04 17 25 POLITICO' Jack Detsch on Pentagon officials placed on administrative leave

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Colorado's Morning News Chad Bauer and four Gena today alongside
Marty Lenz Colin Carrol, the Chief of Staff or Deputy
Secretary of Defense, Stephen Feinberg, was placed on administrative leave
and relative in relation to the Defense Department's leak investigation.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
And this follows two top advisors to Defense Secretary Pete
Hegsets being placed on leave as well and escorted from
the Pentagon this past Tuesday. Political defense reporter Jack Debts
joins us now in the ka Common Spirit Health Hotline. Jack,
you recently wrote an article about this. What is the latest?
What do we know at this point?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
So the leak's under investigation. That are being probes. That
led to some of these dismissals this week include the
leaks to NBC on the operational plans for the Panama Canal,
the appearance of the second Red Carrier showing up in
the Red Sea. Of course, Elon Musk's controversial visit to

(00:53):
the Pentagon as well, and the intelligence pause to Ukraine.
So that's the official reason. Unofficially, we do see some
infighting around the Secretary of Defense which may be leading
to this as well. Just some rivalries within the Pentagon
between people who see themselves perhaps more in the restraint
minded camp of Trump's foreign policy, the people who are

(01:16):
trying to avoid foreign wars, and perhaps those within Hegseth's
camp and within the Secretary of Defense, the Office of
the Secretary of Defense that are a little bit more
risk minded when it comes to foreign policy and getting
America involved in perhaps a little bit more military entanglements.

(01:37):
So you see, at the same time as this investigation
is going on, some rivalries and some teams shaping up
within the Pentagon.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Jack these people have been placed on administrative leaves. Did
this just the initial step towards firing them?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
It seems unlikely at this point that any of these
folks would be coming back, at least in the short term.
They are on administrative leave, their security clearances have been suspended.
All three of these officials, Colin Carroll the latest, the
chief of Staff, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and
of course Dan Caldwell and Darren Selnik, two top advisors

(02:16):
to Pete's Pete Hegseth. We're all marched out of the
building in the last couple of days. And then you
have a fourth official, not related to this investigation, but
a former spokesperson for the Defense Department who also resigned
this week. So you see a lot of people in
NAS kind of leaving the Defense Department, and I think
this is raising questions about where the direction is going

(02:39):
to be going, but unlikely that we'll see these people
back in the building anytime soon. Jack.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
It seems like felty is the kwan of the Trump
administration in relationships and whether you're loyal. So am I
to understand that these aides, who I would assume are
picked by heg Seth and his team were picked for loyalty,
But there's some divide in the philosophy about the Defense
Department and in those actions.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
These were certainly all people sort of close to hag
Seth within his camp. Click and Dan called well two
people who worked closely with hag Seth at Concerned Veterans
for America, the nonprofit that he ran before coming to
Fox News, and then the Defense Department. So these are
people that had known Hagseth for some time. And it's

(03:24):
not clear whether the relationship went south or whether this
is all on the investigation, but seems pretty clear their
their rivalries forming up around haig Seth and simultaneously, you
have this type of environment, as you said, Marty, word
loyalties is somewhat of the coin of the realm, and

(03:45):
people trying to prove themselves within Trump administration agencies, within
the Whitehouse that they're the most loyal, and you do
see people getting caught in the crossfire at that Jack.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
What are Democrats saying about these this administration leave and
these leaks.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, we had already seen, of course, Democrats, top Democrats,
including all the way up to House Minority Leader a
team Jeffries, calling for Hagseth to resign after, of course,
he shared sensitive details of US military operations in a
signal chat that, of course was published in the Atlantic
last month. Now we see some of those calls re upped,

(04:27):
Representative Daniel Goldman of New York saying this week that
Hagseth never should have been appointed and now is national
security threat and should resign. We've seen a little bit
more limited response from Democrats beyond that, but certainly some
more frustration and venting in a Democratic camp about these
sort of own goals, and that this is tied to

(04:50):
leaks again just raises concerns among Democrats that perhaps the
Trump administration not being very careful with national security information.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Final question is Pete Hegseth commented, and more importantly, as
President Trump said anything about this or is he aware
about any of this?

Speaker 3 (05:08):
No, neither neither have commented yet. Of course Hegseth aware
of this. This is happening right in the center of
his office. Not clear that Trump is necessarily aware of this.
But these are people, of course, with links across the administration.
Some of the people like called Well and top advisors

(05:30):
to the secretary also have links to jd. Vance. So
we'll see if there's more to come and more frustration
within the administration about what's gone on.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Litico Defense reporter Jack Detch thanks so much for your time,
and if you want to read Jack's latest article about this,
you can find it on politico dot com.