GOP Rep. Don Bacon Says ‘Amateur’ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Should Be Fired: ‘There’s A Meltdown Going On’

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) said that President Donald Trump should fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“I had concerns from the get-go because Pete Hegseth didn’t have a lot of experience,” Bacon admitted during an interview with Politico. “I like him on Fox, but does he have the experience to lead one of the largest organizations in the world? That’s a concern.”

“If it’s true that he had another [Signal] chat with his family, about the missions against the Houthis, it’s totally unacceptable,” he also stated, referring to reports this week that revealed that Hegseth shared sensitive military information regarding U.S. airstrikes in Yemen via Signal, an encrypted messaging app. “I’m not in the White House, and I’m not going to tell the White House how to manage this … but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it if I was in charge.”

Hegseth was also part of a group chat that accidentally sent Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, plans to attack Houthi militants in Yemen last month.

“Russia and China put up thousands of people to monitor all these phone calls at the very top, and the No. 1 target besides the president … would be the secretary of Defense,” Bacon mentioned. “Russia and China are all over his phone, and for him to be putting secret stuff on his phone is not right. He’s acting like he’s above the law — and that shows an amateur person.”

“It looks like there’s a meltdown going on,” the Nebraska congressman stated. “There’s a lot – a lot – of smoke coming out of the Pentagon, and I got to believe there’s some fire there somewhere.”