Hegseth challenged over claims Iran’s nukes were an ‘imminent threat’ even though they were ‘obliterated’ by Midnight Hammer

Hegseth challenged over claims Iran's nukes were an 'imminent threat' even though they were 'obliterated' by Midnight HammerSource: Reuters

Transcript

00:00At the moment in negotiations, what Iran is saying, basically pay us to open up the strait.

00:05That's their position, which is completely untenable. I agree. It's worth noting, of course,

00:10that the strait was open before the war started. Now we're negotiating to get back to status quo.

00:15And Iran's most recent offer is to say, we'll talk about nukes later. So what is the plan to

00:20actually turn all of this lethal kinetic action into an improvement in the nuclear situation?

00:27Because we haven't gotten there yet. President Trump has been clear-eyed from the killing of

00:32Qasem Soleimani, to the pulling out of the Iran deal, to Midnight Hammer, and now to this effort

00:37to recognize that you have to stare down this kind of enemy who's hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon

00:43and get them to a point where they're at the table giving it up in a way that-

00:47So they haven't broken yet. Okay. We haven't gotten there yet for all of the-

00:53Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated underground. They're buried.

00:57And we're watching them 24-7. So we know where any nuclear material might be-

01:01Be claiming my time for just a quick second here.

01:04We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent

01:12threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated?

01:15They had not given up their nuclear ambitions. And they had a conventional shield of thousands-

01:20So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance.

01:24You're missing the point. It left us at exactly the same place we were before.

01:28So much so that we had to start a war.

01:28Their facilities were bombed and obliterated. Their ambitions continued. And they're building

01:34a conventional shield of missiles.

01:35All right, let me try again.

01:36It's the North Korea strategy. You know this very well. The North Korea strategy was use

01:39conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them so they could slow off their

01:44way to a weapon. President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure in a way

01:50that

01:50only the United States of America could do with our Israeli partners.

01:53And yet they still haven't given up the nuclear.

01:56... Méldaffleais Kanji

01:56I think I am going

01:56...

01:56I

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