'So pathetic': CNN's Cardona laughs at MAGA apologist's advice to Pete Hegseth
CNN's Maria Cardona laughed out loud at advice offered to embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by conservative commentator Shermichael Singleton.
The Signalgate scandal flared up again after new revelations about a second group chat involving war plans in a non-secure setting, and Singleton told "CNN News Central" that national security adviser Mike Waltz had already accepted responsibility for adding a journalist to the first group chat, and he urged Hegseth to do the same for inviting his wife, brother and personal attorney to another.
"If the acknowledgment is one step, how are you going to clean this up?" Singleton said. "How are you going to have efficiencies in terms of communications of classified information about the Signal group chat with his wife and his brother?"
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Host John Berman asked whether Hegseth has ever acknowledged those group chats had been a mistake, and Singleton dismissed the question as ridiculous.
"Come on, John, I think, you know the answer to that question," Singleton said. "My point is, though, that he should say, 'Hey, look, in the past I made some errors here moving forward, this is how I have communicated about highly classified information with my staff or my advisors,' and I think that would, for the most part, settle this, politically speaking. I think the president is probably reluctant to make a decision at this point because he did spend so much political capital getting Pete Hegseth confirmed. If you recall, we reported on this exclusively, it was not an easy process for the secretary, and so I think if you're Trump, you're looking at this trying to engage – 'Well, if I do have to make a decision, do I want to make it within the first 100 days, or do I want to give the secretary an opportunity to sort of clean this up and see what happens moving forward?'"
"Again, this occurred around the same time as the previous Signal chat," Singleton added. "We'll see if the secretary has improved his communications moving forward. I would hope that he has."
Berman piggybacked off Singleton's remarks to ask Cardona whether she believes Hegseth has improved his communications, and she tilted her head back and laughed.
"Absolutely not, John," Cardona said. "Look, it is so pathetic for Republicans to be coming out and, No. 1, trying to defend him, and I'm glad Shermichael is not doing that, but we all know that no one is going to do what Shermichael says they should – and they should. But here's the issue, how much more possibly criminal, but certainly dangerous, chaotic incompetence is this White House going to expose the country to? I mean, the job that Hegseth has is one of the most important in national security terms, and so he is not only diminishing the U.S. brand, he is making us less safe on the global stage."
"He is completely turning the Defense Department into a chaotic snake pit, and we have heard how everything has been turned upside-down, and that's why everyone is now, you know, key people are resigning and talking to the media about it," Cardona added. "They're not leaking because they're talking to them on the record about how incompetent and how crazy things are at the Defense Department, and so how much longer is this going to take for the president and the administration to understand that this is making us less safe?"
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