Pete Hegseth’s Wife’s Influence at the Pentagon Raising Questions About His Leadership, NYT Reports
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
The New York Times published a deep-dive report on Wednesday detailing the unprecedented influence Jennifer Hegseth has over her husband, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and his job.
Elisabeth Bumiller, a former Pentagon correspondent for the outlet, opened her lengthy article with the declaration, “There has never been a Pentagon spouse quite like Jennifer Hegseth.”
Bumiller goes on to list off some of the public appearances Mrs. Hegseth has made alongside her husband, accompanied at times by some of their seven children, and notes the SignalGate scandal, in which she was included in a group chat discussing sensitive war plans in Yemen.
“This month she took on a new role: chair of the President’s Military Spouse Commission, an unpaid position aimed at improving the lives of military families. She stood behind President Trump in the Oval Office as he announced the initiative,” Bumiller continued before writing:
Mrs. Hegseth was for years Mr. Hegseth’s producer at Fox News as he built a broadcast career. Now, seven years into their marriage, she is his most influential adviser and his de facto producer at the Pentagon. She has prepped him for appearances, sat in on his meetings with journalists, interviewed potential members of his staff and brainstormed ideas for the Defense Department videos he — and sometimes she — appears in.
Last year she was in a highly sensitive meeting with her husband and top British defense officials after the United States temporarily stopped sharing military intelligence with Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal first reported. In a previously undisclosed part of that meeting, a Trump administration official told The New York Times, the British indicated that they had officers on the ground in Ukraine and that without the U.S. intelligence, including early warnings of incoming missiles from Russia, the officers’ lives were at risk.
Bumiller goes on to report that Mrs. Hegseth’s security clearance status is unknown and that her entering and exiting the Pentagon requires her to “slip quietly” into the building or directly into Hegseth’s office suite.
The article adds that Mrs. Hegseth’s influence “is so unusual that it has led to questions about Mr. Hegseth’s leadership.”
“It’s bonkers that a defense secretary would involve his wife in his sensitive official duties, including sharing details of an impending military operation, and face zero consequences. Any president deserves better judgment from his national security leaders,” John Ullyot, a former Pentagon chief spokesman, told the Times.
“This is not normal,” Senator Chris Coons (D-CT) fumed last year on MSNBC in response to reports on Mrs. Hegseth joining high-level meetings. “Secretary Hegseth has one of the highest levels of classification access. He can’t just hand that to his wife and say, ‘Here, honey, hold my beer, and hold my classified information,” Coons added.
Read the full article here.
The post Pete Hegseth’s Wife’s Influence at the Pentagon Raising Questions About His Leadership, NYT Reports first appeared on Mediaite.