Former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and former Chief of Staff, Kelly Magsamen, have sparked controversy by launching a personal attack on Pete Hegseth after a fatal plane crash involving a military helicopter and an American Airlines aircraft. In a sharp rebuke, the former defense official, who helped Austin cover up his absence from the Pentagon during a health crisis in January 2024, attacked Hegseth for his comments about DEI and falsely accused him of blaming the female co-pilot, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, for the incident.
Fox News Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin first reported on Magsamen’s comments toward Hegseth, accusing him of mismanaging his first crisis as the secretary of defense under the Trump administration, adding that “so far it’s not a good sign.”
More from Magsamen’s remarks:
Secretary Hegseth has a lot to learn. When you speak as the Secretary of Defense, the entire force and their families are listening. They are looking to him for leadership and support, not suspicion. For him to imply that this pilot was not qualified because of her gender is absurd. He should be supporting a thorough unbiased investigation and supporting all three of these Army families. To add a layer of stress to this one family in their time of grief is shocking. Imagine having to worry about political attacks on your daughter while grieving. The Secretary should be showing leadership and consoling the families and overseeing an unbiased investigation. This is the first crisis he has had to manage and so far it’s not a good sign.
However, while Hegseth spoke broadly about DEI initiatives, he did not blame DEI for the deadly crash that killed all sixty-four passengers and crew onboard the American Airlines plane, as well as the three crew members on the Black Hawk. Instead, he said the crew members were “fairly experienced.”
VIDEO: @SecDef Hegseth joins President Trump at the White House for a press briefing on the aviation disaster pic.twitter.com/v2kY8W1wmt
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) January 30, 2025
Hegseth has echoed President Donald Trump’s call to eliminate DEI within the workplace.
Lloyd Austin’s Chief of staff Kelly Magsamen is attacking Pete Hegseth for his handling of the helicopter crash.
Kelly covered up for Austin when he was secretly hospitalized. She also helped him oversee the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal which left 13 U.S. military members… pic.twitter.com/sVSD31ps5X
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 2, 2025
A Politico article credited Magsamen for assisting the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which resulted in the death of 13 U.S. servicemembers.
