Bad Signal: Can Secretary Hegseth be Trusted at the Pentagon?

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

NBC News

News, Politics

4.5 • 664 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amid the fallout from the Trump’s administration’s self-induced security breach, Jen Psaki breaks down why the looming questions about Pete Hegseth’s judgement and character have only grown in the last week. Senator Amy Klobuchar addresses Hegseth’s competence and reacts to the latest in the Signalgate scandal, and Representative Pat Ryan joins to discuss the various ways the administration has attempted to spin their wrongdoing. Journalist Kara Swisher joins Jen to discuss Elon Musk’s aggressive campaigning for Republican control of the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin. Jen breaks down the various state and local races that seem to be breaking more favorably toward Democrats and Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow joins to talk about organizing at the grassroots level.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, today Donald Trump did what he often does when he is trying to change the subject.
0:13.7	He picked up the phone and called a reporter and said a lot of things.
0:19.0	This morning, the reporter on the other end of the phone was NBC's Christian Walker.
0:22.8	And during that call, Trump said he's pissed off at Vladimir Putin.
0:27.3	Okay.
0:28.1	And then he might impose 25% tariffs on Russian oil if they can't reach a deal with Ukraine.
0:32.5	What does that deal look like?
0:33.6	That's a whole question.
0:34.9	He also threatened to bomb Iran if they don't agree to a nuclear deal.
0:38.3	And again, Donald Trump says a lot of things. We've all been following this for a decade now.
0:43.3	He likes to sound tough. He likes to put threats out there. And right now, he definitely wants us to be talking about
0:49.3	anything other than the scandal that engulfed his administration all week long.
0:53.3	Trump also told Kristen, with a two-word, I do, that he still has confidence other than the scandal that engulfed his administration all week long.
0:59.1	Trump also told Kristen, with a two-word, I do, that he still has confidence in his national security team, even after they included a reporter on a group chat that more importantly was
1:03.5	about imminent war plans. He said the signal controversy was, a witch hunt, his favorite go-to
1:10.3	phrase.
1:12.4	Nothing to see here, of course.
1:16.3	The thing is, he's definitely in the minority on that one.
1:20.8	Because in a brand new poll, I bet you he may have seen from CBS News out this morning,
1:24.6	a full 75% of Americans said this issue is serious.
1:27.0	Of course it is. It is serious. But here's the thing I keep coming back
1:29.4	to. Should we really be surprised about all of this? Because even before he accidentally
	...

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