Hegseth, for his part, has still not weighed in on the firings or turmoil inside his office and has avoided situations over the last week in which he may have encountered the press. Reporters were invited to cover the defense secretary welcoming his French counterpart to the Pentagon on Thursday, but Hegseth failed to show up, sending an aide instead.
At first I thought this meant Hegseth didn't show to the meeting at all, but then I realized there was some formal protocol greeting that he avoided, probably to avoid the press.
The guys who got fired are pissed that they were slimed on the way out (whether or not they deserved it) and Pete's worried about what they'll say.
Caldwell, Selnick and Carroll wrote Saturday in a joint statement that they are “incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended” and denied leaking information.
“Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. All three of us served our country honorably in uniform — for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it,” they wrote. “At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”