Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a fiery response to reports in the mainstream media that contradicted the claim that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “obliterated” by an audacious U.S. military strike.
He made the comments next to President Donald Trump during a media briefing at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday. Trump had said that the mission was completely successful and that it would take decades for Iran to recover the same nuclear capabilities.
‘The instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times, is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons, to try to hurt President Trump or our country.’
“There’s a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is,” Hegseth said. “These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders — the skill and the 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 accused the mainstream news outlets of being politically motivated in their reporting of the leaked assessment, which said the nuclear program had only been delayed by months, not years.
“The instinct, the instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times, is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons, to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don’t care what the troops think. They don’t care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak. Of course, we’ve all seen plenty of leakers. And what do leakers do? They have agendas. And what do they do? Do they share the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce?”
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He went on to explain that the report contradicting the president’s claim was based on a leak of an assessment that had low confidence and limited evidence.
“And when they introduce that preliminary report that is deemed to be a low assessment — you know what a low assessment means? Low confidence in the data in that report,” said Hegseth.
“And why is there low confidence? Because all of the evidence about what was just bombed by 12 30,000 pound bombs is buried under a mountain, devastated and obliterated. So 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 is obliterated, and somebody somewhere is trying to leak something to say, ‘Oh, with low confidence, we think maybe it’s moderate.’ Those that dropped the bombs precisely in the right place know exactly what happened when that exploded,” he continued.
“And you know who else knows?” Hegseth added. “Iran.”
He concluded by arguing that the fact that Iran went to the negotiation table after the strike was proof that its nuclear enriching capabilities had been significantly destroyed.
Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel has been undermined by continued strikes from both combatants. An Israel Defense Forces official has said that the operations in Iran have likely set back its nuclear programs by “years” but added that it was too early to tell completely.
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