OAN Pentagon Reporter Fired After Criticizing Hegseth

A pro-MAGA reporter who criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's treatment of the press at the Pentagon lost her job after speaking out.

Gabrielle Cuccia is a proud 'MAGA girl' who has long been outspoken about her adoration of President Trump.

But while working as the chief Pentagon correspondent at pro-Trump television channel One America News, Cuccia published a tell-all article to her personal Substack channel about the pitfalls of Hegseth's leadership.

'If you want the best case study for the death of the MAGA movement — look no further than the Department of Defense,' she wrote.

'People sleep on the Pentagon. They don’t realize what’s been simmering at the bottom for weeks, months, sometimes even years.'

Cuccia had expressed concerns Hegseth was blocking media access in the wake of his Signal scandal, in which a journalist was unintentionally added to a group chat with Hegseth where he openly shared sensitive details about an impending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen.

From that moment onwards, Cuccia said Hegseth shut down crucial communication points between the press and his staff in an effort to 'reduce the opportunity for in-person inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures.'

'Think of every time you hear a journalist reference a source as “Defense Official” or something abstract… a lot of times, it’s coming from these guys,' she revealed about the Pentagon press office.

'And they are always there to provide additional context, field questions, and relay the reality of ops in an unclassified manner.'

Her article was published on Monday. By Thursday, her boss had asked her to hand in her Pentagon access badge, and on Friday she was fired, she told CNN.

Cuccia criticized Hegseth for his lack of transparency, noting he had failed to deliver press conferences and alleged his team would deliberately hide details of his schedule until it was too late for media representatives to attend.

'Over at the White House, the Administration understands the freedom of the press, and keeps the door open anyway,' she said. 'They would certainly not field questions *before* said press briefing.'

Cuccia alleged that during one press briefing, staff for Hegseth reached out to her to find out what question she would ask if she were called upon at a conference.

She told them, thinking they simply 'wanted to be prepared for their very first press briefing to answer questions with as much info in response as possible. Unfortunately that was not the case.'

'This article isn’t to serve as a tearing down of the SecDef,' she wrote. 'This is me wanting to keep MAGA alive.

'Despite my loyalty to this movement, we are killing ourselves.'

Cuccia said the power of the MAGA movement was sparked in 2015, when 'America came alive' on the back of a 'shared realization we weren't going to blindly accept our government as Bible anymore.'

Since then, she said there has been a pointed shift away from the core values of the movement.

'Somewhere along the way, we as a collective decided — if anyone ever questioned a policy or person within the MAGA movement — that they weren’t MAGA enough.

'I will always be MAGA, but consider this a love letter to what we have lost, what we must regain, and my final plea to Love Your Country, Not Your Government.'

Cuccia broke her public silence over her axing on Saturday, writing on Instagram: 'I was once told that a former peer feared I was too MAGA for the job.

'I guess I was. I guess I am.'

Prior to joining OAN, Cuccia served in the White House under Trump from 2017 to 2018.