Pete Hegseth chuckles at reporter attempting to brand him as sexist toward female pilots

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visibly laughed at a reporter who asked why he only “acknowledged” male pilots who bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities during a Thursday press conference.

A reporter accused Hegseth of “only congratulating the boys” after he used the phrase “our boys in those bombers” in a June 22 statement regarding the strikes of the nuclear sites. Hegseth said his Defense Department (DOD) will not give in to the media’s “obsession” with race, gender and other identities.

“Why not acknowledge the female pilots at all who also participated in this mission? The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys,” the reporter said.

“So when I say something like ‘our boys in bombers.’ See this is the kind of thing the press does, right? Of course, the chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot,” Hegseth said. “That’s fantastic, she’s fantastic. She’s a hero. I want more female bomber pilots. I hope the men and women of our country sign up to do such brave and audacious things. But when you spin it because I say ‘our boys in bombers’ as a common phrase, I’ll keep saying things like that. Men or women, I’m very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots. And I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit and the American people don’t care. But it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities. We don’t do that anymore, we don’t play your little games.”

WATCH:

The DOD congratulated the female B-2 pilot who was part of Operation Midnight Hammer, the name of the U.S. military’s coordinated strikes against the nuclear facilities, according to Military.com. Another woman was on a guided missile submarine crew that launched more than two dozen missiles at the sites.

Democrats have attempted to accuse Hegseth of demeaning women service members since his confirmation hearing, particularly regarding his stance that women should not serve in combat. The Defense Secretary said during his confirmation hearing that standards have been lowered inside the military to meet female quotas and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Hegseth has further taken the sledgehammer to DEI programs in the Defense Department by barring military academies from considering race, gender or ethnicity in its admissions process and by eliminating all DOD media promoting those initiatives. He also changed the name of a Navy oiler ship that had initially been named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who allegedly had a relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

During the NATO Summit, Hegseth fired back at the media for trying to “spin” the success of the mission in order to “hurt” Trump.  CNN obtained leaked information from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which alleged that the bombings only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months, though that assessment has been disputed by the Trump administration.

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