Pete Hegseth Insults Fox News Pentagon Reporter Jennifer Griffin to Her Face: ‘You’ve Been the Worst!’
Fox News Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin was literally taken aback by Secretary Pete Hegseth telling her she has been “the worst!” when it comes to reporting on Iran nuclear facilities following Saturday’s bombing directed by President Donald Trump.
The 8 a.m. press conference was called specifically to counter reports based on leaked intelligence that Saturday’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities failed to destroy all of Iran’s capabilities. Both CNN and The New York Times had reported that intelligence assessments show Iran may be only months away from developing a nuclear warhead — directly undercutting the White House’s insistence that its strike had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
Hegseth blasted the assembled press for how they have reported on leaked intel reports and a lack of praise for Trump and his actions, which have received mainly bipartisan praise.
“Before I pass to the chairman, because you and I mean specifically you, the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard, like in your DNA and in your blood, to cheer against Trump. You want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of the strikes,” Hegseth blasted to the reporters.
As the press conference turned to questions from reporters in attendance, Hegseth took the opportunity to insult his former Fox News colleague in a manner that we rarely see in such an environment.
After Hegseth answered a question from another reporter by saying, “Nothing that I’ve seen that suggests that what we didn’t hit exactly we wanted to hit in those locations,” Griffin interjected with a follow-up and clarifying question about the highly enriched uranium that Iran has, and no one seems to know where it is seeing as Iran reportedly prepared for the strikes by moving it.
“It’s about highly enriched uranium,” Griffin noted. “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?”
“Of course, we’re watching every single aspect,” Hegseth said. “But Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.”
Griffin seemed caught off guard by the personal dig and replied, “I’ve reported on 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.”
“I appreciate you acknowledging that this was the most successful mission based on operational security that this department has done since you’ve been here and I appreciate that,” Hegseth replied. “So we’re looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where.”
Another reporter asked the Secretary of Defense why he didn’t acknowledge the female pilots who also participated in this mission. “The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys,” she noted, which Hegseth mocked.
“So when I say something like our boys and bombers, see, this is the kind of thing the press does, right?” Hegseth replied. “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 concluded. “We don’t play your little games.“
Watch above via Fox News.
