CNN's Anderson Cooper smacks down Hegseth's claims with devastating supercut
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth levied plenty of criticism against the media during a Thursday morning news conference. But some claims about the media's reporting on the Trump administration's bombing campaign in Iran were completely untrue, as shown by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's montage during his opening monologue.
"A number of the claims he made about the reporting were not accurate," Cooper said. "We put together both what the Secretary of Defense had to say this morning and what we actually reported about that early Defense Intelligence Agency assessment."
Cooper showed numerous clips where Hegseth claimed the media did not report certain facts about the bombing mission, like that the damage report was an initial report or how difficult it is to fly a bomber plane for 36 hours. Cooper then played numerous videos of him reporting those exact facts days before Hegseth's news conference.
In one instance, Hegseth said the media had given "fawning coverage" to the initial damage assessment report without caveat. Cooper then showed a video of him discussing the report with an expert and describing it as "very preliminary" and that a "deeper assessment is being done."
Hegseth also claimed that media outlets were not using the term "destroyed" when referring to the damage done by the bombing campaign. Cooper played multiple clips of CNN's segments where that exact term was used.
In one clip, Cooper and Hegseth read the same statement issued by CIA Director John Ratcliffe about the efficacy of the bombs dropped in Iran. Cooper read the statement on Wednesday evening. Hegseth read it during his briefing a day later.