“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out,” he said Monday morning at the White House’s Easter Egg Roll.
It was Hegseth’s first public comments since the New York Times reported Sunday that he shared similar information about the United States’s intended military operations in Yemen against the Houthis in a second Signal group chat allegedly including his wife and brother. His brother Phil has a job at the Department of Defense.
While Hegseth said the people behind the story were “disgruntled former employees,” he did not directly deny the existence of the group chat and whether he shared information about the strikes in it.
“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 said.
Last week, three Pentagon officials — senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense — were fired following an investigation into media leaks, though the three have denied that they leaked information to the media.
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In a joint statement, the fired officials said they were “incredibly disappointed” by how their service ended.
“We understand the importance of information security and work every day to protect it. At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with,” they said.
On Sunday, former interim Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot wrote an op-ed for Politico — an outlet he kicked out of its designated seat in the Pentagon press corps — in which he described the last month as a “month from hell” in the department.
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon,” he said. “Even strong backers of the secretary like me must admit: The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.”
HEGSETH POSTED YEMEN STRIKE DETAILS IN SECOND SIGNAL CHAT: REPORT
“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account,” Ullyot added. “Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”
Following the story, the White House said President Donald Trump stands behind Hegseth.
