During his Friday Pentagon Press conference, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired off a collection of boasts about how well the war on Iran is going that led MS NOW host Joe Scarborough to have his producers cut the sound so he talk over the former Fox News personality for an immediate fact-check.
Then he did it again, moments later after cutting back to Hegseth.
Midway through Hegseth’s address, his voice was silenced even though he could be seen onscreen, as the “Morning Joe” co-host jumped in to explain, “If you just tuned in, Secretary Hegseth is giving us a summary of what's going on right now. He accurately said that there have been great military successes and that America's military is unmatched in the world. He inaccurately said that there's been a clear mission objective from the very beginning. That's just not the case.”
“Clearly said he was right that for 47 years, Iranians have been targeting Americans and killing Americans. That is true,” he added. “But one of the more fascinating things we'll talk about later is he proclaimed, Iran will not have nuclear weapons. He said it: Iran will not have nuclear weapons. It will be fascinating to see details on that. He talked about the blockades getting more powerful by the day. Also, Iranians are laying more mines, which could cause problems with shipping through the strait for quite some time. He also said other administrations didn't do anything but look the other way. That's just not true at all.”
“So we'll continue following this," he added before pointing out, “I've got to say, though, I'm putting a star by the fact that Pete Hegseth has said this morning, Iran will not have nuclear weapons. So anything short of that and short of the Strait of Hormuz being opened when this war ends will be an abject failure for this administration. If they are able to take away Iran's nuclear weapons and open the strait, then most likely a success.”