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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the media and \u201cdisgruntled former employees\u201d on Monday as the media doubled down on the Signal controversy.<\/p>\n
Hegseth stood firm in statements to reporters at the White House for the traditional Easter Egg Roll. He refuted recent reports of a second Signal app discussion in which he disclosed intelligence about Yemen attacks. He assured reporters that he and President Donald Trump are in complete agreement.\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Hegseth said, responding to new reporting from The New York Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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,\u201d Hegseth continued. \u201cNot going to work with me, because we\u2019re 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\u2019t matter. So I\u2019m happy to be here at the Easter Egg Roll with my dad and my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he had spoken to the president, Hegseth said he had.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are going to continue fighting. On the same page all the way,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied a report from NPR that Trump is looking to replace Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.<\/p>\n
The White House has been embroiled in a dispute about information security when The Atlantic\u2019s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, seemed to be inadvertently added to a group chat with multiple key Trump officials planning a strike on the Houthis on Signal.<\/p>\n
In April, a similar scandal occurred when Hegseth, according to the New York Times, allegedly discussed specifics of a March military operation against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in another Signal messaging conversation with his wife and brother.<\/p>\n
On Monday, NPR reported that despite these concerns, \u201cThe White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NPR story was revised to reflect that Leavitt had called it \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about,\u201d the White House spokeswoman wrote. \u201cAs the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House\u2019s official \u201cRapid Response\u201d account on X shared a post slamming the report as well, claiming, \u201cLies from NPR \u2014 which, as we all know, is a Fake News propaganda machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the second time recently that Trump has clarified that he\u2019s standing by Hegseth, as some Democrats have called for him to resign because of a leaked Signal chat that contained\u00a0information about a military strike in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Last month, the president discussed the controversy following Hegseth\u2019s accidental transmission of details about the strike to members of the administration in a Signal chat, which also included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg published the full messages.<\/p>\n
After several Democrats in Congress called for Hegseth to step down because of the scandal, reporters asked Trump if he thought Hegseth might want to resign.<\/p>\n
\u201cHegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this. Hegseth. How do you bring Hegseth into this?\u201d Trump replied.<\/p>\n
Trump also acknowledged that his White House national security advisor, Mike Waltz, took responsibility for mistakenly adding Goldberg to the Signal chat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Waltz \u2026 he claimed responsibility, I would imagine. It had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess, I don\u2019t know, I was told it was Mike,\u201d Trump said when asked about the investigation.<\/p>\n
Trump again played down the controversy over whether or not Hegseth shared secret information that could have put the operation at risk by focusing on the mission\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump on Wednesday addressed sharp criticism from Zohran Mamdani, who defeated disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City\u2019s mayoral race.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, ordered the president during his fiery victory speech to \u201cturn the volume up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a very dangerous statement for him to make,\u201d Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier. \u201cHe has to be a little bit respectful of Washington, because if he\u2019s not, he doesn\u2019t have a chance of succeeding. And I want to make him succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He quickly clarified, \u201cI want to make the city succeed, I don\u2019t want to make him succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has frequently attacked the progressive candidate throughout his campaign, which focused on affordable housing and expanding social safety nets.<\/p>\n
Mamdani faced racist attacks from critics before defeating Cuomo, whom Trump had endorsed.<\/p>\n
In his victory speech Tuesday, Mamdani called Trump a \u201cdespot\u201d who has \u201cbetrayed\u201d the nation.<\/p>\n
He urged his supporters to use their votes and voices to \u201cstop the next Trump\u201d by \u201cdismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a very angry speech,\u201d Trump told Baier. \u201cCertainly angry toward me, and I think he should be nice to me. I\u2019m sort of the one that has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he\u2019s off to a bad start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters countered that Mamdani, 34, is off to a great start as the first Muslim and South Asian mayor in city history, and its youngest in more than a century.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, for thousands of years communism has not worked. Communism, or the concept of communism, has not worked. I tend to doubt it will work this time,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
He added that he was \u201ctorn\u201d by Mamdani\u2019s win due to his \u201clove\u201d for New York City, saying he \u201cwould like to see the new mayor do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he\u2019s thought about reaching out, Trump replied, \u201cI would say he needs to reach out to us, really. I\u2019m here. We\u2019ll see what happens, but I would think it would be more appropriate for him to reach out to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, when asked about Mamdani\u2019s vow to \u201cstop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors,\u201d Trump said, \u201cWell then, we\u2019ll have to arrest him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, we don\u2019t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I\u2019m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the media and \u201cdisgruntled former employees\u201d on Monday as the media doubled down on the Signal controversy. Hegseth stood firm in statements to reporters at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t