minister of defense Peter Heggs Journalists pressed him for details on the next phase of operations in Iran.
During a brief but tense question-and-answer session at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth was asked to provide more details about the next steps for Operation Epic Fury.
“Are there any American military boots on the ground in Iran now?” a reporter asked.
“No, but we’re not going to do things that we would or wouldn’t do,” Hegseth said. “I think it’s one of the long-standing fallacies that this department or the president or whoever should be telling the American people and our enemies that this is what we’re going to do.”
He added:
This is exactly the time we are leaving. That’s how far we’re going. It’s what we are willing to do and what we are not willing to do. This is stupid! So President Trump is making sure our enemies understand that we will do whatever we can to advance American interests. But we’re not stupid about it. You don’t have to squeeze 200,000 people in there and stay there for 20 years. We’ve proven that you can achieve goals that advance American interests without being stupid. Now, would we be bold enough to do so? Are we willing to take decisive action on this, and are we going to spend months of planning to achieve what we want to achieve? Absolutely. But going forward, why should we tell [the press] … [or] What will the enemy, anyone, do or not do to achieve our goals? We play to win. We strive to achieve the goals set by the President of the United States, and we will do so unapologetically.
nbc Courtney Cube Then asked: “President Trump set a four-week timetable — are you saying that was wrong?”
After another reporter was called, Hegseth came back to answer and immediately dismissed the question, attacking NBC in the process
“I’ve been hearing this question for about four weeks, and it’s a typical NBC type of gotcha question,” Hegseth said. “President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could go up, it could go down. We’re going to follow his orders and do what we set out to accomplish, and the ability that he’s shown to do things that other presidents don’t seem to have the ability to do. Well, I mean, Joe Biden Don’t even know what I’m doing. It’s about finding opportunities, exports, and upgrades for America, creating new opportunities to do what we need to do on our own timeline. So you can play about four weeks, five weeks, and he has all the latitude, and I’m glad he does that because there’s no better communicator to express these things than our president. “
Moments later, NewsNation Kelly Meyer Put pressure on the secretary.
“I understand, to your point, you don’t want to broadcast everything to our adversaries, but the American people also want to know what they’re sending their men and women into to fight,” Meyer said. “Is there any concern that this could turn into a more protracted war?”
“Didn’t you hear me?!” Hegseth fired back. “I mean, we’re making sure the mission gets done, but we’re very conscious, as the president is unlike other presidents, about the stupid policies of the past that have recklessly pulled us into things that have nothing to do with actual clear goals. We know, we have plans, we have generals, we have chairman, we have commanders, the commander of Central Command – “Admiral Cooper, he’s executing the mission very carefully to make sure that the results I’ve laid out are achieved, but we never laid out in the press how long that might take, and that’s important to us, and they’re executing on it right now.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
Post “Didn’t you hear that?!” Pete Hegseth gets testy when reporters press him for details about Iran’s plans.
