‘I Find It Unacceptable’: GOP Rep. Bacon Suggests Trump Can Hegseth

Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon became the first GOP lawmaker to recommend that President Donald Trump oust Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday.

Bacon told Politico that Hegseth’s reported decision to share sensitive information about Houthi rebel attack plans with members of his family was “totally unacceptable” and that he was concerned with the Defense Secretary’s ability to lead the Pentagon. Trump is publicly standing by Hegseth despite a string of controversies related to the secretary’s leadership over the sprawling agency, arguing concerns about Hegseth’s handling of military information is “waste of time.”

“If it’s true that he had another chat with his family, about the missions against the Houthis, it’s totally unacceptable,” Bacon said, referring to a report from the New York Times that Hegseth shared sensitive military information with family members using Signal, an unclassified messaging platform. “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.”

“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 continued. “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.”