CNN's Jake Tapper had no patience on Thursday for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's broadside against the news media at the latest press conference on the Iran war.
"The former weekend 'Fox & Friends' co-host invoked the Pharisees, quote, 'the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time' there to witness, to write everything down, to report who, quote, 'even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn't matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,' said Tapper, rolling the clip.
"Our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you," said Hegseth in the clip. "Not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press. Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors. The Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation."
First of all, said Tapper, "No one's doubting the warriors. I think the skepticism is of the leaders of the warriors."
Additionally, he continued, "Hegseth there likening the news media to the Pharisees, opponents of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. So in Hegseth's analogy, doubting Donald Trump is like doubting Jesus Christ, and covering the war on Iran with skepticism of Trump's claims and Hegseth's claims, many of which have to be kind, not proven accurate is, I suppose, the same thing as doubting the miracles of Jesus."
"What a warped view of what the news media is supposed to do, and what a view he seems to have of this war," said Tapper. "And frankly, what better way to cap off a spring of sacrilege by the Trump team?"
This comes after Trump outraged even many of his own supporters by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus, which he scrambled to walk back, and publicly attacked the pope for being critical of war.