With the release of the Inspector General report of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's culpability in the so-called “Signalgate” scandal planned for Thursday, the journalist who broke the story claimed that Donald Trump and his appointee have trapped themselves.
Speaking with the hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, who was mistakenly included on the Signal app where Hegseth divulged top secret details of an upcoming attack, claimed the president should not be dragging his feet when it comes to shedding his Pentagon chief.
“We're getting some glimmers that Republicans in the Senate are looking at Hegseth now and thinking of him as kind of like the Pigpen of this, to borrow from Peanuts, the Pigpen of this administration, like he just followed by a cloud of dust and controversy everywhere he goes,” he began.
“I mean, he's quite obviously, you know, I don't think this is a genius or novel observation, he's quite obviously way in over his head in this, in this job — and so that's obvious,” he continued.
“I do think that this has been a terrible week for Hegseth. Ordinarily, you would say yes, Donald Trump is very quick to — Donald Trump historically has been quick to discard people who cause him problems. Obviously, he's run this second term very differently than he's run the first term, and he has stayed loyal, if that's the right word, or obstinate at least about not replacing people who are causing him and his White House embarrassment. But at a certain point, you know, [Chief of Staff] Susie Wiles and other grown-ups in the White House have to look and say, ‘You know what? There are better people for this job.’”
“Some of them are actually in the Pentagon already, and we could have fewer controversies, more thoughtfulness. Still, pro-Trump leadership in the Pentagon,” he elaborated. “But but this is just like it's a rolling disaster at this point.”