Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Wednesday said he still has faith in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but he cautioned Hegseth might need some assistance around him after a series of damaging reports centering on his leadership emerged in recent weeks.
Cramer, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, argued Wednesday that while Hegseth has done his part in shaking up the Pentagon, he probably underestimated how difficult doing so would be, given the department’s sheer size.
He said some “institutional expertise” could help out Hegseth after multiple issues cropped up in recent weeks, headlined by his firing of three top staffers, a fourth ex-staffer saying the Pentagon is in “disarray” under his leadership and reports of a second Signal chat he used to share plans for the attack on the Houthis in Yemen with his wife and brother.
“He’s going to need some help around him. One of the things he has lacked in the early days is some real … institutional expertise in the building, and that’s part of why he’s there is to bust up the club a bit,” Cramer told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I think the monster that is the Pentagon was perhaps a bigger monster than he even thought.”
“I think he’s doing fine. I think he’s going to be an excellent secretary,” Cramer said. “But we may need to put some help around him that’s reliable, that’s stable and that’s not so contrary to him being there.”
The North Dakota Republican also told the network he views it as a positive that he is willing to let go of “close friends” in the name of boosting the Pentagon. However, he views it as a good idea to have some institutional support to help navigate his way through the department in the coming months.
“It’s not just a matter of being supportive of him. It’s the inter-agency rivalries that he’s bumping up against and that some of those people that are good friends of his are also bumping up against,” Cramer said.
“You can, on one hand, be a disruptor, and we like disruptors,” he continued. “Though at the same time, when you’re going into the belly of the beast, it doesn’t hurt to have some of the beast’s organisms on your side and to know how to maneuver the place, to navigate the landmines and some of the rich traditions — some of which serve of well and some of which that have not served us well. … It takes a mix.”
The comments come as Hegseth’s leadership has faced major questions. John Ullyot, an ex-Defense spokesperson, tore into him in an opinion piece over the weekend.
Ullyot described the past month at the department as “total chaos” and a “full-blown meltdown” adding that the claim that three staffers — senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense — were fired due to leaks was untrue.
“None of this is true,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”
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