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‘Quiet Part Out Loud’: Hegseth Slammed for Lashing Out at CNN’s War Reporting

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is facing strong criticism for his remarks during Friday’s press conference, where he lashed out at CNN’s war reporting before mentioning the four U.S. service members killed overnight.

Punchbowl News’ Briana Reilly reported, “Hegseth opens DOD briefing criticizing media coverage of the Iran war.”

“The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” Hegseth said of CNN and the CEO of Paramount Skydance, which is set to acquire the parent company of CNN.

Reilly also reported that the defense chief mentioned “the tragic crash” of the KC-135 aerial refueler that killed four service members at the end of his remarks.

On MS NOW, Willie Geist, speaking to co-host Jonathan Lemire, noted the contrast, saying that when General Caine took the mic he “immediately talked about the four American service members killed in Western Iraq.”

Geist also noted that it took Hegseth “several minutes” to mention them.

READ MORE: Melania Trump Hails Herself as a ‘Visionary’ at Women’s History Month Event

Hegseth, he added, “first complained about the media, whined, and started to rewrite cable news banners, suggesting what they should say versus what they have said based on reporting.”

“And then, later, got to the acknowledgement of the death of those four service members — sort of tells you the whole story about where his mind is, deeply worried about the way the war is being perceived, the way he’s being talked about, perhaps, that seemed to be throughout the briefing, front and center to him.”

Critics slammed Secretary Hegseth’s remarks.

“It seems Secretary Hegseth watches the ongoing tv coverage of Iran given the editorial criticism he opened the briefing with in regard to the on screen graphics/chyrons he’d prefer be used to describe the state of the battlefield,” noted CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Margaret Brennan.

“Just confirms they expect the new [CNN] owner to serve as state sanctioned media. Only pushing the admin’s narrative,” observed attorney Fernando Antonio.

Barbara Starr, a former CNN Pentagon and national security reporter for two decades, blasted Hegseth:

“Listen up Mr. Defense Secretary. CNN has had personnel in combat zones for decades. CNN has had killed and wounded and all with lives changed forever. You have a legal and moral obligation to defend the free press, even the ones you don’t personally like,” she wrote.

READ MORE: GOP Senator Demands TSA Funding—Then Blocks Bill Funding TSA

She suggested that it would be “extraordinary” if he countered what he didn’t like with facts. “Flood the zone with actual information rather than vanity statements. Always possible Mr. Ellison wont appreciate your public comments about him,” she continued.

Starr added: “Bottom line for those busy looking at photos of themselves…the press corps will endure regardless of affiliation or ownership. All should be accredited and admitted to the Pentagon briefings regardless of affiliation. All any reporter needs is pencil, paper and a phone.”

Calling the Secretary’s remarks “Ominous,” political science professor Brendan Nyhan warned: “Competitive authoritarianism watch.”

Speaking to Hegseth’s David Ellison remark, health care activist and nonprofit cofounder Melanie D’Arrigo wrote: “Really shouting the quiet part out loud that Trump’s billionaire allies are buying up news publishers and controlling social media and AI platforms to push Trump’s lies and propaganda.”

Democratic congressional candidate Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School, and an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, called Hegseth’s remarks “fascism.”

READ MORE: Trump Has ‘No Idea’ If Iran War Will Win Him Nobel Peace Prize

 

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Trump: ‘Extraordinarily Brilliant’ — Yet Stumped by Virginia’s ‘Rigged’ Referendum

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President Donald Trump is being criticized for his latest Truth Social post in which he describes himself as an “extraordinarily brilliant person” yet admits he cannot understand the language in Virginia’s redistricting referendum — which more than 1.5 million voters passed Tuesday night.

The president also claimed the election was “rigged,” while offering no evidence, and was frustrated because ballot counting went more heavily in Democrats’ favor (the “Yes” vote) as results were counted.

“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!” Trump declared.

“All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!”

READ MORE: ‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

“In addition to everything else,” he continued, “the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.”

“As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.'”

Critics blasted Trump’s remarks.

“I am begging for someone to explain to the President how election returns work,” wrote Sarah Longwell, the founder and editor of The Bulwark.

“You weren’t ‘winning all day,’ you were ahead before counting finished,” wrote progressive commentator Alex Cole. “Those are not the same thing. The real conspiracy is how MAGA convinces itself losing = cheating instead of… losing.”

READ MORE: Republicans Have to Make a Choice Between ‘Reality-Based Data’ and Trump: Benen

 

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Republicans Have to Make a Choice Between ‘Reality-Based Data’ and Trump: Benen

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President Donald Trump’s job approval stands at its lowest point of his second term, and since he won’t be on the ballot in November or in 2028, Republicans will have to ask themselves at what point do they accept “reality-based data” and distance themselves from him?

So asks Steve Benen at MS NOW, where he notes that the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll “found Trump’s approval rating at just 36%, which was roughly in line with the latest NBC News survey. For the White House, the Associated Press’ latest national poll was even worse” — coming in at 33%.

The AP reported that even Republicans are showing less faith in his leadership, and added their findings “show a president who is struggling with unfulfilled promises to tame inflation and testing Americans’ patience with a conflict in the Middle East that has dragged on longer than expected.”

Benen notes that it’s been widely assumed that there is a floor below which Trump cannot sink — his base will never leave him. But, he posits, “the AP poll suggests it’s time to reassess earlier assumptions about just how low his support can go.”

READ MORE: ‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

Some believe that focusing on Trump’s approval rating is “misplaced,” since he is constitutionally prohibited from running again.

But the trouble with that argument is that congressional Republicans are indeed preparing for midterm elections “as the American electorate turns sharply against a GOP president — whom those same congressional Republicans have championed since his return to power.”

The lower Trump’s approval rating drops, the lower his support gets, “the more the party confronts a question about what to do with reality-based data,” says Benen. “Do they take new, sizable steps to distance themselves from a failing and woefully unpopular president, or do they continue to carry Trump’s water and take their chances with a dissatisfied electorate?”

READ MORE: How Trump’s Corruption Is Like a Thermonuclear Bomb: NYT Columnist

 

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‘Weak, Stupid, and Bad’: Trump Slams Conservative Supreme Court Justices in Wild Rant

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After delivering dozens of Truth Social posts in a 24-hour period, President Donald Trump is now lashing out at the conservative justices on the Supreme Court — again.

The president appeared to suggest that the conservative jurists should be loyal to his positions, and lamented that liberal justices “stick together like glue, NEVER failing to wander from the warped and perverse policies, ideas, and cases put before them.”

He also attacked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, although not by name but by calling her “that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench (Sleepy Joe!).”

Calling it “unexplainable” and a “travesty,” the president appeared furious, once again, after losing his tariffs case at the Supreme Court, and was angered at what he expects will be a ruling against his administration on birthright citizenship.

READ MORE: How Trump’s Corruption Is Like a Thermonuclear Bomb: NYT Columnist

He wrongly called birthright citizenship “something which virtually NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD IS STUPID ENOUGH TO ALLOW,” and claimed that it “was meant for the babies of slaves, not for the babies of Chinese Billionaires.”

“No,” he continued, “certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly’ stood for.”

“If they rule against our Country on Birthright Citizenship,” Trump wrote, “which they probably will, it will be even worse, if that’s possible. It will cost America massive amounts of money but, more importantly, it will cost America its DIGNITY!”

Trump’s Wednesday remarks follow his Tuesday attack on the conservatives: “I put certain people on the United States Supreme Court who totally misrepresented who they were, and the true ideology for which they stand!”

READ MORE: ‘What Evil Looks Like’: Columnist Says Trump Presides Over a ‘Circus of Death and Chaos’

 

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