Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth returned to his former employer Fox Information to defend his tenure amid new revelations that he shared navy plans on a Sign group chat and a bombshell op ed from a former spokesperson who described the Pentagon environment because the “month from hell.”
“Disgruntled former workers are peddling issues to attempt to save their ass, and in the end, that isn’t going to work,” Hegseth advised Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Pals.
Hegseth, the previous host of Fox & Pals Weekend, accused a gaggle of his senior staffers of leaks. The staffers — Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll — had been dismissed on Friday.
Hegseth urged that they had been answerable for leaking to the press, after The New York Instances reported that the Protection Secretary shared assault particulars in one other Sign chat that included his spouse, brother and private lawyer. That adopted the bombshell report that the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly included in a Sign group chat wherein Hegseth shared plans with high Trump administration officers.
On Fox & Pals, Hegseth insisted that “what was shared over Sign, then and now, nonetheless you characterize it, was casual, unclassified coordinations for media coordination and different issues. That’s what I’ve stated from the start.”
In keeping with the Instances, Hegseth shared flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets concentrating on Houthis in Yemen, much like the assault plans shared within the chat that included Goldberg.
Hegseth stated that the investigation of Pentagon leaks was ongoing, however he advised Kilmeade, “Why wouldn’t it shock anyone, Brian, is these exact same folks hold leaking to the exact same reporters no matter data they suppose they’ll must attempt to sabotage the agenda of the president or the secretary. So as soon as a leaker, all the time a leaker, usually a leaker.”
The three staffers launched a press release on Saturday, saying, “Unnamed Pentagon officers have slandered our character with baseless assaults on our means out the door.” Caldwell appeared on Tucker Carlson’s X present on Monday and denied leaking labeled data. “Completely not,” he stated.
“There may be a whole lot of proof that there’s not an actual [leak] investigation,” he stated, including that he had not been subjected to a polygraph check, not had he given up his personal telephone. Carlson urged that he was terminated as a result of he was “one of many strongest voices on the Pentagon opposing warfare with Iran.”
Donald Trump has not weighed in on Hegseth’s look, however he’s a frequent watcher of Fox & Pals. He expressed his help for Hegseth on Monday, whereas the White Home dismissed an NPR report that it was beginning the method of looking for a successor.
