Hegseth vowed in a message posted to X, “to combat the dangers that leaks pose, effective immediately,” by empowering the Department of Defense’s Office of General Counsel “to request and receive all information, records, and support across the Department concerning media leak investigations.”
Don’t worry: Hegseth made sure to caption the clip partially in all-caps to, you know, let people know he apparently wasn’t playing around:
To leak sensitive national defense information is to betray our warriors and put them in danger.
That’s why the @DEPTOFWAR and @THEJUSTICEDEPT have created a joint task force to IDENTIFY AND PROSECUTE LEAKERS.
Sadly for Hegseth, his announcement to go after leakers was brutally mocked for his short memory.
Many social media users responded to Hegseth’s post on Tuesday with snark, and receipts including CNN’s Jake Tapper.
JS reached out to Hegseth for comment on the snarky responses to the post, but no one immediately responded.
Meanwhile, Goldberg, whose story in the Atlantic exposed the Defense Department’s lax security, responded to Hegseth’s post with one very telling emoji.