CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings reminded his fellow panelists Thursday who were calling for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to be fired over the so-called Signalgate that the Biden administration set a very high threshold when it comes to such decisions.
First, it should be noted that Hegseth has not even been accused of making the mistake of inviting the Trump-hating Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into the Signal chat that involved a military strike against the Houthi terrorists that took place on March 15.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a staff member working for White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz made the screwup.
President Trump: “Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, it’s all a witch hunt.” pic.twitter.com/Okczb4zzLT
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 26, 2025
On Thursday, former Biden White House staffer Neera Tanden was apparently suggesting to the CNN audience that because Hegseth is in charge of the DOD, he should take the fall, even though he didn’t set up the chat that also included CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Vice President J.D. Vance, among others.
“The military requires accountability. It’s the most accountable organization. You are supposed to be accountable to higher-ups. Politics isn’t supposed to have to do with any of this, and the fact that that’s happening, that they’re just basically saying nothing to do here, is a big problem, I think, for those who believe in accountability,” she told Jennings.
Talk about opening yourself up to a counterpoint broadside: Tanden left herself wide open, and Jennings took the opportunity to state the obvious.
Do you support Pete Hegseth?
“I think Republicans aren’t interested in any lectures on accountability in the military after the Biden administration. I mean, the bar for getting rid of a Secretary of Defense is apparently pretty high. You can get 13 people killed and go AWOL and not tell the commander in chief, and that’s not a fireable offense,” Jennings said.
NEW: CNN panel lectures America on military “accountability”…
…and then melts down when Scott Jennings points out that no one was held accountable for the disaster in Afghanistan or Biden’s open border.
NEERA TANDEN: “The military requires accountability. It’s the most… pic.twitter.com/jKZhU7fwEo
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 28, 2025
Jennings was, of course, referring to the disastrous August 2021 Afghanistan pull-out that left 13 American soldiers and approximately 160 Afghan civilians dead following a suicide bombing.
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley later testified that then-President Joe Biden had set an artificial timetable to have the withdrawal complete by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that year.
He also set the parameters for the number of American troops that could be left in the country during the withdrawal, which prompted the military to give up the Bagram Air Base in favor of carrying out the final evacuation from the crowded Kabul airport.
Bro your party got 13 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and then treated their families like garbage. And not a single person was fired or held accountable. Save the hysterics please. https://t.co/0p22Kxj4bZ
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 25, 2025
Milley further said he had recommended keeping between 2,500 to 4,500 soldiers in Afghanistan to be a stabilizing force to prevent the Taliban from taking back over, which was also rejected by the administration.
The only people higher than him in the chain of commend were then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Biden. One way or the other, Austin owns the fiasco. Either he agreed with Milley but allowed the withdrawal to go forward anyway, or he sided with Biden, therefore displaying incredibly poor judgment.
If he agreed with Milley and Biden ordered him to execute what the defense secretary knew to be a flawed plan, it was his responsibility to resign, if need be, to make that point, rather than put American soldiers needlessly at risk.
Austin’s other major screwup was how he handled his prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment in late 2023 and early 2024. Neither he nor anyone at the Pentagon informed the White House after he was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1, 2024, due to complications and admitted to an intensive care unit, the Associated Press reported.
Finally, the Pentagon issued a statement on Jan. 5, 2024, about the matter. Perhaps even more troubling, Biden did not notice his secretary of defense was missing while the U.S. military conducted strikes in Iraq during this timeframe.
So Jennings is right. Whatever responsibility Hegseth may have for Signalgate, and it’s not much beyond participating in the chat, it pales in comparison to the egregious conduct by his predecessor, who faced no consequences for his conduct.
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