'Take responsibility': Ex-general says Hegseth 'endangered our airmen' in text scandal

22 April

One former military leader who now serves in Congress took Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to task over his recent scandal involving yet another disclosure of classified information via text message.

During a Tuesday interview on CNN, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) emphasized that the embattled Pentagon chief was not only reckless when texting highly sensitive attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen to his wife, brother and attorney using his own unsecured device, but that he was actively endangering U.S. military personnel by doing so. Bacon — a retired one-star Air Force general — told host Jake Tapper that if he were president, he "wouldn't tolerate" what Hegseth did and would fire him.

"We would fire a second lieutenant for doing this," Bacon said. "And so, as a military guy, and this is not a Republican view or a Democrat view, i think it's an American view that we protect our security. We protect our servicemen and women. Because those details, if they would have got out early to the Houthis, could have endangered our airmen."

"I guarantee you, Russia and China are all over the secretary of defense's cell phone. And they got hundreds of people focused on his phone and what he's putting on that because he's like the top priority target for their SIGINT collection," he continued. "So what I want to see from the secretary is to just be honest, admit you did wrong, take responsibility and apologize, because that lets us know that you understand that it was wrong."

Earlier this week, Bacon became the first Republican member of Congress to publicly demand Hegseth be fired over the scandal, which was the second time in as many months that he was accused of sharing sensitive information on an unsecured text messaging app with people who aren't on a strictly need-to-know basis. The Nebraska Republican said that while he supported President Donald Trump's agenda and wanted Hegseth to thrive in his role, he viewed the former part-time weekend Fox News host's mistake as a bridge too far.

"I want him to be successful. I want our military to be successful. But if you're trying to deny that sending operational details two hours before a strike is not a problem, then I have concerns about your competence, and just in your ability to do this job," Bacon said. "I mean, it just makes it worse. He's digging a hole. He should stop digging."

"[T]he Chinese and Russians are working overtime to collect everything," he added. "So I just, I think I see it in a black and white way, and I don't see any ambiguity. and I don't say this as a Republican or Democrat. I say this as an American, as a veteran, we want our servicemen and women to hit their targets, and come home."

Watch the video of Bacon's remarks below, or by clicking this link.

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