Reporters carry their belongings from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on October 15, 2025 after U.S. and international news outlets including The New York Times, AP, AFP and Fox News declined to sign new restrictive Pentagon media rules, and were stripped of their press access credentials.
For years, the Department of Defense - one of the most important, scrutinized and reported-on departments in our government - has been covered extensively by reporters from inside the Pentagon. This included journalists from some of the most respected and accomplished news outlets in the business, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, just to name a few.
Last week, I caught wind that House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with several top House Republican leaders, had held an exclusive press briefing about the government shutdown that was restricted to "new media." The contents of the meeting were published as a "scoop" by the Washington Reporter - a Congress-focused publication founded by several GOP operatives that'd been established as a Punchbowl for conservatives - which described the call as "set[ting] the record straight" and
How long after the initial episode where you made the comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Monday episode, did you realize there was a problem?
But two sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News on Monday that Chell is now finalizing his retirement plans. The sources said he plans to seek a disability pension that would provide him with a tax-free, lifetime benefit equal to 75% of his salary. He's applying for the disability pension because of an ankle injury he sustained on Randalls Island while on duty last year, the sources added.
Almost immediately, numerous right-wing commentators and news outlets were very willing to speculate that, given the timing, the shooter must have been trans. Within the hour, former congressman and Fox commentator Jason Chaffetz, giving an "eyewitness account" of the scene, said: "I don't think it was a coincidence that the shot rang out when you have a question about transgender mass shootings. Hopefully I am wrong. I will probably get criticized for jumping to conclusions. ... I don't think that is a coincidence, but we will see."