Hegseth Sacrificial Lambs Refusing To Fall On Their Swords Might Blow Back On Him

The fate of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth prompted a lot of discussion when the SignalGate Story broke.  While some thought he’d be canned, the consensus seemed to be that he’d initially weather the storm and after perhaps a month Hegseth would get thrown under the bus.  Frankly, while the whole mess of SignalGate still comes up it seemed to me the worst was over and Hegseth would survive.  Among conservatives the complain about “leaks” and “blame the reporter” (don’t ask for logic on how he invited himself into the chat group!) and complain strategy worked enough to turn down the temperature.  Then, roughly a week ago Hegseth started firing top aides, and in the process dialed the heat on himself back up!

This is both a bit weird and also complicated. SignalGate wasn’t the only matter where information was reported that was embarrassing to both the Pentagon and the WH. Hey, it’s DC and there are a lot of journalists plugged well into the workings of the DOD and they learn plenty without anyone intentionally ‘leaking’ to them.  Then there’s the overall incompetence of Trump and his people, who often have competing opinions and agendas. One might take one course of action while someone else is taking another. ‘Wires getting crossed’ and ‘oopsies’ are to be expected.  Anyway, it was decided to make a show out of stamping out leaks and identifying leakers.  One top aide ‘offered’ his resignation and three others were placed on ‘administrative leave’ – and now we know they’ve been fired.

Here’s the thing though. As this article from Responsible Statecraft three of Hegseth’s sacrificial lambs are refusing to fall on their swords. Instead, they are fighting back which might seem surprising.  Then again, like Hegseth all are pretty young and have their long-term careers to worry about.  Despite the expected talk of supporting Trump and his actions it boils down to them saying getting tossed aside, FIRED was unfair.  This might blow over. Then again, they might formally challenge their firings instead of just speaking out. The headline of the linked article speaks of a “Fiery joint statement” and if you read the article there’s a long section that lays out their defense of themselves and each other. Along with a healthy dose of ‘we all served and deserve better than what happened to us.’

What exactly is going on? On the surface it’s straightforward:

Dan Caldwell, an Iraq War veteran who left his role at Defense Priorities to serve as senior advisor to new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, released a joint statement with Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, on Saturday. All three had been terminated, according to reports on Friday

Okay. So they issued a statement. It COULD have said something along the lines of them being disappointed over their sudden departure, but that they were ‘honored to have once again served.’ Something bland like that, which would preserve their ability to after a while find some job in conservative circles.  Instead they chose a more confrontational tone. There’s a very long passage in the linked article which I encourage you to read.  However some things such as “We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.” jump out.

I also found the part of their statement complaining they tried but were never told just what had led to them being canned was interesting.  I know I’D like to know what I’d done that got me fired. I’m sure you would too. Since these are (or were) government employees there are formal avenues they can utilize to get details.  If these guys (yep, GUYS. White males. Pete’s kind of people!) choose to avail themselves of those avenues of inquiry this could get real interesting and real fast.

The main thing is that three top Hegseth aides (will the guy who resigned under pressure to avoid the stigma of firing join in?) have chosen NOT to fall on their swords, at least for Hegseth. They are NOT going quietly into the proverbial ‘good night’ and instead are lashing out.  I’d imagine if anyone on Team Trump has a lick of sense some frantic phone calls are being made. Two kinds of calls. The first kind are the calls to the effect ‘We’ve GOT to find a way to placate these guys. NOW, before this blows up into a big effing deal.’  The second is more frantic, attempts to talk to these guys to sell them some promise that if they shut up they will be taken care of.  The question is whether these pissed off dudes will see through the “in a couple of weeks” or “soon” bullshit.

We’ll see. For the moment it seems ole Petey Hegseth decided to put on a “tough guy” show that he’s by god the boss.  What he might have actually done is instead created a sh*t bomb. That if/when it goes off will cover him with so much nasty brown organic matter that Trump will immediately order it “cleaned up.” As in dumping Hegseth.  Since these firings have nothing to do with SignalGate it actually gives Trump a perfect off-ramp to move on to someone else from Fox who looks and talks like he wants a SecDef to look and talk.  I for one would find it funny as  hell if it turns out Hegseth created the means to get himself fired, and handed it to Trump on a silver platter.

****** Zoomers, we would happily accept a small donation to defray expenses as we trek through cyberspace. It’s going to get a lot crazier, that much we can guarantee you. Thanks. Ursula ******

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