Pete Hegseth Lashes Out at Reporter for Asking Him About Giving Credit to Female B-2 Bomber Pilot
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ridiculed a reporter who asked why he did not credit a female B-2 bomber pilot in his initial comments after a successful mission against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
It was a fiery press conference in which the Defense Secretary repeatedly lashed out at assembled members of the press for what he clearly thought was unkind coverage of the attack on Iran.
During a Sunday morning press conference following the attack, Hegseth heaped praise on President Donald Trump and the military campaign that saw six “bunker buster” bombs dropped on key nuclear sites in the country. He also casually called the B-2 pilots who dropped the 15-ton bombs on targets in Iran “our boys on those bombers,” which instantly got the Gray Lady in high dudgeon.
A live blog covering the events for the New York Times noted the gendered language and wrote, “In the briefing, Hegseth referred to B-2 pilots as ‘our boys on those bombers,’ yet both men and women have been trained to fly them.” This brought predictable ire and ridicule from conservative-leaning outlets.
Just after Hegseth insulted his former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin for being “one of the worst” to apparently not give Trump enough credit, he was asked by an unidentified female reporter about his comments.
“Why didn’t you acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission,” she asked. “The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys.”
“So when I say something like our boys and bombers — see, this is the kind of thing the press does, right?” Hegseth ridiculed. “Of course, the chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot. That’s fantastic. She’s fantastic, she’s a hero. I want more female bomber pilots. I hope the men and women of our country sign up to do such brave and audacious things.”
“But when you spin it as, because I say our boys and bombers as a common phrase, I’ll keep saying things like that, whether they’re men or women, very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots and I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit and the American people don’t care but it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities and we don’t do that anymore,” he continued. “We don’t play your little games.”
Watch above via Fox News.
