Pete Hegseth's wild tantrum at media for 'overshadowing' Trump Iran strikes amid devastating leaks nukes weren't obliterated
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went ballistic on reporters at a Pentagon press conference Thursday, lashing out at reports that U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were ineffective.
The defense secretary was joined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, to tout to reporters the 'historic success' of last weekend's B-2 bombing run.
A fired-up Hegseth was also adamant that journalists in the Pentagon press corps are decidedly anti-Trump.
'You cheer against Trump so hard, it's like in your DNA and blood,' he accused the press in the room. 'You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes.'
'Your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful, it's irresponsible,' he charged.
The press conference - a rarity for Hegseth - came within days of CNN reporting that the U.S. strikes would only set back Iran 's nuclear sites by a couple of months. The report cited seven individuals briefed on a battle damage assessment done by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Iranian sites.
It directly contradicted President Donald Trump and the defense secretary's claim that the sites were destroyed - and clearly enraged the administration.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe asserted the strikes had 'severely damaged' Iran's nuclear program, according to a New York Times report, a declaration that fell far short of the president's claims of total obliteration.
When pressed on whether the strikes took out Iran's enriched uranium, Hegseth responded cagily.
'There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations,' he explained without offering further evidence that the uranium was destroyed.
He went on to lambaste CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and other outlets that reported on the preliminary report completed by an intelligence agency within the Pentagon.
Unnamed sources, who reportedly have seen the Defense Intelligence Agency report, say that the sites could be online within months. The centrifuges used to enrich uranium went undamaged and the country's stockpile of enriched uranium was possibly relocated ahead of the strikes, they said.
The DIA assessment concluded with 'low confidence' that the site sustained 'moderate to severe' damage, Hegseth told reporters at NATO on Wednesday.
The administration, Hegseth said Wednesday, believes it was 'far more likely severe and obliterated.'
Hegseth also had a notable clash with his former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin, the outlet's Pentagon correspondent, during the briefing.
Griffin, a veteran Pentagon reporter who's been with the channel for decades, asked Hegseth to clarify whether Iran's already enriched uranium was destroyed by the U.S. strikes.
'There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations,' the Pentagon secretary responded cagily.
Griffin then asked: 'That's not the question, though. It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain, or some of it?'
'There were satellite photos that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days in advance? Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?'
'Of course, we're watching every single aspect,' Hegseth responded before bizarrely turning on his old colleague. 'But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the President says.'
The veteran Pentagon reporter immediately interjected, highlighting to Hegseth how she was the first journalist to reveal how the operation targeted the nuclear facility's ventilation shafts and more.
'I was the first to report about the ventilation shafts on Saturday night, and in fact, I was the first to describe the B-2 bombers, the refueling, the entire mission, with great accuracy,' the Fox News correspondent retorted.
'So I take issue with that,' she added.
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