Pete Hegseth’s humiliating retreat after attempting brutal public attack on old Fox News colleague

Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth ripped his former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin when she tried to ask a question about whether U.S. strikes took out Iran’s enriched uranium supply.

Hegseth, a former weekend host for Fox News before being tapped to run the Department of Defense for Trump, was openly hostile to the media during a Thursday morning press conference at the Pentagon. 

The entire briefing was seemingly held to push back on reports indicating that Operation Midnight Hammer – the name of the weekend bombing mission – was ineffective. 

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.’ 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparred with Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon briefing on Thursday

Hegseth, Griffin’s former colleague, called her ‘the worst’ and accused the journalist of misrepresenting President Trump

 Griffin swiftly fought back against the accusation, touting her reporting on the strike and saying she was the first to break news on the ventilation shaft targets

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. 

Satellite imagery showed trucks arriving at the Fordow nuclear facility just days before the strikes, leading to questions about whether the Iranians moved their enriched uranium to another location before the U.S. bombs were dropped. 

‘I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise,’ Hegseth later told another reporter. 

Multiple sources familiar with an initial battle damage assessment told CNN and the New York Times that the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities only set back the country’s nuclear program by a few months. 

‘It is preliminary,’ Hegseth said of the leaked assessment on Thursday. 

‘It points out it is not coordinated with the intelligence community at all, there is low confidence in this report, there are gaps.’ 

Hegseth was animated at times when talking about the intelligence leak covered by the press

The Pentagon boss spent considerable time pushing back on the leak, saying multiple times that the U.S. strikes were successful  

The bigger issue, according to Hegseth, is the unpatriotic media. 

‘You cheer against Trump so hard, it’s like in your DNA and blood,’ Hegseth charged the reporters 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.’

The Pentagon secretary also invoked statements from CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. 

Both intelligence chiefs put out statements on Wednesday night stating that the damage done to Iran’s nuclear sites will take ‘years’ to rebuild. 

‘CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes,’ Hegseth said. 

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