Pete Hegseth attacks media as kids cringe in the background of awkward clip

Pete Hegseth attacked the media over Signalgate 2.0 as his children appeared to cringe in the background in an awkward clip.

While attending the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, the Secretary of Defense was quizzed by the press over a report that he had created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother. According to the story, first published in the New York Times, he allegedly shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders.

In the awkward interview, the 44-year-old hit out at the media saying, “This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”

He then added, “Not going to work with me, because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter.” Hegseth said he was happy to be attending the Easter Egg Roll with his kids but as he pointed at them during his attack on the media, the children appeared uncomfortable and didn’t know where to look, with one of them putting his head in his hands at one point.

After the clip was shared online, many criticized Hegseth for involving his children into the story. One said, “Hegseth shouldn’t be using his kids as props.” Another wrote, “We feel your pain, kids.” A third person commented, “Those poor kids.”

Following the NYT report, a person familiar with the contents and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed the second Signal chat to The Associated Press. The second chat on Signal – which is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information – included 13 people, the person said. The person also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defense Team Huddle.”

If you can’t see the clip below, click here

The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have traveled with the defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.

The White House and Pentagon said late Sunday that disgruntled former employees were spreading false claims. “No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared,” said Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary. “Recently-fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable.”

For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell added in a post on X late Sunday that the report “relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda. There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story.”

The revelation of the additional chat group brought new calls for Hegseth to be ousted as President Donald Trump’s administration has faced criticism for failing to take action so far against the top national security officials who discussed plans for the military strike in Signal. “The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X. “Pete Hegseth must be fired.”

The first chat, set up by national security adviser Mike Waltz, included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added to the group. The contents of that chat, which The Atlantic published, shows that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen last month.

Hegseth has previously contended that no classified information or war plans were shared in the chat with the journalist. The Times reported Sunday that the second chat had the same warplane launch times that the first chat included. Multiple former and current officials have said sharing those operational details before a strike would have certainly been classified and their release could have put pilots in danger. Hegseth’s use of Signal and the sharing of such plans are under investigation by the Defense Department’s acting inspector general.

For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here.