A former Pentagon spokesperson disputed Vice President JD Vance's smiling dismissal of concerns about the all-hands meeting called by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth plans to convene top military leaders from deployment around the globe Tuesday to a Marine Corps base in Virginia for a meeting for unspecified purposes, which the vice president assured reporters in the Oval Office was "not particularly unusual," but former Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh strongly disagreed.
"Look, this meeting that Hegseth has called isincredibly unusual," Singh told "CNN This Morning." "He'ssummoning basically 800 generalsand flag officers, you know,from all over the world fromtheir combatant commands to theservices to come into Quanticowith their staff, too. Soyou're looking at upwards ofa thousand people coming in for ameeting that no one knows whatit's about."
"Also, don't they havestuff to do?" interrupted host Audie Cornish. "I hate to be agoose, but, like, it feels likewe're pulling them from actualwork."
Singh singled out Adm. Samuel John Paparo Jr., commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, as a military leader who should probably remain in his post instead of traveling to meet with Hegseth.
"You know, evenif this administration doesn'tthink that China is a threat," Singh said, "there are many people in Congress and in the United States that do feel that Chinais certainly our challenge, andso to pull not only the admiralwho oversees that combatantcommand, but his deputycommander as well, along withother members of his staff, tocome to the United States, Imean, that sends an incrediblemessage to our allies that we,you know, do not have the personin charge there. But on theother hand, to who is going tobe in charge of these combatantcommands all around the worldthat are facing tremendous challenges?"