THE PLAYERS: Reporters asked the question three times!

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2025

Hegseth kept failing to answer: He never did answer the question.

We refer to Secretary Hegseth. Also, to the question he avoided three separate times during yesterday morning's gonzo press event.

During the 42-minute event, General Caine conducted himself in a thoroughly professional manner. By way of contrast, Secretary Hegseth staged one of the most remarkable serial meltdowns of his short time in the cabinet.

Thanks to the invaluable Rev, you can peruse a transcript of yesterday's event simply by clicking here. The transcript is accompanied by videotape of the event, or you can access C-Span's videotape.

Rev has transcribed the full event. Remarkably, here's what happened:

Hegseth burned the first ten minutes away with a deeply silly scolding of the assembled press corps. After General Caine's introductory statement, questions were finally permitted, at roughly the 30-minute mark.

At the 37-minute mark, the following question was asked. It was a blindingly obvious question. It would be asked three times:

REPORTER (6/26/25): Just a quick question. There's public imagery available saying that highly enriched uranium was moved out of Fordow before the strikes. Is that accurate? Have you seen that?

Had uranium been squirreled away before last Saturday's attack? After General Caine spoke to a separate question, Hegseth was prompted to respond to that—and this is what he said:

REPORTER: And the highly enriched uranium?

HEGSETH: There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations.

We'll score that as an obvious "non-answer answer." For that reason, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News quickly followed up. 

Jennifer Griffin is highly experienced. Continuing directly from above, she now posed the obvious question for the second time: 

GRIFFIN (continuing directly): That's not the question though. It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow Mountain or some of it—because there were satellite photos that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days in advance. Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?

Unacceptably, Griffin had dared to tell this high priest that he hadn't answered the question. He responded with an astonishing meltdown directed at Griffin herself. 

Hegseth responded by savaging Griffin. With respect to the actual question, he took a dive once again:

HEGSETH (continuing directly): Of course, we're watching every single aspect. But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says...

[Personal attack on Griffin]

We're looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where.

We're watching every single aspect! We're looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where!

Setting the personal attack to the side, that was Hegseth's second non-answer answer. That was his second attempt to dodge the question at hand.

Another reporter now stepped in to question the mighty member. After he had scolded her for her alleged obsession with DEI, she became the third reporter to raise the unanswered question.

In this exchange, in Biblical fashion, the secretary refused to answer for what was now the third time:

REPORTER: Are you certain that the uranium wasn't removed from the facility before the B2s struck?

HEGSETH: So I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise.

We're cleaning up an imperfection in the Rev transcription. But in that string of argle-bargle, we have the secretary's third refusal to answer this obvious question. That said, this third refusal to answer the question did, in fact, serve as an answer:

No, Virginia! Despite the rantings of President Trump, the administration doesn't know, at this point in time, whether "highly enriched uranium was moved out of Fordow before the strikes." That would be the obvious conclusion we would take from Hegseth's refusals to answer.

At this point, the administration doesn't know if enriched uranium was taken away in the days before the strike. Even as he kept melting down, the secretary's three (3) refusals to answer had finally seemed to provide the answer.

For now, we've skipped past the content of Hegseth's several meltdowns, including his remarkable attack on Griffin herself. We're also skipping the ridiculous performance, later that day, by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in which she savaged CNN's Natasha Bertrand in ways which made zero sense.

So it goes as a group of warfighters go to war on behalf of the current commander. For now, we'll offer a brief overview of Griffin's tenure at Fox News—and we'll briefly note the conceptual difficulties Blue Americans face with respect to this new breed of furious tribal warfighters.

Yesterday, at the 38-minute mark, there came his 19th nervous breakdown of the day's press event.  

Griffin dared to note that he'd failed to answer the question.  Hegseth responded with this:

GRIFFIN: That's not the question though. It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow Mountain or some of it—because there were satellite photos that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days in advance. Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?

HEGSETH: Of course, we're watching every single aspect. But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says...

Before his second full refusal to answer, Hegseth continued along from there, battling Griffin's objections to that characterization. After his ad hominem attacks on Griffin, he again failed to answer.

For the record, who is Jennifer Griffin?  As a general matter, we'll tell you this:

Even now, the Fox News Channel employs a certain number of people who provide high-end, nonpartisan news reporting. Griffin has been cast in that role at Fox since 1999—or maybe since 1996. The leading authority on her career starts with this overview:

Jennifer Griffin

Jennifer Griffin is an American journalist who works as Chief National Security Correspondent at the Pentagon for Fox News. She joined Fox News in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. Prior to the posting, she reported for three years from Moscow for Fox News.

Since 2007, Griffin has reported daily from the Pentagon where she questions senior military leaders, travels to war zones with the Joint Chiefs and Secretaries of Defense, and reports on all aspects of the military...

And so on from there. 

We'll admit that that initial chronology doesn't quite seem to parse. Did Griffin "join  Fox  News in 1999?" Or did she hire on three years prior to that?

The chronology there doesn't quite make sense. In fairness to the leading authority, its chronology was taken, live and direct, from the jumbled chronology posted by Fox News itself.

At any rate, Griffin has long been one of the Fox News Channel's handful of competent, non-partisan news reporters. By all accounts, she's highly regarded by others in the field.

For that reason, Hegseth's personal attack seemed especially odd—but also made an obvious type of sense. That said, Hegseth is a person filled with anger—a person who seems to run on a remarkable sense of grievance.  In fairness, Leavitt's later attack on Bertrand may have been even nuttier than the Hegseth's attack on Griffin.

As at Troy, so too here. A new group of tribal warfighter have been coming over the walls since President Trump was elected again last November.

Their claims and their behaviors are often very strange. (One might say, are often highly unfamiliar.) It's very hard to find the language with which to describe their attitudes and their work.

Hegseth is part of this tribal group. So is the routinely ridiculous Leavitt, this aggressive warfighting tribe's frequent scolder-in-chief.

Ages and ages hence, someone may be telling this story with a sigh—or then again, possibly not! Starting on Monday, we'll attempt to find the language with which to describe the attitudes and the behaviors of this profoundly aggrieved new group.

At Troy, the Achaeans finally came over the walls; astonishing violence followed. Today, it's fighters like Hegseth and Leavitt who proceed in their wake.

Our foolishness in Blue America helped put these players in place. That said, they almost seem to be a whole new type of aggregation. It's hard to find a recognizable way to describe their relentless conduct.

Secretary Hegseth is gripped by a sense of grievance which won't seem to leave him alone. It's hard to find the language with which to describe his furious conduct.

Having said that, we can tell you this:

No, Virgina! From President Trump on down, it seems that these players simply don't know if uranium was carted away before last Saturday's strike.

It's only one of many possible questions at this point. But their fury seems to know no bounds, and it won't permit them to simply say that they don't actually know.

Their fury has them by the throat. It won't seem to let them go.