Pete Hegseth arrives at the U.S. Capitol to brief congressional leadership. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
On Monday, just three days after Donald Trump ordered U.S. military forces to carry out a stunning operation in Venezuela and seize its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth embarked on what the Pentagon has dubbed the “Arsenal of Freedom Tour,” a multi-state swing aimed at promoting the country’s defense industrial base. Previous defense secretaries, of course, would typically travel with members of the national press. But aside from the assigned television pool reporter (on Monday, that role fell to CNN), Hegseth was accompanied by a very different cast of media figures.
According to people familiar with the matter, the Pentagon extended invitations not to the established press corps, but to a collection of right-wing outlets the administration has actively sought to elevate. Invited media figures included Fox News Digital’s Morgan Philips, Lindell TV’s Heather Mullins, and The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood. One invited figure, John Konrad of the niche maritime outlet GCaptain—a member of what the Pentagon has dubbed its “new” press corps—made little effort to conceal his admiration for Hegseth, publicly gushing about him in multiple social media posts and volunteering, “I voted so hard for this 🇺🇸.”
And Konrad went even further. According to people familiar with the matter, he was overheard…
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Tony Dokoupil anchors the "CBS Evening News." (Screen grab via SnapStream)
Dokoupil’s Debut: Tony Dokoupil on Monday made his official debut as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," just days after being panned for vowing to be "more accountable and more transparent" than the legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite. Outside the political shadow cast by David Ellison and Bari Weiss in which the broadcast aired, technical gremlins marred the program. An embarrassing on-screen error led to confusion over which segment the anchor was supposed to be presenting—causing Dokoupil to get quite flustered and concede to “big problems here” on the first day. And somehow Dokoupil found time to…
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