The White Home ‘stands strongly’ behind the embattled protection secretary, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt additionally mentioned.
Vice President JD Vance mentioned on April 23 that he has full confidence in Pete Hegseth regardless of renewed scrutiny over the protection secretary’s use of the Sign messaging app.
“I’ve 100% confidence within the secretary. I do know the president does, and actually, the whole staff does,” Vance advised reporters in Agra, India, after visiting the Taj Mahal.
The vp accused the media of attempting to “tank” Hegseth’s nomination from the beginning. He prompt that latest controversies surrounding the protection secretary have simply been an extension of these efforts.
“I believe he’s doing a fantastic job,” Vance mentioned, pointing to rising navy recruitment numbers as a “nice testomony” to Hegseth’s management.
“I want, frankly, the press talked extra about that, and never about nameless sourcing from random staffers.”
The newest controversy follows stories that Hegseth allegedly shared airstrike schedules in a second Sign chat that included his spouse, brother, and private legal professional.
“What an enormous shock that just a few leakers get fired and instantly a bunch of hit items come out from the identical media that peddled the Russia hoax,” Hegseth mentioned whereas attending the annual Easter Egg Roll together with his youngsters.
“That is what the media does. They take nameless sources from disgruntled former staff, after which they attempt to slash and burn folks and damage their reputations. Not going to work with me. As a result of we’re altering the Protection Division, placing the Pentagon again within the arms of warfighters, and nameless smears from disgruntled former staff on outdated information don’t matter.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt advised reporters at an April 22 press briefing that the previous staff “leaked towards their boss to information companies on this room.”
Leavitt mentioned the administration wouldn’t tolerate “people who leak to the mainstream media, notably with regards to delicate data.”
She additionally echoed Hegseth’s view that he was being focused in a “smear marketing campaign” to stop him from enacting “monumental change” on the Pentagon.
“Let me reiterate, the president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth and the change he’s bringing to the Pentagon, and the outcomes that he has achieved up to now converse for themselves,” Leavitt mentioned.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
