Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said it’s “sad but very predictable” that several top Pentagon officials and members of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s inner circle were fired last week, stirring new turmoil at the Department of Defense (DOD).
“If you look at Pete Hegseth’s record, before he became secretary of Defense, it was one glaring professional and personal mistake after another, and there’s no magic wand that waves over you, once you get a narrow Senate confirmation vote that turns you into a wise person,” Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview Monday. “This is a sad but very predictable situation.”
The trio of fired officials — former senior adviser Dan Caldwell, former deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, a former top aide to the deputy Defense secretary — released a joint statement over the weekend saying that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”
Pentagon brass and others in the Trump administration have said that Caldwell, Selnick and Carroll were fired amid a probe into leaks, but they said in their joint statement that they have not been told what exactly they were investigated for, whether the investigation is still active and if there “was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”
Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox News personality, blamed the media and “disgruntled former employees” Monday for the latest in a string of Pentagon scandals that have fueled doubts about his leadership at the Defense Department. The GOP-controlled Senate narrowly confirmed Hegseth after intervention from President Trump and a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Vance.
“What 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,” Hegseth told reporters at the White House on Monday, invoking a frequent complaint from Trump about reporting during the 2016 election.
Trump defended Hegseth again on Monday, calling reports about dysfunction at the Pentagon “fake news” and further signaling he isn’t interested in a leadership change. The White House denied a report suggesting the administration is considering a replacement for Hegseth.
“Ask the Houthis how much dysfunction they have. There’s none. Pete’s doing a great job,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Everybody’s happy with him.”
“I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. So, you don’t always have friends when you do that,” Trump added.
But Kaine defended the three fired officials and said the ordeal again raises questions about Hegseth’s ability to handle the top Pentagon role.
“I think these are gruntled people who are patriots, and they’re very worried about Pete Hegseth continuing to lead this most important Cabinet Secretariat,” Kaine said in the CNN interview. “When he was in the uniform of the United States, he served admirably, but in his leadership positions in many organizations since his uniformed service he’s demonstrated appalling lack of judgment — both professionally and personally.”
The New York Times reported over the weekend that Hegseth had shared sensitive military plans through the Signal app in messages with family members. The news followed the blockbuster revelation last month Hegseth and other top Trump officials discussed an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen on the messaging app and inadvertently included a reporter on the chain.
“What’s happened, in the last few weeks, about these two Signalgate atrocities, just shows the lack of judgment, and that he is the wrong person to be our Secretary of Defense,” Kaine said.