Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took direct aim at major media outlets during a forceful appearance at the NATO Summit, accusing reporters of downplaying and poor-mouthing the US military’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. He called them out for their anti-Trump bias.
Standing before a global press corps at a Pentagon briefing connected to the summit, Hegseth lashed out at CNN, The New York Times, and other outlets for what he described as manipulative reporting.
The criticism centered on leaked excerpts of a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment suggesting the strikes may have only delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by several months.
“Yeah, there’s a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is,” Hegseth said, dismissing the coverage as irresponsible and politically motivated. “The instinct of CNN, the New York Times, is to spin it, to try to hurt President Trump or our country.”
“I’m looking at [the DIA report] right now … it was preliminary, a day and a half after the actual strike … There’s low confidence in this particular report. How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission? ‘The devastating US strikes on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.’ Here’s the head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency this morning, Rafael Grossi: ‘US and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran’s nuclear sites.’ The IDF’s Chief of Staff: ‘We significantly damaged the nuclear program, setting it back by years. I repeat — years,'” Hegseth said.
Hegseth, whose nomination as Defense Secretary was opposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, praised the military operation as a high-risk, high-reward success, criticizing the media for what he called a failure to acknowledge the mission’s scale and significance.
“These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders. The skill and courage it took to go into enemy territory, flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people and the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom,” Hegseth said.
Rather than celebrating the achievement, Hegseth pointed out, looking reporters in the eye, the reporters chose to focus on anonymous assessments and leaks that minimized the outcome.
“Because you, and I mean specifically you — the press corps — you cheer against Trump so hard, it’s like it’s in your DNA. You have to hope maybe they weren’t effective. Maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn’t true. So let’s take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it. Spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind the public mind over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.”
Citing evidence from post-strike assessments, Hegseth said the 12 so-called “bunker buster” bombs had destroyed key infrastructure at Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility. The results, he claimed, were conclusive.
“All of the evidence of what was just bombed by twelve 30,000-pound bombs is buried under a mountain — devastated and obliterated,” he said.
Then, closing his remarks with a line that quickly made headlines, he added: “If you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordow, you better get a big shovel and go really deep — because Iran’s nuclear program is obliterated.”
The Pentagon has not released a full after-action report on the operation, but officials confirmed it involved dozens of aircraft and coordination across multiple allied nations.
Hegseth’s message was that the mission was a success, and the media refuses to admit it.
Watch the video of the press conference at this link.
Please don’t listen to the internal reports as they haven’t enough time to complete a thorough assessment, but take our “expert” analysis that it was utter and complete destruction. It was big, beautiful, and destroyed everything they had even though we are still waiting for a final assessment. When the Trump Cabinet starts flattering him you know they are lying through their teeth.
Grab your shovel and all the talking heads on the fake news broadcast system and go find the “weapons of mass destruction” buried beneath the rubble. I am sure there will be something there if you dig deep enough.
Like in Iraq? You mean like that?
Trump finally has good people around him, and the Truth on his side. All the RINOs, Democrats, and other assorted Commies and America haters are left with lies, falsehoods and hemorrhoids. Yes, TDS produces a lot of that crap.
Well said and spot on, cheers!
“Trump finally has good people around him, and the Truth on his side.” Statements like that make my superior, critical thinking and compassionate head explode. Just to torture myself; do you Bat21 think Trump has ever lied?
I’m conservative and I love and served my country. But if you think for one minute I’m going to trust our federal government or anything they tell us, take a seat and bring a big sack lunch. We’re going to be here awhile. Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? Short term memory loss? Trust not.
“President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success.
Normandy? Hiroshima? Bin Laden Raid?
There was a saying during WWII, “loose lips sink ships” with the advent of the internet and social media secrecy is a virtually unknown commodity nowadays. Flying halfway around the world and back with a few bombers and without stopping to stop a Death to America cult by dropping a handful of bombs and averting WWIII sems like a resounding success, no? Or maybe you would prefer we keep funding terrorism like what was done under the Obama/Biden/Harris administrations.
It’s the unsupported rationale and evidence that’s concerning. Trump bombed Iran to show off his boner.
Manny,
Respectfully, with absolutely no supportive rationale and with zero evidence two or three days ago you said “reality just pulled your pants down. No ceasefire no truce, just a humiliated liar facing impeachment.” That was an entire day after the ceasefire was confirmed and after the majority of Democrats voted to not embarrass themselves by bringing articles of impeachment. While in your circles talking about boners might be what passes for informed conversation, it’s beyond juvenile and frankly boorish.
As a vet of the USAF, the work these guys did was well executed. That’s a loooong mission flying from MO to Iran, and back, and having to take on fuel multiple times- when you are tired.
As an American I think that Trump violated the US Constitution- the one I swore an oath to uphold. Art. 1, Sec. 8 gives Congress the sole authority to declare war. Our founders also warned against ‘entangling foreign alliances, sage advice ignored by generations of presidents. Our staggering US debt of $37 trillion dollars is crushing us. A military effort like this costs many hundreds of millions of dollars- money we do not have.
Iran had no doubt moved enriched uranium to multiple secure store sites, along with critical equipment. Iran knows now without a shadow of a doubt that it can no stand up to the US military using conventional means- that leaves them either with diplomacy or unconventional, asymmetric war (nukes) to fight back.
The Russians believe Iran can just buy nukes from other countries thereby defeating the overall objectives of this expensive operation.
If we had a rational president we’d acknowledge how the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 because the oil interests (like BP) did not want Iran placing its oil on the world market outside of its control. This original sin is a sticking point for Iran. Iran did not deserve this, and much of the chaos that has ensued has stemmed from this coup.
Very interesting take here. Channeling Brian Simpson, much?
Brian is a smart dude, but too sympathetic to the state sponsor of terror- Russia.
N,
Thank you for your service.
I think you should review the pertinent sections of the US Constitution regarding the respective duties of the executive and legislative branches.
You are most welcome Steve.
CNN lies? Impossible.
They are holy. Completely holy.
Hegseth could end all doubt if he released the satellite images of the actual blast. One of the pilots allegedly stated that a fireball lit up the sky which well-known MIT physicist, Ted Postol, said indicates the shaped charge did not penetrate the centrifuge, but instead detonated in the ventilation shaft which was almost certainly located hundreds of yards away and protected the main facility with blast proof doors and other protective construction and terrain. Also, the approximately 400 kilograms of enriched nuclear material reportedly located at one of these sites could easily have been removed from the site earlier by something as small as a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck according to Professor Postol. The main takeaway from this episode is that Trump bowed to Netanyahoo and bombed a sovereign country for dubious results and perhaps. unforeseen consequences to the USA. We can only hope that Trump returns to his MAGA agenda and forsakes entangling foreign alliances.
President Trump has a long history of doing exactly what he did here, if you haven’t been paying attention that’s on you. As State Department Director of Policy Planning Michael Anton put it, Trump has “no inborn inclination to isolationism or interventionism, and he is not simply a dove or a hawk.” Perhaps you’ve forgotten that President Trump is responsible for eliminate ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ notorious Quds Force Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. According to a recent CBS News poll, an astounding 94% of self-identified “MAGA” Republicans support Operation Midnight Hammer putting the extreme minority who disapprove of this action in alignment with leftists like AOC, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, and other islamic facists. Instead of supporting a regime who fully supports the ideology of “death to America” and you should rethink your ideology and get on board with supporting America First and the MAGA agenda the way that Trump does.
…had people in the media understood why a particular candidate was running for president a long time ago, and the moderator not interrupt him so much during political debates, maybe wouldn’t be where we are at today if he was elected president back then.
It’s very powerful!
Let’s look to the future!
✝️🇺🇸