The Hill: GOP lawmakers turn up the pressure on Hegseth

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is under close scrutiny as Republican lawmakers criticize his handling of sensitive military information in a group chat with other administration officials that inadvertently included a journalist.

Republican lawmakers have stopped short of calling on Hegseth to resign, but they’re warning that his decision to share sensitive details about a pending military strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen over Signal, a commercial app, is a clear “strike” against him.

And they’re wondering about Hegseth’s response to reporters’ questions, specifically his adamant denial that “nobody’s texting war plans” after a National Security Council spokesperson had confirmed the chat group’s reported texts appeared to be “authentic.”

“The worst part of it is Hegseth saying himself, ‘This didn’t really happen.’ Why don’t you just admit it?” one Republican senator remarked.

And while White House press secretary [Bimbo #1] Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday sought to draw a distinction between “war plans” and “attack plans” in criticizing The Atlantic’s reporting …  

GOP lawmakers turn up the pressure on Pete Hegseth

Fox News: Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak

Fox News political analyst Brit Hume expressed astonishment after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, his former colleague at the network, attempted to deflect a question about inadvertently leaking plans for airstrikes in Yemen.

Hegseth was one of more than a dozen Trump administration national security officials who were added to a group chat that mistakenly included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who revealed the government’s massive blunder in a story for the magazine.

Noting the “shocking recklessness” of the officials, Goldberg wrote that one message sent to the group by Hegseth “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”

Goldberg, who has the same initials as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was mistakenly added to the group by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

When asked about the story by a reporter, Hegseth’s initial response was to duck the burgeoning scandal and attack Goldberg.

Fox News Analyst Floored by Hegseth’s Attempt to Deny Bombshell Leak