MSNBC Stars Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki Gush Over Fox News Reporter Hegseth Viciously Attacked
MSNBC hosts Lawrence O’Donnell and Jen Psaki lavished praise on Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin after Trump Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth viciously attacked her at a press conference.
During a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Hegseth reacted to a challenging question from Griffin by baselessly attacking her, saying “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.”
The attack drew outrage from journalists and an on-air rebuke from Fox News analyst Brit Hume.
But there were also expressions of solidarity from rival network MSNBC, including their highest-profile Democratic operatives-turned-hosts.
On Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the former Biden press secretary offered effusive support for Griffin:
The best question of the day on that reporting came from a former colleague of Secretary Hegseth, Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain, or some of it, because 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?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: That is kind of the question right now. It is the question and the satellite imagery she’s referencing from days before the U.S. strike shows a line of 16 cargo trucks. You can see it right there on the screen, lines up at the entrance to the underground nuclear site the U.S. bombed. But it’s not even just the photos, which everybody can see.
Earlier this week, two Israeli officials with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times that they had intelligence that Iran had moved nearly 900 pounds of enriched uranium from the site in the days before the attack. So, “are you certain none of the highly enriched uranium was moved?” is the question of the moment, because it tells us whether or not Iran has materials to continue pursuing a nuclear program. It was a good question. It was the right question.
And this is how Pete Hegseth answered that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?
HEGSETH: Of course, we’re watching every single aspect. But, Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: I should say, Jennifer Griffin is a tough reporter. I’ve been on the other end of that, and she’s one person who relentlessly presses every administration because that’s her job, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats in power.
It’s, of course, actually, Secretary Hegseth, who has been misrepresenting things intentionally for months now.
And on Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word, the host and former Democratic staffer slammed Hegseth as a former “paid liar for Fox,” and called Griffin the “best reporter who has ever been employed by Fox”:
HEGSETH: He doesn’t do politics. That’s my lane to understand and translate and talk about those types of things, so I can use the word obliterated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O’DONNELL: Well, he was a paid liar for Fox. So, of course, he can use any word he wants now that he’s Donald Trump’s appointed liar at the Defense Department. Pete Hegseth had a run in with the best reporter who has ever been employed by Fox today, chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
Jennifer Griffin, in her 18 years of experience covering the Pentagon, knows more about the Defense Department and its operations than Pete Hegseth might ever know.
Watch above via MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki and The Last Word.
