US President Donald Trump is not considering firing Pete Hegseth as Pentagon chief, US Vice President Jay D. Vance said in an interview with Fox News.
"Pete Hegseth is safe. And I think the cabinet members are doing a great job, especially Pete", he said, when asked about the possible resignation of Hegseth, who was involved in the leak of classified data on US military strikes in Yemen to the messaging app Signal.
„I think the most underrated person is Pete Hegseth, and the great job he's doing“, Vance added. He said that "the secretary's leadership style has inspired many people to join the country's armed forces," which has led to overfulfillment of plans.
Earlier, the Associated Press reported that Hegseth's office at the Pentagon was equipped with an unsecured Internet access point, bypassing security protocols established by the Department of Defense. The minister accessed the Internet through an unsecured channel to use Signal.
Earlier, The Washington Post, citing its sources, reported that Hegseth had installed a messenger that was not intended for transmitting classified information on his Pentagon computer to compensate for the lack of cellular service.
On April 20, The New York Times, citing its sources, reported that on March 15, Hegseth had posted in a chat with his wife Jennifer, who is not a Pentagon employee, his brother Phil, and his personal lawyer Tim Parlator (both Pentagon employees) a schedule of flights of F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets that strike positions of the Yemeni Houthi rebels. As the publication points out, unlike the chat of US administration officials in Signal, which became the subject of a scandal, the second chat was created personally by the Pentagon chief and included about a dozen people from his closest circle. US Undersecretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell denied these reports.