Pete Hegseth faced Pentagon revolt before the Iran ceasefire announced: insiders

If the Pakistan-brokered Iran ceasefire had not been announced shortly before Donald Trump’s deadline that included a threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would have been confronted by a revolt inside the Pentagon, according to new reporting.

That is according to MS NOW’s David Rohde, who told “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire that a handful of Pentagon lawyers were committed to refusing to approve some of the targets the White House wanted to destroy.

Speaking moments after the former Fox News personality-turned Pentagon head once again battled with reporters at a press availability, Rohde was asked about the aftermath of the ceasefire with Iran.

After noting that Vice President JD Vance was tangentially involved in ceasefire negotiations, he veered off and told Lemire, “And just my last thought: this war was a test of how we wage war as a democracy. We are a democracy. And I feel like as a journalist, that is our, that's my core belief and it's the most defining trait we have. So I completely agree with you in terms of Congress not playing a role.”

"We were going to take out all these bridges and that somehow the regime was profiting from bridges and power stations,” he continued. “You know, I had military, former military lawyers saying they were talking to current military lawyers, and these lawyers were going to resist inside. They were not going to sign off on a target list that involved war crimes.”

“And I can just tell you from embeds and my own time in the military and embeds, and the people I've known in the military, the United States military does not intentionally commit war crimes, period,” he added. “It does not engage in that kind of war fighting; That's one of our qualities as a democracy. And so this administration was testing that and flirting with that –– we have killed civilians. There's no question we've made huge mistakes in war. But I just, you know, so I don't know how we did as a democracy.”

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