While Democrats attempt to run up the score with another story about another Signal chat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took to the airwaves on Tuesday morning to make it clear that he has no intention of backing down.
Hegseth spoke with “Fox & Friends” anchor Brian Kilmeade about the recent story, in which The New York Times alleges that Hegseth may have disclosed sensitive information in a second Signal chat group — that included his wife, his brother, and his attorney — that he accessed using his personal phone rather than his government phone. National Public Radio (NPR) followed the NYT story with a headline suggesting that President Donald Trump’s White House was already searching for someone who could replace Hegseth — a claim that both Hegseth and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt have denied.
WATCH:
MUST WATCH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth IS ON FIRE 🔥
"I’m here because President Trump asked me to bring war-fighting back to the Pentagon every single day.
If people don’t like it, come after me, no worries. I’m standing here, the WARFIGHTERS are behind us, our enemies… pic.twitter.com/AN5WaSwExc
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 22, 2025
“They’ve come after me from day one,” Hegseth told Kilmeade on Tuesday morning’s broadcast, noting that the attacks he’d endured so far were nothing compared to what had been thrown at President Trump. “I’ve gotten a fraction of what President Trump got in that first term. What he’s endured is super human.”
“It’s not hard for me to do this job, I know exactly why I’m here,” Hegseth continued. “To bring war-fighting and the war-fighting ethos back to the Pentagon. To rip out the insidious ideologies and not compromise and not back down. To bring in new press voices into the Pentagon, which we’ve done. To reestablish standards and accountability. To not tolerate leakers.”
Hegseth went on with his list, saying that regaining control of the southern border was part of his job, as was getting rid of “trans lunacy in the military.”
“We haven’t backed down,” he added, saying that in the past, people came to Washington to “play the game” and often got caught up in the lifestyle and the cocktail parties and the status quo, but it was not his intention to have any part of that.
“I’m here because President Trump asked me to bring war-fighting back to the Pentagon every single day. If people don’t like it, they can come after me, no worries. I’m standing here, the warfighters are behind us, our enemies know they’re on notice, our allies know we are behind them, and that in this dangerous world, for the American people, is what it is all about,” he said.
