Hegseth Goes on the Offensive | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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Pete Hegseth just berated the press corps for questioning the Trump administration ... essentially calling them un-American for their reporting on the recent attack on Iran.

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00:00Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's background in the media as a talking head on Fox News.

00:06He's a host.

00:08Sure.

00:08Okay.

00:09You know, he was.

00:10He was.

00:10I know he was a host.

00:11It came in very handy, I think, this morning when he held a fiery news conference and just

00:18went scorched earth on the media.

00:21He said he was in the shower and he heard something.

00:22I heard it.

00:23I'm like, who's yelling like that?

00:24I had to stick my head out of the shower.

00:26I'm like, is that the Secretary of Defense?

00:28It sure was.

00:30Because he is infuriated about this story that has been going around for two days now.

00:35Donald Trump said that the obliterated the nuclear.

00:40And then CNN got a story about the preliminary report showing it was only going to be a delay

00:49of three to six months before they reestablished a nuclear program.

00:52Right.

00:52And he is incensed about it and went off before.

00:57By the way, I actually thought this news conference was so eye-opening.

01:01But before you got to the eye-opening part, you got the Secretary of Defense's rage.

01:06Because you, and I mean specifically you, the press, specifically you, the press corps, because

01:14you cheer against Trump so hard, it's like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against

01:20Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy

01:27of these strikes.

01:28You have to hope maybe they weren't effective.

01:31Maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn't true.

01:34So let's take half-truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it, spin it

01:43in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind over

01:49whether or not our brave pilots were successful.

01:53It's irresponsible.

01:55And folks in this room are privy to that information because of the proximity here in the Pentagon.

02:01It's an important responsibility, and time and time again, classified information is

02:06leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad.

02:10I disagree with him, but there's a part of that that I think he's right on.

02:15This preliminary report was just very crude, and they said three to six months would be

02:21a delight.

02:22Just to be clear, hold on.

02:23It was a report.

02:24It was a report.

02:25It was a report.

02:25The Pentagon generated.

02:25It was a, okay, and I'm going to get to that.

02:27Okay.

02:27And CNN got sources telling them about that, and they reported it, which is fine because

02:33that was the preliminary report.

02:35Since then, there have been other evaluations where they say the damage was severe and much

02:43more so than just three to six months.

02:45Was it obliterated?

02:46Nobody's really saying obliterated other than Donald Trump.

02:49To be clear, by the way, what we're seeing here is the actual bomb that was used, but in

02:53a test, not the actual dropping in Iran.

02:55So, look, Trump, when he said it was obliterated, maybe somebody told him that, but it was an

03:01overstatement because they still don't know exactly, but they do think it was severe, and

03:06they think it could set them back several years.

03:07A lot of the semantics about Trump.

03:09So here's where I am on board with him, that I watch CNN, and they have, when Donald Trump

03:18went after CNN and said it was irresponsible and everything else, I mean, he overstated it

03:23because they just reported what the report said.

03:26They've gotten defensive about it, and they are trying so hard, as are other media now,

03:31to just glom onto that report that they're missing sight of the fact that there wasn't

03:38a ceasefire before the bombing, and there is a ceasefire now.

03:42So, is it cause-effect?

03:44Maybe, but we're talking about the word obliterated versus whatever, as opposed to saying, let's

03:52evaluate what's going on with this ceasefire, and that's a big deal.

03:56And I hope this is not the case, but as I've watched and listened to a lot of the coverage,

03:59it almost seems like there are people who just despise Trump so much that it almost sounds

04:04like they're aligning with the Iranians and hoping that the mission failed and hoping

04:09that these facilities are not damaged, and it's like, it's not a partisan issue.

04:13It's, you know, you go from Bill Clinton to George Bush to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and

04:18now Donald Trump, everybody has said that, hey, they can't have nuclear weapons.

04:22So, I think this is something that we would all be rooting for.

04:24And I agree, look, I do agree that there are, a large part of the media does sort of root

04:29against Trump, because they may lean liberal and they're just against him.

04:33I agree with that, but you also cannot just make this blanket statement attacking reporters

04:39who are doing their jobs.

04:40The reporters are there.

04:41Their job is to hold the administration's feet to the fire on everything.

04:47They can ask the questions.

04:49Later in this news conference, by the way, there was a Fox reporter who asked a question about

04:53whether or not they're certain that the enriched uranium was not removed.

04:59And Pete Hexeth started going off on her, and she very, I love this, stood up for herself

05:04and said, I actually am the first person who did report about the pilots and about the

05:09mission and how effective it was.

05:11So, don't come, and by the way, kudos to the secretary.

05:15He fell back and said, you know what, you're right.

05:17Well, hold on back, hold on.

05:19Look, I think Hexeth's dead wrong and Trump's wrong when he says, oh, you're disrespecting pilots.

05:24They're not disrespecting pilots.

05:26They're just going into how effective the bombing was.

05:28My point is, I get it, but I watched CNN this morning.

05:32I watched early.

05:33You're talking about them defending it.

05:35But no, all they talk about now, is it obliterated?

05:38Is it six months?

05:39Is it two years?

05:41It's like, I didn't hear anything about the ceasefire.

05:44That's an unfair, believe me, I listened and watched it all this morning also.

05:49It's unfair to say that's all they talked about.

05:50I didn't hear anything about the ceasefire this morning.

05:52I watched.

05:53I watched for an hour and a half, and I didn't hear.

05:55No, you're right.

05:55They weren't talking about the ceasefire.

05:56But guess what?

05:57The news conference wasn't about the ceasefire.

06:00I'm not defending that either.

06:02The news conference.

06:03That's why I said it.

06:03I'm not taking anybody's side.

06:05The effective part of the news conference was the Joint Chiefs staff coming up there and

06:08explaining exactly what the mission did and how they trained for it and how they prepared

06:13for years.

06:14Back to 2009, he said that they'd been preparing to attack Fordham.

06:19It was an amazing mission.

06:20It was an amazing mission.

06:21And I kudos to the Secretary of Defense for yielding the stage to the Joint Chairman who

06:29actually gave us information that we needed.

06:31And this attacking the media thing is more about, you're right.

06:36You're right.

06:37But the media, everybody's to blame here.

06:39The media has gotten so defensive about this that they're just obsessed with it and not

06:45talking about the big issue, which is, is this ceasefire going to hold?

06:48You have the administration attacking a reporter for asking a valid question about the uranium.

06:53You're right.

06:54You're right.

06:54So why are you attacking this person for doing their job?

06:58I mean, because those questions need to be asked.

07:00Jump on the Harvey train here and say and then take a third position on this.

07:04That's all I'm saying.

07:05The Harvey position, which is what?

07:06Everybody's wrong?

07:07I think everybody is wrong.

07:09The media has gotten too defensive.

07:10Trump's wrong when he said obliterated.

07:12They're not trying to attack the pilots, the media, and the media isn't trying to undermine

07:17Trump, but they've taken their eye off the ball, which is the bigger issue, which is the

07:21ceasefire.

07:22This is Clay from Atlanta, Georgia.

07:24It's one thing to misrepresent the facts as a pundit.

07:26It's another when you're secretary of defense.

07:29Hegs' dismissal of leaked intel and his attacks on the press show he's less concerned with

07:34the truth than with protecting a narrative.

07:36And that puts real lives at risk.

07:38The day before yesterday, there was a lot of reporting about the about the ceasefire.

07:43And today there wasn't because the administration came in guns blazing saying, all right, we're

07:49going to go after you for talking about this.

07:51I watched from 5 to 6.30 yesterday, and it was all about three months, six months, permanent.

07:58That's all it was.

08:00I mean, I watched yesterday.

08:01I want to hear about the seats.

08:02When are you working in Love Island into all this when you're right at it so much?

08:06At 6.30.

08:07And then I go to bed when I finish Love Island.

08:09Okay.

08:13Bye.

08:14Bye.

Hegseth Goes on the Offensive | TMZ Live

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