Embattled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth lashed out at The New York Times following a report that he was responsible for a second alleged security breach after last month’s Signalgate controversy.
Hegseth is alleged to have shared details of a sensitive attack against Yemen in a second Signal app group chat with his family last month, as the Times reported on Sunday:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.
Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.
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Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.
Hegseth, festooned with his signature American flag pocket square, was interviewed by a C-SPAN reporter on the White House lawn Monday morning just as the traditional Easter Egg Roll was about to embark.
“Do you want to say, sir, about the signal chat controversy?” he was asked.
“You know, what a big surprise that a bunch of, a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax, won’t give back their Pulitzers. They’ve got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, and on hoaxes time and time and again, and as they peddle those lies, no one ever calls them on it,” Hegseth replied.
“See, this is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me,” he added. “Because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters, and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter.”
“So I’m happy to be here at the Easter Egg Roll with my dad and my kids because this is what we’re doing it for. These kids right here. This is why we’re fighting the fake news media,” continued Hegseth. “This is why we’re fighting slash-and-burn Democrats. This is where we’re finding hoaxsters, hoaxers. This group, no, no, this group right here, full of hoaxers that peddle anonymous sources from leakers with axes to grind. And then you put it all together as if it’s some news story. And when we know it, we know exactly what it is.”
“So I’m really proud of what we’re doing. For the president, fighting hard across the board, and I’m gonna go roll some Easter eggs with my kids. Thank you very much. Have spoken to the president and we are gonna continue fighting on the same page all the way,” he concluded.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
