Jimmy Kimmel slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for hypocrisy over a scandal where a journalist was mistakenly added to a group chat with top officials discussing highly classified military information.
“He’s caught red-handed. He texted sensitive info to a reporter,” Kimmel said. “So what does he do? He blames the reporter!”
Hegseth had attacked the journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, calling him “deceitful and highly discredited” and “a guy that peddles in garbage.”
Kimmel tore into Hegseth with a brutal analogy.
“This is like — and I know Pete can relate to this — it’s like getting drunk, driving into a lamppost, and blaming the lamppost,” Kimmel said.
The late-night host also reminded viewers of Hegseth’s past comments on mishandling classified info, especially when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced similar accusations.
“If it was anyone other than Hillary Clinton, they would be in jail right now for what has been done,” Hegseth said on Fox News years ago. “Because the assumption in the intelligence community is if you are using unclassified means, foreign governments are likely targeting those accounts and gathering intelligence from them.”
“Very well said,” Kimmel fired back. “Case closed.”
Then, imagining how Clinton might respond today, Kimmel quipped, “I bet Hillary is walking around the woods laughing her ass off. Lock them up! Lock them up!”
Catch more of his thoughts from Tuesday night’s monologue.
