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.
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.