Hegseth mom's Fox News walk-back of attack on her son dismantled by MSNBC host

As part of a campaign to salvage the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Donald Trump's secretary of defense, the mother of the embattled former Fox News personality made an appearance Fox on Wednesday morning in an attempt to explain away an email she wrote where she called her son a serial abuser of women.

Over the weekend, the New York Times published the leaked email where Penelope Hegseth wrote, "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."

On Wednesday morning she stated she wrote the email in haste while attacking the Times for publishing, adding that the Times neglected to publish her follow-up email two hours later apologizing to her son and then dismissed multiple new accounts of her son's alleged drunken carousing.

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Speaking with Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy, Penelope Hegseth complained, "They call you and threaten you. They say ‘Unless you make a statement, we will publish it as is.' I think that’s a despicable way to treat anyone.”

After sharing the clip on MSNBC"s "Morning Joe," co-host Mika Brzezinski had a skeptical look on her face as Joe Scarborough commented, "I will say a few things here though. First of all, she attacked the New York Times and said, 'Well, nobody's seen that apology.' The New York Times asked her when she said there was an apology email to send them that, and they would print it, and she could have shown that apology email on Fox News –– she did not."

"She also, when she was asked how the New York Times got this -- because she was attacking the New York Times –– she also didn't come straight forward on that when the New York Times suggested that she had forwarded it to a third party who then obviously released it," he added.

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