SecDef doubles down on claims Iran’s nuclear program is ‘obliterated’
Hegseth rails against reporting on DIA’s initial assessment that strikes did not destroy Tehran’s efforts.
Meghann Myers | June 26, 2025 11:03 AM ET
Media reports about an initial battle damage assessment of Saturday’s Iran strikes have so rankled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that on Thursday he called the second press briefing of his tenure, just days after the first.
Hegseth began his remarks by raging against the press—naming CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times—for reporting on a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency review of the strikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities. The report said the operation appears to have set back the country’s nuclear program only months, not “obliterated” it, as the Trump administration has claimed.
“And the reality is, you want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated—choose your word,” Hegseth said. “This was an historically successful attack, and we should celebrate it as Americans.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/06/secdef-doubles-down-claims-irans-nuclear-program-obliterated/406339/?oref=d1-featured-river-top
