CBS News Accused Of Deceptively Editing Hegseth Interview To Reframe Israeli Influence Question

SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly accused CBS News’ “60 Minutes” Monday of editing an interview with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to make it appear like he was answering a question about Israel.

The edited segment suggested that Hegseth answered a question about Israel’s influence on the U.S. strikes against Iran. However, the full interview showed “60 Minutes” reporter Major Garrett asking Hegseth to respond to critics who accused the Iranian strikes of not being “America First.”

“You mentioned America First,” Garrett said in the unedited version. “Some who identify with that movement, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, have said from their perspective, this isn’t an America First campaign. Do you want to address that criticism?”

“All I know is, I’m in the room everyday and I see how Trump operates and what he’s putting first, and it’s America, Americans and American interests at every level,” Hegseth said. “How long should our bases be tolerating thousands of short-range ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones pointing at our bases and other people? After 47 years of Americans being targeted and killed, the men I served with in combat in Iraq coming home with no arms or legs, targeted by Iranian EFPs, thousands of Americans killed. Beirut, you want to go back? We can go back to how long, I mean, the regime itself is premised on death to America. So 47 years, thousands of missiles, and an unrelenting pursuit of nuclear ambitions.”

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The televised version indicated that Hegseth responded to whether or not Israel had influenced the U.S. to launch the strikes, with the narrator stating that critics have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging the U.S. into this conflict.

“Some normally enthusiastic supporters of the president have criticized him, suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the U.S. into a war that, to their minds, did not put American interests first,” Garrett narrated in the televised version.