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Republican Representative Don Bacon Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “Poor decision making” on SignalGate. Departure of heritage journalists His stances at the Pentagon and on Ukraine joining NATO “have ruined his credibility.”
Joining Democratic Representative Ro Khanna on C-SPAN ceasefire, scheduled to air Friday eveningBacon expressed disappointment in Hegseth’s job performance over the past few months and renewed criticism against him. The defense secretary is under increasing pressure over legally controversial air strikes on alleged drug dealers that have killed more than 80 people.
“After Signalgate, I’ve seen a lot,” Bacon said.
Bacon, referring to that incident, said, “I really wanted to see someone take responsibility, admit fault. And when they blamed the media or the journalist for the story, it ruined their credibility.” atlantic Editor was inadvertently added to Signal group chat In which Hegseth and other senior Trump administration figures discussed an imminent military strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Republican representatives also criticized Hegseth’s handling of SignalGate. CNN on ThursdayThe administration claimed that the Office of Inspector General’s report on the incident had exonerated Hegseth.
“This is complete nonsense,” Bacon said during the interview. “I read the report and what I saw, what happened was wrong, but the report makes clear that the secretary included sensitive information that would normally be classified.”
The report concluded that Hegseth did not share classified information because, as Secretary of Defense, he could make the information public. However, it was argued that Hegseth violated security protocols and shared highly sensitive information that could have Endangered American soldiers on an unsafe platform.
On C-SPAN, Bacon said Hegseth had a record of “poor decision making” – e.g. Removing old journalists from the Pentagon’s press pool By issuing new rules that media outlets felt morally unable to follow and replacing them with “second-rate journalists.”
He also cited Hegseth’s position on Ukraine not joining NATO as another disappointment.
The Defense Secretary said earlier this year that the US does not support Ukraine becoming a NATO member.
Bacon’s criticism of Hegseth comes as the defense secretary faces new concerns from lawmakers over the Pentagon’s deadly boat strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean – something about which Bacon has also expressed concern.
Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, said he was “disturbed” by the report, but that he also did not believe Hegseth ordered the killing of everyone, as was first reported. Washington Post,