Hegseth responds to blowback over Friday night Pentagon purge

BY SARAH FORTINSKY

© AP

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday defended the purge of top-level military officials amid blowback to the Friday night firings.

The firing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. CQ Brown Jr., as well as five other top defense officials, has raised alarm from Democrats and former defense officials who say the decision will have a chilling effect on military leadership, which is already bracing for mass firings of civilian employees and sweeping cuts to defense budgets.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Hegseth sought to play down the extraordinary move, saying, “There is civilian control of the military. Nothing about this is unprecedented.”

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Jeffries says Trump trying to ‘disorient’ with talk of third term, being king

BY TARA SUTER

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said President Trump is trying to “disorient” by talking about a third term and being a king.

“Donald Trump made repeated comments this week about possibly serving a third term, calling himself a king in a social media post. Do you take that seriously, or do you think he’s just trolling people trying to get them upset?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Jeffries on “State of the Union.”

Jeffries responded that the president “is intentionally unleashing extremism and outrageous things on the American people to try to disorient everyday Americans,” 

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Bessent says US-Ukraine deal has ‘implicit’ economic security guarantee

BY TARA SUTER

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that a U.S.-Ukraine deal featuring “strategic minerals, energy and state-owned enterprises” has an “implicit” economic security guarantee.

“This deal is part of President Trump’s long-arc negotiating strategy for peace between Ukraine and Russia, and … let the Ukrainians get back … to … a peaceful existence,” Bessent told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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Kinzinger: Musk’s chainsaw moment will feature in Democratic attack ads

BY TARA SUTER

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on Sunday that tech billionaire Elon Musk’s recent moment with a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be featured in Democratic attack advertisements in coming campaigns.

“Elon Musk smiling and giggling on the stage of CPAC with a chainsaw, that is gonna come back in every commercial against every Republican candidate about, ‘Yeah, you didn’t get your Social Security check on time?’ or, ‘You know veterans that have taken their own life? This guy was laughing about it on the stage with a chainsaw,’” Kinzinger said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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