Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned early last week at one of the busiest moments for the service since the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Page A7From§Eachthe milkman edition — 2 September 2026
Army secretary who repeatedly warned White House about Hegseth is the one who resigns.
As it ran on the front
Hold on, I got this here somewhere — yeah, here it is. 'Army secretary frequently warned White House about Hegseth.' Frequently. Not once, not twice — frequently. That's the word from ABC's own sources, I underlined it twice in the notebook because it's carrying more weight than most words get asked to carry in a headline.
Now I don't know a whole lot, my wife tells me that plenty, but I know something about warnings, on account of my car. The one with the fan belt that's been making that sound since around Easter. She's got a light on the dash for exactly this situation. First time it comes on, I figure it's nothing, keep driving. Comes on again a week later — same thing, I tell myself the mechanic's just trying to drum up business. By the third or fourth time, though, something's got to give. Either I take it into the garage and get the belt looked at, or the light stops coming on because somebody finally just pulled the bulb. I keep a toolbox out there for exactly that kind of decision, and I'll tell you, in my experience, it's almost always one or the other. The problem gets fixed, or the warning gets removed. I've never once had it just go away on its own.…
…(cont) So here's what's sitting in the notebook, plain as I can lay it out for you. Fact one, dated this week: the Army secretary warned the White House about Hegseth, and did it frequently — again, not my word, that's what the sourcing says. Fact two, same week, different outlet: CBS is asking why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is resigning now. Two facts, same seven days. I've read them back to each other probably six times sitting out on the porch, trying to get them to lie down next to each other peaceful, and I'll be straight with you, they won't.
Because if a warning light keeps coming on frequently, and then one day there's no light and no fixed belt either, there's only two ways I know of that happens. Either somebody finally addressed what the light was flagging. Or somebody removed the party doing the flagging.
I'm not saying which one this is. I don't have that page — might be back in the truck, might not exist yet, I couldn't tell you. I'm just a fella with a notebook and a fan belt I still haven't replaced, and I've got two documented facts from the same week that I cannot make comfortable together no matter how many times I read them out on that porch.
So — the thing the White House was warned about, frequently, according to their own people — was that thing addressed? Or was it the person doing the warning who left instead?
Oh — say, before you get going — one more thing while I've got you. That word 'frequently' in the ABC piece — warnings that frequent, they usually leave some kind of trail, don't they, a memo, a date stamped somewhere. Is that trail sitting in a file anybody outside the building's allowed to look at, or is 'frequently' just the word six sources agreed on instead?
“They knew about Hegseth long enough to write it down more than once, and the guy who wrote it down is the one packing a box, not the guy he wrote it about. That's not an oversight, that's a personnel decision. Watch who clears their desk next time somebody frequently warns anybody around here.”
“Every administration has internal disagreements, that doesn't mean — look, the Secretary's resignation has been in the works for personal reasons unrelated to any memos, that's what the sources say, though I suppose 'sources' is doing some work in that sentence too.”
The receipts
U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation Monday after months of friction with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. CBS News' Eleanor Watson has more.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.