Fox’s Jonathan Hunt Calls Downed American Jet ‘Best-Case Scenario’ for Iran

Fox News’s Jonathan Hunt dubbed the downing of an American F-15 over Iran on Friday a “best-case scenario” for Iran’s propaganda machine.

President Trump has reportedly been briefed about the search and rescue for the two pilots who are believe to have ejected from their aircraft. Axios’s Barak Ravid wrote on X that “One of two crew members of a U.S. fighter jet that was shot down over Iran was located and rescued by U.S. special forces and the search for the second is ongoing, per Israeli official and a source with knowledge.”

Reporting from Tel Aviv Friday, Hunt said, “I can tell you that from an Iranian perspective, they are and will continue to treat this as a huge victory.”

“Just for the start, the very fact that they were able to shoot down one of these F-15s. That, they say, will demonstrate to the U.S. and to Israeli forces that they have the capability to do that, and intend to keep trying to do that, obviously,” Hunt said.

“I can tell you that Iranian TV has put out a message  — remember, Iranian TV is state TV, so it’s speaking for the government when it does this — It has put out a message offering a very large reward to anybody who captures one of those American crew members,” Hunt said, continuing:

So whether those who are in that area are sympathetic with the Iranian regime or indeed have some sympathies towards the U.S., we simply don’t know right now. We have also seen some video of what we believe are us aircraft flying in the area, presumably as part of that search and rescue mission. And we have heard on that video what appears to be small arms fire, we would assume directed at those aircraft. As Jen [Griffin] has rightly been pointing out, the video we are getting is obviously coming in by a number of sources online. We have not confirmed everything independently. But we obviously are all watching this very closely.

Hunt added, “It is a worst-case scenario, obviously for that F-15 crew. It is a best-case scenario in many ways for the Iranian propaganda arm right now.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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