OAN chief Pentagon correspondent and former Trump White House staffer Gabrielle Cuccia, who describes herself as a “MAGA girl,” says she was fired from the unabashedly conservative cable news network for criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s restrictions on the press.
Cuccia was hired by OAN after the network took over NBC’s former Pentagon workspace and soon raised concerns about the Defense Department’s increasing limitations on journalists, including locked briefing room doors and a lack of formal press briefings.
“If you want the best case study for the death of the MAGA movement — look no further than the Department of Defense,” Cuccia wrote on her Substack. “If there’s any place where we should be asking questions, demanding transparency and applying pressure — it’s here.”
Not long after, she was seen clearing out her workspace and later confirmed her termination, which was first reported by CNN’s Reliable Sources. Cuccia called the current restrictions the “antithesis” of MAGA values, which she describes as questioning government authority first and foremost.
“This Administration, to my surprise, also locked the doors to the Pentagon Briefing room, a protocol that was never in place in prior Administrations, and a door that is never locked for press at the White House,” Cuccia wrote. Trump “welcomes the hard questions … and yes, even the dumb ones. Why won’t the Secretary of Defense do the same?”
OAN did not comment on her firing to CNN.
Cuccia says among other things, the new policies mean it’s no longer possible to approach defense officials for off-the-record conversations, as media “escorts” are the only way to freely move about areas of the Pentagon that have traditionally been open to journalists. She also said the DOD requested her questions for Hegseth – in his only press briefing so far – in advance.
“At first I thought nothing of it and figured they wanted to be prepared for their very first briefing and be able to answer questions with as much info in response as possible,” she wrote. “Unfortunately that was not the case and they responded by telling me to field my question about CECOT/Gitmo to the Department of State suggesting it wasn’t within the DoD’s purview — just days later, the SecDef did a trip to Gitmo.”
Cuccia said she’s still a “MAGA girl” and has nothing against Hegseth, per se – but apparently that wasn’t enough for OAN to keep her onboard.
“This article isn’t to serve as a tearing down of the SecDef,” she concluded. “This is me wanting to keep MAGA alive. Ask questions, debate and stay vigilant – even when it is someone on the right side of the aisle.”
The post OAN Pentagon Reporter and Self-Styled ‘MAGA Girl’ Says She Was Fired for Criticizing Pete Hegseth’s Press Restrictions appeared first on TheWrap.