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It was a very bad Sunday afternoon for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
First came this bombshell via the New York Times:
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.
Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.
Mr. Hegseth’s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who continues to serve as his personal lawyer, both have jobs in the Pentagon, but it is not clear why either would need to know about upcoming military strikes aimed at the Houthis in Yemen.
Uh, yeah.
So even as Hegseth was sharing detailed information about a planned U.S. military attack on a Signal chat that accidentally included a reporter, he set up ANOTHER Signal chat to share very similar information with his wife, his brother and his attorney.
That seems bad!
But wait, there’s more!
Hours after the Times report, John Ullyot, who, until last Friday had been the chief spokesman for Hegseth at the Pentagon, wrote an op-ed in Politico in which he called for President Donald Trump to remove the Secretary.
Here are the key bits:
Yet 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….
…There are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week, key Pentagon reporters have been telling sources privately…
…The president deserves better than the current mishegoss at the Pentagon. Given his record of holding prior Cabinet leaders accountable, many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly if Trump chooses to do the same in short order at the top of the Defense Department.
OUCH.
Let’s be totally clear here. ANY past president would fire Hegseth at this point. (To be honest, no past president would have put him in the job in the first place!)
But, Trump is not anything like our past presidents. And the very fact that there are lots of people calling on Hegseth to be removed may well be the strongest argument — in Trump’s mind — for keeping him.
So far, Trump has been silent about Hegseth on Truth Social. Which isn’t a great sign for ole Pete!
Stay tuned.
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