ABC News host Sunny Hostin tripped over several of former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s glaring shortcomings and strategic blunders in her efforts to trash current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over a Signal chat group that accidentally included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Hostin declared on Thursday’s broadcast of “The View” that nothing akin to the Signal chat mishap had happened while Austin was leading the Pentagon, and argued that was just proof that she had been right when she claimed Hegseth was “unqualified” to lead America’s military.
WATCH:
Sunny Hostin claims nothing like this happened under former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's watch. She ignored how his incompetence led to 13 service members killed at Abbey Gate.
She also boasted about disgraced former Secret Service boss Kimberly Cheatle resigning after the… pic.twitter.com/ej5bzE4ZJG— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 27, 2025
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“You know, the thing is we all knew that Hegseth was unqualified for this job and he replaced a four-star general with over 40 years of experience, Lloyd Austin,” Hostin began. “And this would not have happened and did not happen on Lloyd Austin’s watch.”
“But what I will say is, to your question initially, Whoopi, these people need to be fired,” Hostin added. “They need to be held accountable. I remember when, following the July 13th rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when there was an assassination attempt on the president’s life, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said, ‘The buck stops with me,’ and she resigned. She resigned. She didn’t put it on anyone else.”
“Pete Hegseth is the person that is responsible — yeah — he’s the person, as the Secretary of Defense, he is responsible for everything,” she continued. “It was his decision to use that group chat to type out this highly sensitive information.”
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Hostin failed to mention the fact that Austin was the one in charge when American troops were ordered to abandon Bagram Air Base — which could have been more easily defended — and funnel all military and civilian evacuations through the congested streets of Kabul and Hamid Karzai International Airport. That decision left Americans and Afghans alike vulnerable when a suicide bomber attacked near Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021, killing 13 U.S. service members and some 160 civilians — and wounding hundreds more. Not one person in the Biden administration has been held responsible for that — but Hegseth and his team have promised that “accountability will be coming.”
Hostin also left out the fact that Austin effectively went AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave) for days, leaving a subordinate in charge while he was hospitalized, but failing to apprise the chain of command — namely the White House — of his situation.
