The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Oops! He Did It Again: Secretary Hegseth on the Defensive over Second Signal Chat
22 Apr 2025
Jen Psaki delves into the storm brewing at the Pentagon, amid a wave of firings new revelations that embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive information on another signal chat. Veteran journalist Bob Woodward reflects on Hegseth's apparent incompetency, as well as the increasingly reckless actions of an unaccountable president. Later, 25-year-old vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, David Hogg, joins to discuss his controversial new initiative to oust some Democratic incumbents, as well as the criticism he's received from fellow democrats like James Carville. Check out our social pages below:https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsakihttps://www.instagram.com/InsideWithPsaki/https://www.tiktok.com/@insidewithpsakihttps://www.msnbc.com/jen-psakihttps://bsky.app/profile/insidewithpsaki.msnbc.com
Full Episode
OK, the first thing I should tell you tonight is that Bob Woodward is here. Yes, that Bob Woodward, all the president's men, Bob Woodward, the reporter who toppled the president, Bob Woodward.
I can tell you that when you're working in government and Bob Woodward's number pops up on your phone, which has happened to me, your heart rate picks up a little bit, no matter what administration you're in. And he's going to be here at the table in just a few minutes.
But first, I want to show you something he said the last time we spoke, because it was right after the election, just a few weeks after. And one of the things we talked about was the glaring incompetence of the people Donald Trump was picking for his cabinet. People like Pete Hexeth.
I have known, over the reporting time I've had for five decades, 16 secretaries of defense, going back even before I was a reporter, Robert McNamara. And they have to know management. They have to know what the responsibility is. They have to know where the levers of power are. And in this appointee, I see none of that.
Sixteen secretaries of defense. I see none of that, is what he said. And yet it didn't take an investigative mind like Bob Woodward's to know that Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense might be slightly problematic. I mean, before running the U.S.
military, he was a weekend morning show host on Fox News with a reputation for going years without washing his hands, which, by the way, is his admission, just to make it even weirder. And no shade to cable news hosts, obviously, even ones who get a little crazy on New Year's Eve, you can see there. It's not a job that exactly prepares you to run the Pentagon as your next step.
There were also the countless allegations of Hegseth drinking on the job, both at veterans organizations and at Fox News. The New Yorker reported he once got so drunk that he had to be restrained from getting on a stage at a Louisiana strip club. There were the allegations that he ran those relatively small veterans organizations into the ground financially.
And of course, there were the allegations about his abuse of women, including his second wife. He denied all of it, of course, but yeah, it's safe to say there were some signs that maybe this guy wasn't exactly fit for the job of overseeing the Defense Department. And so when we saw this headline at the end of March, it was one of those things that was both shocking but kind of unsurprising.
And the very first paragraph of Jeffrey Goldberg's story was, again, both shocking but entirely unsurprising in a lot of ways. I mean, here's what it said, quote, The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time on March 15th that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming.
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