A military memo sat unsigned for weeks early in defense secretary Pete Hegseth's tenure as the White House was unable to reach him or his top staffer, according to CNN's Natasha Bertrand.
The defense secretary has come under heavy criticism for conducting military planning over an unsecure chat app with family members and others present, and the upper echelons of Pentagon leadership has been plagued with infighting, but Bertrand revealed new details about his tumultuous tenure.
"There are a couple of examples of this that sources pointed out to us, really, that the White House has taken notice of," Bertrand told CNN News Central. "In particular, there was one incident early on in his tenure when the White House was scrambling to get him to sign a memo related to the 'Golden Dome' missile defense system that president Trump has has been pushing here at the Pentagon."
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"That apparently sat unsigned on Pete Hegseth's desk for about three weeks because the White House simply could not get ahold of him and his chief of staff to push that," Bertrand added. "There was also another instance that really underscores how secretary Hegseth has a very small inner circle, does not trust a lot of people, and is very, very paranoid and concerned about leaks."
The defense secretary has also drawn criticism for inviting his wife Jennifer Hegseth to high-level meetings with foreign counterparts, and Bertrand said he has raised eyebrows with invitations to other individuals whose presence was questioned by Pentagon officials.
"He earlier last month, he actually went directly to the head of the office of special access programs here at the Pentagon," Bertrand said. "Instead of going through a normal policy process that included lawyers, for example, to ask whether Elon Musk could be read in on over two dozen special access programs, which are highly, highly classified programs here at the Pentagon related to China. Ultimately, when those [Department of Defense] lawyers were looped in, they said, look, this is probably not a good idea, but sources told us that maybe that would have actually panned out if secretary Hegseth had included more people and gone through a regular process."
Host Sara Sidner was stunned by the memo revelations and asked Bertrand whether she had heard her report correctly.
"I just want to go back to what you said about Pete Hegseth, not being able to get a hold of him," Sidner said. "The president could not get ahold of Pete Hegseth at the White House, could not get a hold of him to sign documents. Did I hear that right?"
Bertrand assured her that was accurate, saying that Hegseth and his recently reassigned chief of staff Joe Kaspar, now a special government employee handling "special projects," could not be reached to sign the memo.
"They were having trouble getting, they were having trouble getting ahold, in particular, of his chief of staff, his now former chief of staff, we should say, according to multiple sources," Bertrand said, "They were trying to get him to sign this memo, and for some reason, it just sat unsigned on his desk for about three weeks. Ultimately, he did sign it."
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