A former senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who lost his job last week amid an investigation into press leaks from the Pentagon — pointed the finger in a different direction during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Dan Caldwell, who has been placed on “administrative leave,” told Carlson in the interview released Monday that the Pentagon is rife with opponents of President Donald Trump and his administration’s goals. Those are where the leaks are coming from, he said.
But there’s a “less obvious place” that’s a possibility, he suggested. And he named one name that shocked viewers who remember one of the most disgraceful episodes of the Barack Obama presidency.
Caldwell revealed that Susan Rice, the former ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, is a member of the Defense Policy Board, an advisory panel to the Defense secretary.
Uhhh? Why is Obama’s UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, still allowed at the Defense Department.
She’s on the Defense Policy Board.
Someone fire her before I wake up tomorrow.pic.twitter.com/1Q8U4YVtdH
— George (@BehizyTweets) April 22, 2025
“Now, that doesn’t mean she can go in the building and get access whenever she wants, but it means that she works with DoD employees. She can interact with them and has the credential and the affiliation with the Department of Defense,” Caldwell said.
Unfortunately, Rice’s biggest “credential” is selling a whopping lie to the American people.
After the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on an American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, Rice went on a series of Sunday talk shows to talk about the motivations of the attackers.
Should Rice be removed from the committee immediately?
With Hillary Clinton then serving as secretary of State, the Obama administration’s line was that the attack that killed a United States ambassador and three other Americans was a response to the release of a video movie that insulted the Prophet Muhammad rather than an outright terrorist act. With the 2012 election looming, Obama couldn’t afford to risk Americans thinking he was weak on terror.
Rice wasn’t the only name Caldwell dropped.
Eric Edelman, who served as national security advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney and is a close friend of the former congresswoman and fanatical Trump foe Liz Cheney is also on the board.
Michèle Flournoy, who is so well thought of in Democratic circles that she was a leading contender for the Defense secretary post in the Biden administration (losing out to former Gen. Lloyd Austin), is another member.
But it was Rice’s name — forever linked as it is with the lies the Obama White House used to bury the Benghazi attack — that set off the most alarms on social media.
Why in the name of God’s Green Earth is “SUSAN RICE” still sitting on the Defense Departments Advisory Board ???
Does anyone have a clue??? pic.twitter.com/Y1ZA0H9lf9
— Dale Phillips (@1oilmanv) April 22, 2025
The fact that Susan Rice, Colin Kahl, Michele Flournoy and other entrenched DC insiders and operatives still sit on the Defense Policy Board—which supposedly exists to advise the Secretary of Defense—is a perfect example of the deeper corruption in Washington.
Obviously, Pete… pic.twitter.com/RHCPbREP2V
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 22, 2025
“But as we sit here today, Susan Rice, Michelle Flournoy, Eric Edelman are still in good standing with the Department of Defense.”
How in the HELL are these traitors to America STILL in the D.O.D.?!?!?!?
How in the HELL do these traitors to America STILL have security… pic.twitter.com/T9kfxfqcuX— Howard Wemple (@howard_wemple) April 22, 2025
The Defense Policy Board (current membership can be found here) isn’t a power base in itself, but as an advisory panel, it can play a role in shaping Pentagon planning. In 2020, near the end of his first term, Trump purged a number of members from it.
Now, given the uproar that’s likely to ensue from Caldwell’s interview with Carlson, Trump might be doing the same at the beginning of his second term.
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