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The full context wasn’t enough to stop a reporter for The New York Times from pursuing a suggested personal “bias” with a “disgusting” piece using a cabinet nominee’s mother’s words.

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory hadn’t stopped efforts to “get Trump” so much as they appeared to have shifted focus to include targeting nominees as played out in the concerted effort to “get Hegseth.” With former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz name withdrawn from consideration for attorney general, Pete Hegseth’s tap for Defense Secretary had arguably been met with the most pushback that now included publishing a years-old email his mother admittedly sent “in anger.”

Dating back to 2018 following the divorce from his second wife Samantha Deering, the nominee’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, had emailed her son to chastise him for his treatment of his ex and said, “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.”

“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,” Penelope had written.

Despite objections from the mother, investigative reporter Sharon LaFraniere published the story anyway and shared it on X with the caption, “this article about Pete Hegseth is a gift. You can read it for free.”

Image via X

Noted in the coverage was how the day following the April 30, 2018 email, Penelope had sent a follow-up to her son that detailed the original had been sent “in anger, with emotion” due to the divorce of her son and daughter-in-law, the mother of three of grandchildren.

The Times had even conducted a phone interview with Hegseth’s mother who insisted of the depiction of her son’s character and behavior, “It is not true. It has never been true.”

“I know my son. He is a good father, husband,” she’d added while slamming the publication of her words, which had somehow made it into the hands of the Times after Penelope had forwarded the email to Deering, as “disgusting.”

Amid the ongoing insistence of corporate media to detail sexual assault allegations from 2017 for which Hegseth had never been charged, a report from Breitbart News suggested the motivation behind the latest hit piece was because LaFraniere “was personally biased against Hegseth.

“She said that Pete Hegseth can’t be SECDEF and that she’s going to see to it,” a source at the Times had informed Breitbart. “I kind of looked at her like she was crazy and wondered how she was going to see to it, but now I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore.”

It was also noted that the reporter had contributed to the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Russia collusion coverage that proved a hoax.

Reactions to the latest display of corporate media bias were ample as White House Communications Director designee Steven Cheung had called the report “despicable” in an email to the Times for the “out-of-context snippet.”

Likewise, bestselling author and veteran Sean Parnell criticized the “BS attacks” that set the entire Hegseth family in the crosshairs in multiple posts on X, including one where he slammed LaFreniere directly, “She’s so proud of publishing a 6 year old private email between a mother and her son that she’s offering you a way around the NYT paywall. President Trump is right about scum like this — #EnemyOfThePeople.”

Taking aim from a different angle, SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly mocked the “ALL IN” attacks as she wrote, “[In case you missed it] @PeteHegseth’s mom sent him a ‘you are behaving very badly’ email during his divorce (she’s a good mom!) and the NYT is ALL IN on it. Next we will hear from his aunt who accused him of being late in sending his thank you cards after Christmas six years ago.”

Kevin Haggerty
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