Waltz doubles down on Hegseth praise amid ongoing Pentagon controversy

Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz repeated the support of administration to the Minister of Defense Pete Hegsetth On Sunday, saying that “I cannot be more proud” in his early months in the role, despite the wave of high controversy and residues that have incorporated the department in recent weeks.

Speaking Fox News Maria Bandaomo On Sunday, Waltz was pressed by the alleged dysfunction within the best Pentagon ranks – and in his opinion, the current pentagon is equipped to achieve sublime foreign policy goals, including the assistance of a broker in the Russian war in Ukraine.

“Can you do this in what seems to be a chaotic, weakened defense department?” Bartiromo asked Waltz at “Sunday Morning Futures”, citing chaos and dysfunction reports, including the recent shootings of the best Hegsets of the best assistants, and reported that he threatened a polygraph test for some staff in the ward.

“I’ll tell you about a weakened pentagon,” Waltz fired. “It was the one who had a defense minister who disappeared for two weeks only last year, and no one knew about it.”

Defense Minister Peta Hegsetth Refuses the allegations of a new group chat as an attempt to “sabotage” Trump’s agenda

Unlike his predecessor, Waltz said that Hegsetth “leads from the front” at the Ministry of Defense and praised what he described as Hegsethi early efforts to reform the pentagon.

“He is charges and has no tolerance for leaks,” Waltz said, rejecting the alleged chaos or dysfunction as a “media narrative”, and the one who vowed to “power”.

Waltz too Canceled the question On the departures of older assistants, including Hegseth’s own staff chief, Joe Kasper, last week.

The exit of senior officials and other chaos chains from Pentagon encouraged some Democrats to call an investigation into his leadership.

But Waltz also dropped these characteristics of dysfunction on Sunday. Bartiromo asked how he would replace the fired Pentagon officials, Waltz said: “Maria, there are 20,000 people in Pentagon.”

“There is a record number of generals,” he said. “And another piece – there is a responsibility. We had several general officers who did not do the job, and the admirals were discharged and replaced … This is what the Pentagon needs.”

Waltz claimed that this was a distinct contrast to a long -standing culture in Pentagon, where he said that “no one has ever released, [and] There is never a sense of responsibility. “

“And now there is,” he told Bartiromo.

“Whether it’s missing or not doing a job or failure in terms of acquisition, now you have a leader who is in charge,” Waltz said. “And I couldn’t be proud of Pete Hegsetha.”

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Waltz’s remarks come as the role of Hegsetha entered in Enhanced control of recent weeks – How to participate in at least one signal group chat in March, where he talked about a planned military strike against Houthis and the release of several older employees earlier this month.

Hegsetth fired three main assistants this month: including his assistant, Dana Caldwell, his deputy chief Darin Selnick and head of the Deputy Minister of Defense Colin Carroll.

These overthrows were described as “confusing” and alarming by John Ullyot, a former Pentagon communications officer who resigned earlier this year.

“Dysfunction is now the main distraction of the president – which deserves better than his higher leadership,” Ullyot wrote u op-ed for politico.

The White House, however, sought to emphasize its support to Hegseth in recent days, with Vice -President JD Vance and the printing secretary of the Karolina Leavitt White House fierce release of the report that the administration could consider a possible replacement.

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“Let me reiterate: the president is strongly behind the hegsetth secretary -the change he brings to the Pentagon, and the results he has achieved so far speeches for himself,” Leavitt told JroFing reporters last week, describing reports as a “smear campaign.”