Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said it's "sad but very predictable" that several top Pentagon officials and members of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's inner circle were fired last week, stirring new turmoil at the Department of Defense.

"If you look at Pete Hegseth's record, before he became secretary of Defense, it was one glaring professional and personal mistake after another, and there's no magic wand that waves over you, once you get a narrow Senate confirmation vote that turns you into a wise person," Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins in an interview Monday. "This is a sad but very predictable situation."

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The trio of fired officials — former senior adviser Dan Caldwell, former deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, a former top aide to the deputy Defense secretary —

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