Lisa Desjardins:
A lot to say, so I want to be very clear. Let’s start with last Friday.
Now, on that day, that is when four top Pentagon staffers in Hegseth’s inner circle were suddenly out. That includes the top staffer, his chief of staff there, who resigned from that job, as Politico reported, and three others who were just below that chief of staff level. All have known him a long time, all accused in the media of leaking and were fired.
Next, Sunday, The New York Times reported and PBS has confirmed that Hegseth used a second Signal chat in which he messaged sensitive information about that Yemen attack. And, per our source, he included in that chat his wife. That includes obviously a major breach of security and secrecy protocols.
Then, also yesterday, Hegseth’s former top communications person, his chief spokesperson, John Ullyot, wrote an op-ed in Politico saying he needed to go. Now, if you read that op-ed, you saw that Ullyot wrote that: “The Pentagon is no longer focused on war fighting, but on endless drama and chaos.”
Ullyot is a Marine veteran, but he’s also a D.C. communications, so him writing that op-ed is highly unusual and significant.
