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00:00Let's cross to Washington. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is speaking.
00:05Never before has a modern, capable military, which Iran used to have, been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective,
00:15devastated.
00:16We said it would not be a fair fight, and it has not been.
00:19As I stated during our first press conference on day two, that was 10 short days ago, the combination of
00:26the world's two most powerful air forces is unprecedented and unbeatable.
00:32Between our air force and that of the Israelis, over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck.
00:39That's well over 1,000 a day.
00:42No other combination of countries in the world can do that.
00:45So today, as we speak, we fly over the top of Iran and Tehran, fighters and bombers all day picking
00:55targets as they choose, as our intelligence gets better and better and more refined.
01:02Looking up, the IRGC and Iranian regime sees only two things on the side of aircraft, the Stars and Stripes
01:11and the Star of David.
01:13The evil regime's worst nightmare.
01:18Iran has no air defenses.
01:21Iran has no air force.
01:23Iran has no navy.
01:24Their missiles, their missile launchers and drones being destroyed or shot out of the sky.
01:29Their missile volume is down 90 percent.
01:32Their one-way attack drones yesterday, down 95 percent.
01:38And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz.
01:45Something we're dealing with.
01:47We have been dealing with it.
01:48And don't need to worry about it.
01:50Iran plans to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen
02:00before.
02:01But it's not just that Iran doesn't have a functioning air force or that their entire navy is at the
02:07bottom of the Persian Gulf or their missile force is shrinking daily.
02:12Even more importantly, they also don't have the ability to build more.
02:16That's the most important component I'd like to emphasize today.
02:21Soon and very soon, all of Iran's defense companies will be destroyed.
02:27For example, as of two days ago, Iran's entire ballistic missile production capacity, every company that builds every component of
02:35those missiles has been functionally defeated, destroyed.
02:39Buildings, complexes and factory lines all across Iran destroyed.
02:44So we're shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly, ensuring that they have
02:51no ability to make more.
02:53Their production lines, their military plants, their defense innovation centers defeated.
03:01Iran's leadership is in no better shape.
03:05Desperate and hiding, they've gone underground, cowering.
03:09That's what rats do.
03:12We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured.
03:19He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video.
03:26It was a written statement.
03:29He called for unity.
03:31Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity.
03:36Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders.
03:39Why a written statement?
03:41I think you know why.
03:43His father, dead.
03:45He's scared.
03:47He's injured.
03:47He's on the run and he lacks legitimacy.
03:49It's a mess for them.
03:51Who's in charge?
03:53Iran may not even know.
03:56With every passing hour, we know and we know they know that the military capabilities of their evil regime are
04:03crumbling.
04:04They can barely communicate, let alone coordinate.
04:07They're confused and we know it.
04:09Our response, we will keep pressing, we will keep pushing, keep advancing.
04:15No quarter, no mercy for our enemies.
04:20Yet some in this crew, in the press, just can't stop.
04:24Allow me to make a few suggestions.
04:27People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines.
04:31I used to be in that business.
04:33And I know that everything is written intentionally.
04:36For example, a banner or a headline,
04:39Mideast war intensifies, splashing on the screen the last couple of days,
04:44alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit because that's what they do.
04:50What should the banner read instead?
04:53How about Iran increasingly desperate?
04:56Because they are.
04:58They know it and so do you.
05:00If it can be admitted or more fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war's
05:10impact on the Strait of Hormuz.
05:13Patently ridiculous, of course.
05:15For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
05:18This is always what they do.
05:20Hold the Strait hostage.
05:23CNN doesn't think we thought of that.
05:25But it's a fundamentally unserious report.
05:29The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.
05:34Another example of a fake headline that I saw yesterday.
05:38War widening.
05:40Here's a real headline for you for an actual patriotic press.
05:45How about Iran shrinking, going underground?
05:48You see, Iran's leaders are hiding in bunkers and moving into civilian areas.
05:52The only thing that is widening is our advantage.
05:57Not to mention our golf partners stepping up even more now going on the offense.
06:02And have always been with us on the defense with collective and integrated air defenses.
06:09Our will, it is unshakable.
06:13Our options, maximized.
06:16And our capabilities still building.
06:18We're going up.
06:20They're going down.
06:21Now, as I said from the start, President Trump holds the cards.
06:26He'll determine the pace, the tempo, and the timing of this conflict.
06:30His hand firmly on the wheel, as well as on the throttle setting.
06:36America first, peace through strength in action.
06:40From day one, as our nation expects and the president demands, our warriors have fought with lethality, precision, and rapid
06:47innovation.
06:49In fact, today will be, yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of
06:55Iran and Tehran.
06:56The number of sorties and number of bomber pulses, the highest yet, ramping up and only up.
07:02And quantity has a quality of its own as we continue to ramp up.
07:06Every tool of AI, of cyber, of space, EW, counter-UAS, you name it, we're employing it.
07:12Blinding, confusing, and deceiving our enemy.
07:17Because we know who the good guys are here.
07:21And the American people do, too.
07:23And that makes my job simple.
07:26I serve God, the troops, the country, the Constitution, and the president of the United States.
07:32And answer only to those.
07:35All in service of victory on the battlefield.
07:39And the military objectives that we've laid out from day one.
07:43Defeat the missiles, missile launchers, and defense industrial base, which I laid out today.
07:48Defeat the Navy.
07:50And deny Iran the ability to have a nuclear weapon.
07:53Clear, decisive, achievable.
07:57And Admiral Cooper knows, the SEMCOM commander who we spent a couple of hours with last night,
08:02that in pursuit of those objectives, we have his back in every way.
08:07His commanders know that.
08:08And so do the troops in harm's way.
08:10Admiral Cooper gets what he needs.
08:12The assets, the authorities, the munitions, you name it.
08:15We will stop at nothing to win.
08:19War is hell.
08:21War is chaos.
08:23And as we saw yesterday with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker,
08:29bad things can happen.
08:31American heroes.
08:33All of them.
08:35And as I have with all of them, as we have, we will greet those heroes at Dover.
08:41And their sacrifice will only recommit us to the resolve of this mission.
08:46But war in this context and in pursuit of peace is necessary.
08:51Which is why each day on bended knee, we continue to appeal to heaven.
08:55To almighty God's providence.
08:57To watch over and give special skill and confidence to our leaders.
09:00And to our warriors.
09:02To those warriors who this nation prays for every single day.
09:07I hear from all of you out there.
09:08Who pray for them every day.
09:11Stay on bended knee and pray for them.
09:13I continue to say to them, Godspeed.
09:16May the Lord bless you and keep you.
09:18And keep going.
09:20Mr. Chairman, over to you.
09:21Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
09:22And good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
09:23And thank you for joining us today.
09:26Before I start with an update, I also want to address the tragic loss of our KC-135 refueling aircraft
09:32yesterday.
09:33The incident occurred over friendly territory.
09:35We just listened to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, giving an update 10 days after the initial
09:41press conference happened amid this war in the Middle East.
09:45Joining me on the set is our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.
09:48Hello to you, Doug.
09:49Press conference began with an update on the targets, saying that U.S.-Israeli airstrikes had targeted 15,000 different targets.
09:58It had said that all of Iran's defense companies will soon be destroyed.
10:03And Hegseth also pledging no mercy in continuing the offensive.
10:09Yeah.
10:09Let's remind our viewers, this is the third, I believe, press conference since the war began that Pete Hegseth has
10:16given.
10:16In all of those cases, his tone has been one of American jingoism, chest-thumping, bombastic, and I could use
10:27the word smug.
10:28His ethos has been explicitly, he has said it, no apologies and no hesitation.
10:34He has been accused by his critics in this war, in this engagement, and in previous instances of dialing down
10:42what's called the rules of engagement for the U.S. military.
10:46And what that means is in previous administrations, whether Democrat or Republican, there have been – America has sort of
10:54prided itself on having these rules of engagement, which mean that before you strike, before you launch an operation that
11:00could potentially cause so-called, euphemistically, collateral damage, you have to vet, you have to identify, you have to have
11:07an extremely high level of confidence.
11:09That the target you're hitting is not – is a military target, not a civilian target.
11:15So he's been very much – the context here is he comes to this latest press conference with the war
11:20intensifying, even though he took very sharp issue with that headline and even called out, chewed out the U.S.
11:27news outlet CNN, which reported it.
11:29But it's not the only one.
11:30The war has been intensifying.
11:32That's not, quote, fake news.
11:34That is a matter of fact to anyone who's followed the course of this war since the first strikes on
11:38February 28th.
11:38There has been more strikes, more lethal and more deadly strikes, and that is simply factual.
11:45So he has basically come out all trumpets blaring, swinging at his real and perceived critics, both in the press.
11:54His press is a favorite target time and again whenever he gives his press conferences.
11:59He wants to dictate not only how the war is waged but how the war is covered by a supposedly
12:05still free American press.
12:07So like I said, this was once again in that mold, William, of no apologies, no hesitation, trying to put
12:15out there what he calls his warrior ethos.
12:19It's an ethos in which the warriors have to be more manly.
12:23They're not these little shrinking violets that past administrations have tolerated with these limited rules of engagement where you have
12:31to hold up and ask questions first.
12:33He says you have to go into action and you have to be like a warrior and you have to
12:36be manly and you have to fire.
12:37Yeah, Doug, just on that note, we heard Hegseth say he answers only to God, Donald Trump and the troops.
12:44And of course, this has made a lot of concern about that strike we saw in the elementary, that all
12:49-girls school in Minerva, where over 170 people were killed.
12:53With each passing day, if not each passing hour, there is more satellite imagery, documentary imagery, also evidence from the
13:06ground fragments that have been recovered pointing to the very, very strong likelihood that this was actually an American mistake,
13:16an American missile that wrongly targeted this school because they had outdated maps and information from an era when this
13:23school was technically still within the naval compound that was targeted right next to it.
13:29But for many years now, I believe it's since 2016, that school has no longer been a part of that
13:34naval compound.
13:35And if they had updated intelligence, if they had had greater vetting, i.e., better rules of engagement, that perhaps
13:42would have been – that tragedy could have been avoided.
13:46And mostly children between the age of 7 and 12 years old, I believe it's 175 of them at least
13:52were killed in that strike.
13:54Now, Pete Hegseth has, you know, been obviously questioned about that.
13:58And he has, you know, while Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he believed it was an Iranian missile, he
14:05also sort of acknowledged that he knows that, you know, he'll go with whatever sort of the ultimate findings are.
14:11But this tragedy is definitely a giant, to put it mildly, stain on Pete Hegseth's record and also a giant
14:19slap in the face for a defense secretary who, like I said, has been a no hesitation, no apology, strike
14:26first, ask questions later type of defense secretary.
14:28His tone today did not show any change.
14:31He was out there swinging William.
14:33He was swinging mostly at the press, invoking, calling out, naming and shaming what he sees as news outlets that
14:40aren't covering the war as he sees fit, as he sees they should be covering the war.
14:46In other words, they're not doing the work of propaganda.
14:49They're actually trying to do the work of rigorous, honest, factually corroborated reporting.
14:55Yeah.
14:55Meanwhile, the list of American casualties in this war grows longer.
14:58We had it confirmed this Friday that there was this crash in Iraq, a refueling plane involved with another plane.
15:05One of the planes landed safely.
15:07One of the refueling planes, four American crew members lost their lives.
15:12Pete Hegseth saying, addressing that in the press conference, saying bad things happen.
15:16Yeah, bad things happen.
15:17Look, yeah, it is true that when you're at war, you have tragic accidents like this.
15:23For now, all we really know is the U.S. military is saying it was neither friendly nor hostile fire.
15:29So that leads you to deduce that it was due to some sort of malfunction, pilot error, some other reason
15:38that we just don't know yet because it's under investigation.
15:41But what it does clearly show are the risks of a war that has become, if not completely spiraled out
15:48of control, is in the process of spiraling into tangents that, regardless of what the Trump administration may say, regardless
15:56of what the defense secretary may say, is spiraling into directions that they did not perhaps anticipate.
16:02The intensity of Iran's pushback, the pushback of its proxies as well, and the resilience they've shown, let's just say
16:13that, and their defiance, the just outright defiance, is you don't have to go too far out on a limb
16:19to say that it is perhaps something that Donald Trump at least did not anticipate.
16:24Because Donald Trump has been pumped up on his recent military prowess and the success of previous operations, such as
16:30the middle-of-the-night abduction of Nicolas Madero from Venezuela, taking him to a U.S. courtroom.
16:37That was, in the military sense, a stunning success.
16:40It went off practically without a hitch, and there has been, obviously, this sort of adrenaline rush among not just
16:46Trump, but a trickle-down adrenaline rush among members of his administration, especially in the Pentagon, where the more types
16:54of operations they have like that, a sense of invincibility, a sense in the rightness, not just the might of
17:02the U.S. Army, but also a moral righteousness seeps into the tone of these press conferences.
17:09A sense that it's not simply our military that is invincible and the best in the world, and no one
17:14can resist us, and if anyone tries to, they do so at their own great peril.
17:18It's also a sense that they're doing the right.
17:20We heard Pete Hegseth in his own comments talking about the good guys and the bad guys, very much echoing,
17:26mirroring the types of language we hear all the time from Donald Trump, this sort of Manichean, the good versus
17:32the bad, good versus evil.
17:34And there's the bad hombres and the good hombres, and we're hearing that right now echoed at this press conference
17:43and in the previous ones by a man who, as much as anyone in this administration, marches in lockstep with
17:51the man that he serves, the man who's in control of the throttle, as he said, and ultimately calls all
17:57the shots Donald Trump.
17:59There is no daylight between these two.
18:01I will just say the man who's speaking now, who spoke right out, Dan Cain, who is the Joint Chiefs
18:06of Staff head, he's much more clinical.
18:09He's much more militarily factual.
18:11So if you actually want to get, you know, a reporting, as honest as you can get, you could say
18:17from a Pentagon that is right now in full, full out propaganda mode over this war, he will be giving
18:23you the facts.
18:24He will be giving you the facts to the best of his military knowledge.
18:27And a lot of the reporting when these dual press conferences have been given have really fallen back on what
18:33Dan Cain has said from the podium, whereas a lot of what Pete Hegseth says is seen as, like I
18:40said, bombastic, chest-thumping, jingoistic, verging, swinging from sort of fantasy to pure delusion.
18:48And, like you said, mentioning God.
18:50So, so much for separation of a church and state in this.
18:54God is very much engaged in this war alongside Pete Hegseth and the military you serve under him.
19:01All right, Doug, thank you very much, Douglas Herbert, our international affairs commentator.
19:04The U.S. Secretary of Defense also said that Friday will bring the greatest number of U.S. strikes on
19:11Iran yet.
19:12It's now been two full weeks of war.
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