Vice President Vance said earlier Wednesday he was totally confident in Defense Secretary Pete Hegses as the Pentagon chief faces new scrutiny over his use of signal chats.
“I have 100% confidence in my secretary. I know the president is doing that. In fact, I know that the whole team is doing that,” Vance told reporters during his trip to India, taking responsibility for the media.
“That’s one of the weirdest things about Heggs’ nomination. From the start, the media seemed to want to take it and when they failed and he was confirmed, they decided they wanted to continue their efforts to destroy Pete Hegges as Secretary of Defense,” I think he’s doing a great job.
His defense comes when Heggs and the White House tried to curb criticism in a second signal chat. There, he is said to have shared a Houthi strike plan with his family and lawyers, after several top aides were fired after an investigation into an internal leak.
In his remarks Wednesday, Vance claimed that Hegses had brought the Department of Defense to “restore a certain spirit.” rise Since President Trump was elected in November, multiple branches have been recruiting numbers.
“And when you look at the number of recruits in our military, that’s my opinion. In my view, the best testimony of military leaders is that for a very long time there have been no bad recruitment issues in the Army, Navy and Air Force,” he said. “That’s a great testimony of his leadership, and frankly, the press talks more about it, not about anonymous procurement from random staff.”
Hegseth faced calls from Democrats and at least one Republican after reporting that the New York Times shared a militant strike plan with his wife, brothers and lawyers in a signal group chat.
The Pentagon chief has not retreated. He said in “Fox & Friends” that information shared in the signaling thread reportedly created during his verification process was “uncategorized” and “unofficial.” Like Vance, he blows up media outlets to characterize the issue.
Hegses’ responses reflect the arguments he made last month after Prime Minister Jeffrey Goldberg’s Atlantic editor revealed that the impending US attack on Yemen’s Hoosis was inadvertently added to another signal chat with a top Trump official debated.
The Secretary of Defense also denounced the recently terminated advisor. He chose to take on the role earlier this year by hampering Trump’s agenda.
“At this point, those who were leaking, those who were kicked out of the buildings, are trying to disrupt the president’s agenda and what we’re doing by leaking it,” Hegses said Tuesday. “And that’s a shame. That’s not what I do. That’s not the way we run it.”
“The disgruntled former employees are pitching things to try to save their a‑,” he added, suggesting that they could face impact later. “And in the end, it doesn’t work.”
The White House also said it is still confident in Heggs. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt told journalists Tuesday. “He stands strongly behind the changes he is bringing to the Pentagon and the results he has achieved so far are speaking for himself,” Trump said.
