Servicemember’s dad catches Trump defense chief in a lie

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth found himself in hot water Friday, after a report from NBC News caught him seeming to lie about conversations he had with the parents of deceased service members.

As President Donald Trump's war with Iran nears the start of its fourth week, at least 13 U.S. military service members have been killed in the fighting, with many more suffering injuries. On Thursday, Hegseth said at a press briefing that he had met the previous day with the families of six of those fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and made a lofty claim about what they told him about the continuing conflict.

“What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done,’” Hegseth said.

Speaking with NBC News for a report published Thursday evening, Charles Simmons disputed Hegseth's claim about what they discussed during the visit, though he could not dispute what the other families might have said. Simmons' son, 28-year-old Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among the six service members killed in a plane refueling crash in Iraq last week.

"I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about," Simmons said.

Simmons told NBC that he spoke separately with Hegseth and Trump during the visit to Dover on Wednesday. With Hegseth, the conversation mostly concerned his son's impressive military record.

As for the state of the conflict in Iran, he only told Hegseth, "I understand there’s a lot of peril that goes into making decisions like this, and I just certainly hope the decisions being made are necessary.” When pressed about Hegseth's specific claims about being told to keep up the fight, Simmons said, "No, I didn’t say anything along those lines.”

The gold-star father did confess to having some “questions” about the war in Iran, but declined to make “definitive conclusions when I don’t have all the data.”

“Who wants war?” Simmons said. “Sometimes it’s a necessity, and I just don’t know what’s going on.”

Hegseth's claim about what he was told by the grieving families closely mirrors a similar claim Trump made after meeting with other families at Dover on March 7. In the days after the meeting, the president claimed that “every single one” told him, “Finish the job, sir. Please, finish the job.”

• george conway
• noam chomsky
• civil war
• Kayleigh mcenany
• Melania trump
• drudge report
• paul krugman
• Lindsey graham
• Lincoln project
• al franken bill maher
• People of praise
• Ivanka trump
• eric trump