'Gaslighting': MSNBC's Jen Psaki exposes GOP for 'moving the goalposts'

MSNBC's Jen Psaki accused Republicans of "gaslighting" Americans on Thursday night as they joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in "moving the goalposts" rather than "responding to the facts."

Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend co-host, melted down Thursday morning over media outlets reporting on U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which President Donald Trump and his allies maintain "obliterated" the country's nuclear program and set it back years."

"In hunting for scandals all the time, in trying to find wedges and spin stories, this press corps and the press corps miss historic moments because you cheer against Trump so hard," Hegseth railed. "It's like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump. So let's take half-truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it. Classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad, but just a little portion, just a little portion that makes it seem like maybe the strike wasn't effective. If you want to know what's going on at Fordow, you better go there and get a big shovel."

Psaki took a jab at the clip of Hegseth's tirade, pondering, "I don't know what was in his coffee this morning because that took place at 8 a.m."

Psaki noted the best question of the day came from Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin, who questioned whether Hegseth is certain all of Iran's highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain, and that none of it was moved.

"Of course we’re watching every single aspect. But Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally," Hegseth raged.

Psaki defended Griffin's integrity and slammed Hegseth as the one who has been "misrepresenting things intentionally for months."

"And this all seems to be part of a desperate attempt to avoid actually answering questions about the military strikes last week," Psaki said.

She later added Hegseth appeared to be speaking to an audience of one — Trump.

"What’s clear is that Pete Hegseth will say and basically do anything to keep the boss happy," she said.

What's more, Hegseth appeared to try to shift the definition of success, as his briefing gave no new assessments on the state of Iran's nuclear program, Psaki noted, borrowing from a New York Times summation.

"Instead, the briefing focused on the planning and execution of those strikes," the Times wrote, which Psake called a "classic case of moving the goalposts."

"Doesn’t matter anymore if we destroyed anything, according to Pete Hegseth. What matters was how well planned it all was," she mocked.

The MSNBC host noted that success used to be that the U.S. would destroy the nuclear program without marching into a war. She played a supercut of Republican senators changing their tune, and saying the mission was not actually to "destroy all their enriched uranium."

"At this point, the Republican Party line here is that whatever Trump did was the right decision, even if it was different from what he was saying yesterday. Whatever intelligence there is about what actually happened—or whatever previously stated goals used to be—that doesn’t matter.

They’d rather keep moving the goalposts and kind of gaslight all of us rather than respond to the facts. And they’ve been following the direction of their leader since this whole thing started," she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.