Hegseth attacks media at presser to explain results of Iran strikes
y TheHill.com
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned members of the media for a press conference on Thursday, during which he trashed their coverage of U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Trump administration has been adamant that its strikes on three nuclear facilities on Saturday in Iran were a success. Several media outlets on Tuesday reported that a preliminary intelligence assessment found the bombings delayed Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months. President Trump and his Cabinet have insisted the sites were “obliterated” and “destroyed”
Trump on Wednesday in a Truth Social post said Hegseth’s news conference would “fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots. These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly!”
With only days left in its term, the Supreme Court will issue new rulings at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The outstanding opinions include one in the birthright citizenship case.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans will try again to find common ground on the “big, beautiful bill,” which is set to come to the floor on Friday. Medicaid is a particular sticking point.
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10 minutes ago
Hegseth leans on Gabbard, Ratcliffe statements
colinmeyn
Hegseth has repeatedly pointed to statements released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe in refuting an initial U.S. intelligence assessment that U.S. strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by months, not years.
Ratcliffe on Wednesday released a statement saying the nuclear program “has been severely damaged” and specific facilities “were destroyed.”
“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed,” Gabbard wrote.
18 minutes ago
Caine: 'We don't grade our own homework'
colinmeyn
Caine said the attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites went exactly to plan, but declined to assess the level of damage inflicted — a key point of tension in Washington.
He said explosions from GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs occurred underground, so the damage may be hard to assess, but he said six of the bombs struck Iran’s key Fordow nuclear facility exactly as planned.
But he avoided assessing whether the facility was “destroyed.”
“A point that I want to make here, the Joint Force does not do VDA by design, we don’t grade our own homework; the intelligence community does,” he said.
27 minutes ago
Caine applauds response to Iran's attack on US base in Qatar
colinmeyn
Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine applauded the U.S. troops who deployed Patriot air defense systems on Monday to shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Al Udeid U.S. Air Force in Qatar.
“We believe that this was the largest single Patriot engagement in US military history,” he said, adding the military was aware of “reports of something getting through.”
“What we do know is there was a lot of metal flying between attacking missiles being hit by Patriots,” he added.
President Trump has said the U.S. was informed of the Iranian strikes ahead of time and agreed to the timing. There were no reported U.S. or Qatari casualties.
38 minutes ago
Hegseth rips into media at Pentagon press conference
colinmeyn
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ripped into the media at the start of a Pentagon press conference Thursday morning, saying their “hate” for President Trump colored their coverage of U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Because you cheer against Trump so hard, in your DNA and in your blood, cheer Against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy” of the U.S. strikes, Hegseth said.
Hegseth read out varying assessments of the damage inflicted by U.S. strikes, some that were aligned with the administration’s claims that Iran’s nuclear facilities were destroyed and others that said significant damage was done.
39 minutes ago
Trump officials defend strikes across Washington
Jesse Byrnes
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press briefing this morning is part of a broad effort by the Trump administration to address growing questions about the U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
The administration will also dispatch officials to Capitol Hill today to brief senators as President Trump and his security team insist the bombing of the Iranian facilities significantly set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
an hour ago
Iran’s supreme leader makes first public statement since ceasefire with Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday his country had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” and warned against any further U.S. attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire was declared with Israel.
Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19, looking and sounding more tired than he did only a week ago.
He told viewers that the U.S. had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”
But he said that the U.S. “achieved no gains from this war.”
“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, in apparent reference to an Iranian missile attack on an American base in nearby Qatar on Monday, which caused no casualties.
an hour ago
Hegseth starts press conference lauding NATO deal
kwadington
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth started Thursday’s remarks at the Pentagon by praising the historic deal reached at the NATO Summit, which concluded Wednesday, on bringing NATO members to more parity in paying for the alliance.
an hour ago
Questions around success of Iran strikes spark fears on Capitol Hill
Mike Lillis
Questions swirling around the success of U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites are raising fears on Capitol Hill that more could be coming.
President Trump is insisting Saturday’s strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities were an unqualified success, “obliterating” Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and setting back the program for years. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, amplified that assertion Wednesday, as did CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Yet U.S. intelligence officials at the Defense Department have arrived at a starkly different assessment, according to numerous news reports, saying the attacks failed to destroy either Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium or its nuclear infrastructure. The Pentagon analysts estimated the strikes set the program back by months, not years.
On Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have not yet been briefed on the strikes, the conflicting messages from the administration have sparked a combination of confusion about the effectiveness of the attacks and new anxieties that Trump might pursue further intervention if the initial mission is found to have fallen short of objectives.
Read the full story here.
an hour ago
GOP senators push back hard on Medicaid cuts, endangering Trump bill
Alexander Bolton
Republican senators are pushing back hard on hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts included in the Senate version of President Trump’s budget reconciliation package, endangering Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) plan for a vote as soon as Friday.
Two Republicans are a hard “no” on the bill — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) — and a handful of other Republicans won’t say whether they’ll vote to begin debate on the package because they are concerned that deep cuts in Medicaid spending could cause millions of Americans to lose their coverage and push scores of rural hospitals around the country into bankruptcy.
Read more here.
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