For a brief period, Cuccia served as the lead Pentagon correspondent for One America News, or OAN for short, a small and fervently Trump-supporting television network, as per a report by CNN.
Cuccia, who referred to herself as a "MAGA girl," established herself as a proudly conservative voice in the typically impartial Pentagon press corps. However, Hegseth's actions against the press began to bother her.
She called the Defense Department's recent decision to bar journalists from accessing large areas of the Pentagon a "troubling shift" in a post on her personal Substack account on Tuesday. She questioned the Defense Department's justification for the limitations.
She also asked why Hegseth hasn't given any official press conferences since taking office.
She wrote, "This article isn't to serve as a tearing down" of Hegseth. "This is my attempt to preserve MAGA."
When CNN asked Cuccia about her status at the Pentagon on Thursday, she responded, "I was asked to turn in my Pentagon badge to my bureau chief." She claimed to have been fired on Friday.
Cuccia refused to respond to further inquiries. CNN asked OAN president Charles Herring if any Pentagon officials had complained to OAN about Cuccia's Substack post, but Herring did not answer.
According to her LinkedIn page, Cuccia worked in the Trump White House in 2017 and 2018 before reporting from the White House for OAN and then working as a contractor for a number of years.
Cuccia was outspoken about her MAGA credentials, whether it was through smoldering TV appearances or Instagram pictures of herself brandishing guns. Thus, her return to OAN earlier this year was a logical choice.
As part of a larger effort by the Pentagon to find pro-Trump coverage and marginalize traditional news outlets, the Defense Department in February took away NBC's long-standing office at the Pentagon and turned it over to OAN.
Cuccia was hired as the chief Pentagon correspondent when OAN unexpectedly needed to staff the Pentagon. She transformed the office area into what she dubbed a "Liberty Lounge" herself, documenting the transformation on social media, as per a report by CNN.
She quickly became doubtful of the Defense Department's interactions with the press corps, according to her Substack post. The Pentagon's top spokesman has only held one briefing since January, Cuccia noted, echoing the worries of the Pentagon Press Association, of which she claims she is not formally a member.
To her surprise, she wrote, "This Administration also locked the doors to the Pentagon Briefing room, a door that is never locked for press at the White House and a protocol that was never in place in prior Administrations."
Her Substack post of 3,000 words asked why the government was cracking down on media access.Her 3,000-word, nuanced critique of the Pentagon's press crackdown was in line with the phrase she printed on tank tops and offered for sale on Etsy last year: "Love your country, not your government."
The Defense Department's May 23 memo limiting journalists' access to certain areas of the Pentagon without a formal escort appeared to be the main catalyst for her post.
She claims she was let go for criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's press access restrictions.
Cuccia called the restrictions troubling and advocated for greater media transparency.
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