MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace came to the defense of Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin after she was insulted in personal terms by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier in the day.
During a morning briefing, Griffin – a former collegue of Hegseth’s from his days at Fox News – questioned Hegseth’s assertions about damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities, to which Hegseth replied “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst.”
Griffin for her part pushed back, defending her reporting and objecting to the insult, footage of which Wallace played on her MSNBC show.
“That was America’s Secretary of Defense saying to Fox’s highly respected, highly credible, highly experienced Pentagon correspondent, ‘Jennifer, you’re the worst,” Wallace recapped. “You saw her there take issue with the assessment and go on to defend her reporting – none of which has been disproven.”
She then focused on Hegseth’s “onslaught of attacks” made by himself and the Trump administration about the success of last weekend’s bombings in Iran that the president said “obliterated” the targeted facilities but later reports brought that in to question.
“Why does the Trump administration respond to questions from reporters or lawmakers trying to ascertain the success of the mission in striking Iran’s nuclear program by attacking everyone asking those questions,” Wallace wondered.
Hegseth’s outburst against Griffin came Thursday morning after she asked about the success of Operation Midnight Hammer.
“Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow Mountain?” Griffin asked. “Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?”
Hegseth responded: “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst.”
The Secretary of Defense went on to attack his former colleague, adding she was perhaps the most prominent reporter “who misrepresents what the president says” about the success of the Iran bombing.
