Sec. Hegseth: Media 'Breathlessly' Used Early Report to Undermine Trump

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, during a Thursday morning news conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, scolded members of the media for focusing on an early assessment indicating that strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites may not have been as devastating as President Donald Trump and the administration had reported.

The report, Hegseth said, had not been coordinated with other agencies in the intelligence community and pointed out that other assessments showed a different picture of the damages to the sites hit in last weekend's "Operation Midnight Hammer."

But, he said, the media has "breathlessly" reported about the assessment in its zeal to undermine Trump.

"President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12-day war," Hegseth said. "Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities."

"It's preliminary," he said. "It points out that it's not been coordinated with the intelligence community at all. There's low confidence in this particular report."

And, as the report itself, said there are gaps in its information, which meant the media's reports were "predicated on a linchpin assumption," Hegseth said.

"If you're wrong, everything else is wrong, and still, this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage," he said.

But the report, Hegseth said, was "leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful," said Hegseth. "The DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] that put that report out says this is a preliminary low-confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available."

He questioned why other quotes didn't make their way into coverage from The New York Times, Washington Post, or other outlets.

"How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission: 'The devastating U.S. strikes on Fordo destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable?'" said Hegseth. "How about this one? This is a new one from the U.N., the United Nations, no friend of the United States, or certainly Israel."

Further, he said, "Here's the head of the U.N. Atomic Energy Agency this morning, Rafael Grossi: 'U.S. and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's nuclear sites.' Don't take my word for it. How about the IDF's chief of staff? 'I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, setting it back by years.'"

Hegseth added that CIA Director John Ratcliff has also reported that the agency can confirm that a "'body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes.'"

Further, he said, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Wednesday that "'new intelligence confirms what POTUS has stated numerous times. Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed.'"

"Time and time again, I can go down the list," said Hegseth.

But, Hegseth said, the press corps wants to "cheer against Trump so hard," including "against the efficacy of these strikes."

"So let's take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it," he argued. "Spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful."

He further asked why there were no stories done to outline "what our brave men and women did."

Hegseth also noted that Trump, who is at the NATO summit, accomplished a "game-changing" and historic shift in burden sharing to Europe, adding that 32 NATO countries have committed to spending 5% of their GDP on defense.

"We're here this morning because in hunting for scandals all the time in trying to find wedges and spin stories, this press corps and the press corps miss historic moments," he said.