Vice President Vance said early Wednesday that he has full confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the Pentagon chief faces a fresh round of scrutiny over his Signal chat usage.
“I have 100 percent confidence in the secretary. I know the President does, and really, the entire team does,” Vance told reporters during his trip to India, casting the blame on the media.
“It’s one of the most bizarre things about the Hegseth nomination. From the very beginning, the media seemed to want to take it, and when they failed, and he got confirmed, they decided they wanted to keep on that effort to destroy Pete Hegseth as a man as the Secretary of Defense, I think he’s doing a great job,” the vice president added.
His defense comes as Hegseth and the White House have sought to rein in criticism over a second Signal chat where he allegedly shared Houthi strike plans with his family and lawyer, and after several top aides were fired after a probe into internal leaks.
Vance in his Wednesday remarks argued that Hegseth has brought a “certain spirit back” to the Defense Department, pointing to an uptick in recruiting numbers across multiple branches since President Trump was elected in November.
“And if you look at our military recruitment numbers, that’s in my — in my view, the best testament to his leadership of the military is that for the first time in a very long time, we don’t have terrible recruitment problems in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force,” he said. “That’s a great testament to his leadership. And I wish, frankly, the press talked more about that, and not about anonymous sourcing from random staffers.”
Hegseth has faced calls from Democrats, and at least one Republican, to step down after The New York Times reported that he shared militant strike plans with a wife, brother and attorney in a Signal group chat.
The Pentagon chief has not backed down. He said on “Fox & Friends” that the information shared in the Signal thread, which was reportedly created during his confirmation process, was “unclassified” and “informal.” Like Vance, he also blasted media outlets for their characterization of the issue.
Hegseth’s response echoes an argument he made last month after The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he was inadvertently added to a separate Signal chat with top Trump officials where an imminent U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen was discussed.
The defense secretary also accused the recently terminated advisers, whom he picked to serve in the role earlier this year, of obstructing Trump’s agenda.
“In this point, those folks who were leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president’s agenda and what we’re doing,” Hegseth said Tuesday. “And that’s unfortunate. It’s not what I do. It’s not how we operate.”
“Disgruntled former employees are peddling things to try to save their a‑‑,” he added, later suggesting that they could face repercussions. “And ultimately, that’s not going to work.”
The White House also said it still has confidence in Hegseth. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists Tuesday that Trump “stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth and the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon, and the results that he’s achieved thus far speak for themselves.”
