Raw Story: 'Unlike anything I've seen': Veteran Pentagon reporter stunned at level of 'infighting' [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

Raw Story - 'Unlike anything I've seen': Veteran Pentagon reporter stunned at level of 'infighting'

Travis Gettys
April 21, 2025 8:18AM ET

A veteran Pentagon reporter can't recall a more chaotic environment within the upper echelons of U.S. military leadership as leaks spill out about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The defense department's former chief spokesman John Ullyot Sunday warned that a month of "total chaos" had left Pentagon leadership "near collapse," and New York Times reporter Greg Jaffe told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" about his new article revealing that Hegseth had been involved in a second group chat to discuss confidential military operations with questionable individuals.

"The chat, as you noted, included his wife, his brother, his personal attorney, and most of his inner circle, which has been in a state of tumult these last couple of weeks," Jaffe said. "I think it's worth noting, it's a very inexperienced inner circle, and he's a very inexperienced secretary, so it's a group of people who hadn't been used to operating at this level of government, and I think that's the other kind of key point here.

"He doesn't have a lot of experience, and he's surrounded himself with people who also kind of lack experience."

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