‘Hold On!’: CNN Host Smacks Down Rep. Byron Donalds’ Hegseth Pivot
CNN host Sara Sidner on Wednesday hit back at Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) after he tried pivoting to a Biden administration scandal in response to questions on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial leadership.
Sidner referred to a CNN report on the chaos at the Pentagon as Hegseth deals with leaks, mass firings and further infighting — all while responding to the fallout of a second Signal chat scandal.
“Does this not bother you at all?” Sidner bluntly asked Donalds, who is President Donald Trump’s pick to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Donalds responded by claiming that Hegseth is just weeks into his job and that the Pentagon is going through a transitory phase between administrations.
He then pivoted to talk of former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s January 2024 hospitalization following surgery to treat prostate cancer. Austin and his staff kept his hospitalization secret at the time, a decision that the Pentagon later determined to have no “ill intent” but was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Nobody was saying a word when Lloyd Austin, the previous defense secretary, disappeared for a month,” Donalds claimed.
“We did say a word, we reported that story,” said Sidner of the hospitalization scandal. “Wait, hold on, Byron.”
Austin, after news of his hospitalization surfaced, said it was wrong to conceal his cancer diagnosis from Biden and the public. His duties were taken up by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks at the time.
Sidner, after summarizing the hospitalization scandal, unloaded on Donalds.
″[You think that’s] an equal thing to somebody who is giving out information to his wife, who does not have a security clearance, to his lawyer, to his brother, on a personal cell phone, on a Signal chat, which he’s already been looked at for, for doing that with a whole bunch of folks from the administration.”
She continued, “You’re equating those two things. Do you think those are the same things, and you’re OK with Pete Hegseth and what he did, but not OK with what Lloyd Austin did?”
Donalds responded, “I’m not equating those two things.”
Sidner shot back, “You just did.”
Donalds went on to argue that the hospitalization scandal was “significantly worse” than an “allegation” against Hegseth.
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