‘None of this is based in reality’: Hegseth blames fired staffers for leaks and making an attempt to sabotage Trump’s agenda | EUROtoday

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blamed fired staffers for the leaks concerning the second Signal chat group he created about strikes towards Houthis in Yemen, as he accused them of making an attempt to “sabotage” President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Hegseth is combating to carry onto his place after a bombshell report that he shared particulars of navy strikes in Yemen in one other Signal chat that included his personal spouse and brother.

“None of this is based in reality,” Hegseth mentioned throughout an look on Tuesday’s Fox & Friendsthe place he labored as co-host for the most effective a part of a decade.

When requested whether or not the report was “leaked as a way to get back” at him, Hegseth agreed.

“Those folks who are leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president’s agenda,” Hegseth mentioned. “We’re for the war fighters. We’re for the president. And none of this is based in reality.”

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Hegseth characterised the plans that had been shared within the Signal group chats as “informal, unclassified coordination” for what he mentioned was “media coordination of events.”

He additionally claimed he was reestablishing “standards and accountability” on the Pentagon.

“The warfighters are behind us. Our enemies know they are on notice,” Hegseth mentioned. “Our allies know we are behind them, and that, in this dangerous world, for the American people, is what it is all about.”

The New York Times first reported the small print of the second Signal group chat, which included flight schedules for the warplanes concerned within the March operation, and reported that Hegseth used his private telephone.

Hegseth shifted the blame to “disgruntled former employees” whereas talking to reporters in a defiant show Monday on the White House Easter Egg Roll occasion.

“They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,” Hegseth mentioned. “Not going to work with me, 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.”

Hegseth’s job seems protected for now after Trump continues to face by him and dismissed the report.

“It’s just fake news. They just bring up stories,” Trump mentioned Monday. “I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. He was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people and that’s what he’s doing so you don’t always have friends when you do that.”

The embattled protection secretary’s denial follows explosive claims by a not too long ago resigned Pentagon aide that the division is experiencing a “full-blown meltdown” underneath his management. John Ullyot, who resigned final week as a Pentagon spokesperson, described a month of “total chaos” underneath Hegseth.

Chaos contained in the Pentagon “is now a major distraction for the president,” Ullyot wrote within the scathing Politico on-ed.

“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his officials to account,” Ullyot mentioned. “Given that, it’s hard to see Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth remaining in his position for much longer.”

Responding to Ullyot’s claims, Hegseth accused him of “misrepresenting” the state of affairs on the Pentagon. “We did right by him, we tried to help,” Hegseth mentioned on Fox & Friends of Ulloyt. “He’s spinning it otherwise.”

While Democrats bolted out of the gate to name for Hegseth’s resignation, Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon grew to become the primary House Republican to counsel that Trump ought to hearth Hegseth.

Bacon identified that “if a Democrat did this, we’d be demanding a scalp” in stern phrases to Politico.

“The military should always pride itself on operational security. If the reports are true, the Secretary of Defense has failed at operational security, and that is unacceptable,” Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, additionally instructed Axios.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a swift denial of an NPR report Monday claiming {that a} search is underway to switch Hegseth following the second Signal chat fiasco.

She known as the NPR report “total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about.”

It emerged final month that Hegseth texted delicate struggle plans involving a wave of U.S. air strikes in Yemen in a Signal chat known as “Houthi PC small group” that inadvertently included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was created by Trump’s nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz.