'What about Jill Biden?' Republicans push back on report that Hegseth brought his wife to sensitive meetings

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After the Wall Street Journal reported exclusively that defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who is already facing the heat for the alleged leak of the Yemen war plan, brought his wife to meetings with foreign military counterparts, the MAGA machinery pushed back and said former First Lady Jill Biden literally ran the government.

“Sorry, @WSJ, but you don’t get to play this game after yawning when Jill Biden ran cabinet meetings because Joe Biden’s brain was pudding—a fact you helped cover up for years,” one posted on X targeting the Journal for reporting on this.

X users posted Jill Biden’s photos in official meetings and said that the mainstream media now can’t pretend that the ‘past four years didn’t happen’. “Two meetings? Try running the Oval for 4 years” —Jill Biden, probably,” one wrote referring to the Journal article on Pete Hegseth.

The Journal mentioned two such meetings that Hegseth attended with his wife, Jennifer Hegseth. The report said that the defense secretary can invite anyone to meetings but those persons generally have to have security clearance and it’s not sure whether Jennifer Hegseth has one.

“A secretary can invite anyone to meetings with visiting counterparts, but attendee lists are usually carefully limited to those who need to be there and attendees are typically expected to possess security clearances given the delicate nature of the discussions, according to defense officials and people familiar with the meeting. There is often security near the meeting space to keep away uninvited attendees,” the report said.

“Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Hegseth, isn’t a Defense Department employee, defense officials said. It isn‘t uncommon for spouses of senior officials to possess low-level security clearances, but a Pentagon spokesperson declined to say whether Jennifer has one. Jennifer didn’t respond to requests for comment,” it said.

Pete Hegseth’s younger brother Phil Hegseth is already serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser, raising several questions. It’s not the first time Phil Hegseth has worked alongside his older brother. When Pete Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into financial difficulty during his time there, he paid his brother $108,000 to do media relations for the organization, according to federal tax records.

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