Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth berated reporters as his children looked on during Monday’s White House Easter Egg Roll.
Hegseth erupted after a reporter asked him about war plans he allegedly shared with his wife and brother on Signal—the second instance in which Hegseth has caused controversy for discussing sensitive matters on the commercial messaging app.
“Hoaxsters—this group right here—full of hoaxsters that peddle anonymous sources from leakers with axes to grind, and then you put it all together as if it’s some news story,” the defense secretary said, wagging his finger at the group of reporters.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Hegseth had discussed plans to bomb Yemen with his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, in a Signal group chat called “Defense Huddle.”
Hegseth initially came under fire last month when Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had been inadvertently added to a Signal chat in which the defense secretary, along with top members of the Trump administration, discussed airstrikes against Yemen.
“See, this is what the media does,” the former Fox & Friends weekend anchor told reporters, voice cracking. “They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”
The beleaguered defense secretary last week purged three top aides in his frantic hunt for suspected leakers inside the Pentagon.
As he rambled, Rauchet and their seven children stood behind him. Pointing to his children, Hegseth exclaimed: “This is why we’re fighting the fake news media. This is why we’re fighting slash-and-burn Democrats. This is why we’re fighting hoaxsters!”
The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick for the Department of Defense’s top post by the tightest possible margin in January, facing criticism for alleged abuse of alcohol and an accusation of sexual assault from 2017—an encounter that Hegseth said was consensual.
The 2017 incident allegedly took place about two months after Hegseth, a Fox News host at the time, had a daughter with Rauchet, his then-mistress. Hegseth began dating Rauchet, a producer at the network, while he was still married to his second wife, Samantha Deering, the mother of three of his children.
Hegseth told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll: “I have spoken to the president and we are going to continue fighting on the same page all the way.”
