. He's redeemed, forgiven, changed. I think we all are after seven years. I believe he's the man for the job,” she said.

For DJT, this horror show has just got to be a lot of fun to sit back, watch and savor. 

DJT watching the Pete H. show

Q: Who is at least partly discredited here, Pete, his mom, the MSM, NYT, NPR, Faux News, DJT, Republican senators, most of the American people, none, some or all of them?

Goofs indeed!