White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House “stands strongly” behind Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the New York Times claimed he was involved in another Signal chat controversy.
“The president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon,” Leavitt told Fox News. “This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement.”
“No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same nonstory, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly similarly told the outlet. “Recently fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the president’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable.”
The Times report cited “four people with knowledge” of the Signal chat as its sources for claiming that Hegseth’s wife, brother, and personal lawyer were aware of discussions to launch military strikes in Yemen.
“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,” Hegseth said during the White House Easter Egg roll. He said the “same media that peddled the Russia hoax, won’t give back their Pulitzers — they got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies and hoaxes, time and time again — 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. Because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of warfighters, and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news don’t matter,” Hegseth said. “So I’m happy to be here at the Easter Egg Roll with my dad and my kids.”
