Hegseth hit in two more reports over chaos at Pentagon

Hegseth has faced yet another setback, two, actually, and patience among conservatives appears to be wearing thin with him.  

While the White House says it is still backing Hegseth, the negative reports keep piling up.  

#SignalGate 

I took #SignalGate a bit more seriously than most people because I thought it showed some really bad judgment on Pete Hegseth’s part and carelessness on the part of Mike Waltz that was inexcusable.  

I have stated before that if I were Trump in that situation, I would have likely fired at least one of them, if not both. 

Instead, the administration made excuses for both of them, but the chaos has continued.  

Since that story broke, several staffers have been fired, another staffer quit, and yet another Signal story has broken.  

Sharing details 

This week, the New York Times broke a story that Hegseth had another Signal chat group of personal contacts who were being given details of the attack plans. 

The report claimed that members of the chat group included “Hegseth’s wife, brother and personal lawyer also included others involved with the Defense secretary’s life in professional and personal ways prior to his confirmation.” 

The Department of Defense responded to the report, “Another day, another old story—back from the dead. The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda.  

“This time, the New York Times — and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage — are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article.  They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda.” 

Former Pentagon Aide Says Character Was Slandered 

The three former staffers who were given their walking papers, all allies of Hegseth prior to him taking this post, ripped the Pentagon for slandering their character with the story regarding this dismissal.  

Former senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll released a joint statement on the matter, stating, "Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. 

"All three of us served our country honorably in uniform - for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it." 

Currently, we have no way of knowing who is telling the truth and who is lying, but this does not look good for Hegseth. The Pentagon appears to be in complete disarray, so I continue to stand by my initial conclusion that Hegseth was not qualified for this position and needs to be replaced. Unless he is some kind of savant, and that does not seem likely, his career, which includes mismanaging charitable organizations and serving as a Major in the Army, does not qualify him to run the DoD.