Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth believes the media has not treated President Donald Trump fairly and even “cheer against Trump so hard.”
Those were the words Hegseth shared as part of his press conference Thursday morning. The press conference was scheduled to discuss the leaked intelligence that not all of Iran’s nuclear facilities were destroyed in the U.S. attack on Saturday, Mediaite reported.
CNN and The New York Times both reported Iran could only be months away from developing a nuclear warhead, whereas the Trump administration said it “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
“Before I pass to the chairman, because you and I mean specifically you, the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard, like in your DNA and in your blood, to cheer against Trump. You want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of the strikes,” Hegseth said.
“You have to hope they were not effective,” he added. “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 public mind over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.”
“How many stories have been written about how hard it is to, I don’t know, fly a plane for 36 hours? Has MSNBC done that story? Has Fox?” he asked rhetorically. “Have we done the story how hard that is? Have we down it two or three times? So that American people understand how about how difficult it is to shoot a drone from an F-15 or 16 or F-22 or F35? Or what it’s like to man a Patriot battery. Or how hard it is to refuel midair, giving the American people an understanding of how complex and sophisticated this mission really was?”
He said the media has undermined the troops that carried out the attacks because of its reporting.
“There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn’t successful. It’s irresponsible. Folks in this room are privy to that information because of the proximity here in the Pentagon,” he added. “It’s an important responsibility.”
“And time and time again, classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad,” he said. “And what’s really happening is you’re undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots and incredible F-35 pilots and incredible refuelers and incredible air defenders who accomplished their mission, set back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed.”
“How about we celebrate that? How about talk about how special America is, that only we have these capabilities? I think it’s too much to ask, unfortunately, for the fake news, so we’re used to that,” he said.
“But we also have an opportunity to stand at the podium and read the truth of what’s happening. And the reality is you want to call it destroyed, you want call it defeated, you want to call obliterated, choose your word,” Hegseth added.
He said this is something that should be celebrated.
“This was an historically successful attack. We should celebrate it as Americans, and it gives us a chance. To have peace, chance to have a deal, and an opportunity to prevent a nuclear Iran, which is something President Trump talked about for 20 years and no other presidents had the courage to actually do.”
