Pete Hegseth finally snaps, loses it in meltdown - Another Day - Brian Tyler Cohen

BTC: The Trump administration has had it with fake news. But don't worry, their fake facts are still totally intact. This is just another day.

As everyone knows, the Trump administration has had quite the contentious relationship with the press. Everybody's heard the complaints that trusted quality journalism is becoming something of a bygone era. Well, thankfully, there are still some reputable outlets that this White House deems worthy of their time.

(cut to video)
Jake Paul: Mr. President, what an honor.

Trump: Thank you very much.

Jake Paul: Yeah. Thank you for sitting down with me today. Is it true that you watched the Joshua fight on Air Force One?

Trump: I watched it. I watched you and I thought you were very brave.

Jake Paul: How big is the TV on Air Force One? That was..

Trump: It's good. Literally a year and a half ago, we had a country that was laughed at all over the world. You know that they were laughing.

Jake Paul: Yeah, we were just not respected.

Trump: Nobody respected.

Jake Paul: No one respected the leadership.

Trump: You just take care. Say hello to your brother. Okay.

Jake Paul: I will.

Trump: Thank you, man.

Jake Paul: Thank you for sitting down.

Trump: Great honor. Thank you, man.

(cut to post interview footage)

Jake Paul: Thank you. Want to just do a pic and then cool?

Trump: That was a very good interview.

Jake Paul: Oh, yeah. Thank you, man.

Trump: You know, for a guy.

Jake Paul: See, I I only had a day and a half to prepare.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Uh, it took you a day and a half to prepare for that? Looks to me like you'd strung together a few sentences while pounding muscle milk in the green room. But I guess Jake Paul is as serious about his preparation as he is about his perspiration.

The point is, to Trump, that's what a good interview looks like. A reporter who asked the tough questions about the size of the TV on Air Force One echoes your talking points about the greatness of America and doesn't push back when you completely contradict yourself. And another one of these intrepid interviewers is Fox News's Brian Kilmeade.

(cut to video from Fox News)
Trump: You look, nobody has the technology or the weapons that we have and and the Patriots are an example of it. We have the Tomahawks. We have the Patriots. We have stuff that nobody's ever been able to produce and they can't produce it like us. So, we'll see how it all goes. Brian, I mean, it's going very well. We're way ahead of schedule. Way ahead. We had no idea we'd be this far ahead. We've knocked out close to 90% of their missiles.

Brian Kilmeade: How important how important would it be to get out that besiege force, the uh the thugs that walk the streets?

(cut to studio)
BTC: You see, that is what a good journalist does. They respectfully let the president talk about how the United States is the only nation with Tomahawk missiles instead of pulling the corrupt fake news move of pointing out that Donald Trump said something entirely different just a few days ago.

(cut to video from MS NOW)
Reporter: Tomahawk missile likely destroy that Iranian girl school. So will the Americans will the US accept any responsibility?

Trump: Well, I haven't seen it. And I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, is sold and used by other countries. You know that. And whether it's Iran, who also has some Tomahawks, they wish they had more, but uh whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk a Tomahawk is very generic.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Yep. We're the only ones that have that very generic weapon that everyone has.

Now, the reason that those interviews with our incredibly consistent commander-in-chief went so well is because the reporters did their job. They sat there, they nodded, and sometimes smiled. Whereas over at the Pentagon, some less experienced journalists continued to show just how little they seemed to understand the medium.

(cut to video from Pentagon news conference)
Pete Hegseth: Some in this crew in the press just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners. They see headlines. I I used to be in that business and I know that everything is written intentionally.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Pete Hegseth wants you to remember that he was also once a reputable member of the media and so he assumes that every journalist in that room must obviously write with the exact same intention as him.

(cut to video from Fox News)
Pete Hegseth: Well, the grades are in and Kamala Harris last night flunked her exam.

(cut to video from Fox News)
Pete Hegseth: If you go by the old adage, the children are the future, then plain as day, this poll shows that the future hates America.

(cut to video from Fox News)
Pete Hegseth: This is not just the woke military stuff you've been hearing about. This is not an extremism stand down or a social justice reading list or even a foolish CIA recruitment video we've all seen by now. This is worse. This is way worse. This, my friends, is a purge.

(cut to video from Fox News)
Pete Hegseth: I don't play golf and I don't speak German. So, Bill Hemmer has both of those on me. Uh, yeah, it's true. It's true. I don't I only speak one language, American.

(cut to studio)
BTC: That's right. the good old American language where we write all our Fs to look like guns, our O's to have a severe weight problem, and in the American language, the meaning of our words doesn't really have much meaning.

(cut to video)
Trump: This was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done.

(cut to studio)
BTC: I guess that's why I couldn't find the American language on Google Translate because you don't have to translate a word if the meaning is just whatever you want it to be. But sorry Pete, you were saying…

(cut to video from Pentagon news conference)
Pete Hegseth: For example, a banner or a headline, Mid East war intensifies, splashing on the screen, the last couple of days alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit because that's what they do. What should the banner read instead? How about Iran increasingly desperate? Because they are. They know it and so do you.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Iran increasingly desperate? That's the headline you're pining for? They're a nation at war. If you're looking for someone increasingly desperate, you might want to turn to the so-called badass rocker (Kid Rock photo displayed) who uses a network watched primarily by geriatrics to promote his tour dates. But what's another headline Pete thinks really missed the mark?

(cut to video from Pentagon news conference)
Pete Hegseth: Another example of a fake headline that I saw yesterday. War widening. Here's a real headline for you for an actual patriotic press. How about Iran shrinking, going underground?

(cut to studio)
BTC: Did you hear those words? A patriotic press. Pete Hegseth apparently believes that patriotism is not about holding your leaders accountable through accurate and ethical reporting, but merely acting as stenographers and just writing down whatever they tell you to write because that way, Americans can hear how awesome everything is everywhere. You know, like how they do it over in this democracy.

(cut to stock footage of North Korean woman reading the news)

(cut to studio)
BTC: Now, I'm not exactly sure what she said, but it sure as hell sounded like freedom. But the fake newsfinder still had those last arrows in his quiver.

(cut to video from Pentagon news conference)
Pete Hegseth: Or more fake news from CNN. Reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous. Of course, for decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do. Hold the Strait hostage. CNN doesn't think we thought of that. It's a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.

(cut to studio)
BTC: And that is what you call giving away the game. We now live in a world where the United States Secretary of Defense feels completely comfortable voicing his assumption that when billionaire Trump supporter David Ellison gets his bid approved by Trump's FCC to buy Warner Brothers Discovery and in turn takes over CNN, one of the biggest news organizations in the world, Pete and everyone in the Pentagon are in store for more favorable coverage.

And I think Pete is confident in that assumption because that's what David Ellison promised Donald Trump. This administration does not want news. They want propaganda, which is a surprise to no one because the entire Trump machine is organized around silencing anyone who offers up anything but a glowing performance review of this White House or America as a whole. In fact, that is the stated mission of FCC Chair Brendan Carr.

(cut to video from Mornings With Maria on Fox Business)
Brendan Carr: We're launching a Pledge America campaign at the FCC which allows broadcasters to air pro-American patriotic programming to celebrate the country's 250th birth.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Yes, it allows broadcasters to do that. But let's just say that a newscaster decides not to regurgitate a bunch of MAGA talking points under the low hum of the Star Spangled Banner and instead point out what they see as the systemic dismantling of our constitutional democracy. Well, Carr is totally cool with that. Remember, his views on what come across America's airwaves are not mandates, but merely suggestions. If journalists want to point out inconsistencies or falsehoods coming from this administration, that is totally fine. Or it's also more than fine if they want to say stuff like this.

(cut to video from Mornings With Maria on Fox Business)
Maria Bartiromo: You know, it's just incredible that we actually need the FCC to remind viewers and remind the people who are programming to to to put beautiful patriotism on their on their airwaves. Uh but you're right. You've got pockets of the country that are pushing back on this even even as we know that this is the greatest country in the world and the freest country in the world.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Man, you know, technology is getting incredibly advanced because I know that Maria Bartiromo and Brendan Carr aren't even in the same location here and yet somehow she's still able to blow him on camera.

It is adorable watching people think that there is some level of fawning or currying favor with this administration that will land them in the untouchable category that if they do Donald Trump's bidding hard enough, their organization will be free from scorn. Remember how Washington Post owner and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, seen here looking like he just paid $10 million to be an extra in Top Gun Maverick, tried to cozy up to the administration by backing off his criticism of Trump's tariffs and even shelling out $40 million for this illuminating piece of cinema? (Melania movie poster displayed) He thought that would be enough to get special treatment. But Bezos apparently missed the lesson. Just this week, David Carr blasted Amazon for daring to criticize SpaceX. And not long ago, Pete Hegseth had his own choice words for Bezos's Washington Post.

(cut to video)
Reporter: Did you at any time say that everybody on board should be killed?

Pete Hegseth: Does anybody here from the Washington Post? I don't know where you get your sources, but they suck.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Yeah, they suck. Like, if you were to give those sources a rating, they'd be at something like 7%. These people hate facts. They hate truth. It's why when asked why only half of the Epstein files have been released, they respond with

(cut to video)
Pam Bondi: The Dow is over 50,000.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Seeking the truth is not anti-American. Holding our elected officials to account is not anti-American. And pointing out the administration's lies and falsehoods and blatant hypocrisies is not anti-American. It is necessary, not to mention a foundational element of our democracy. As foundational as…

(cut to video from Fox News)
Pete Hegseth: One language, American.

(cut to studio)
BTC: Sure.