According to Conservative Daily News, the controversy centers on a segment that aired Sunday, in which “60 Minutes” correspondent Major Garrett’s narration suggested that Hegseth was addressing whether Israel had pushed the United States into striking Iran. In the broadcast version, Garrett told viewers, “Some normally enthusiastic supporters of the president have criticized him, suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the U.S. into a war that, to their minds, did not put American interests first,” before the program cut directly to Hegseth’s answer.
In the unedited exchange, however, Garrett’s question was not about Israel’s influence but about criticism from populist conservatives who questioned whether the Iran strikes were consistent with the “America First” doctrine. “You mentioned America First,” Garrett said in the full version. “Some who identify with that movement, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, have said from their perspective, this isn’t an America First campaign. Do you want to address that criticism?”
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Hegseth responded by insisting that the administration’s decisions were firmly rooted in prioritizing U.S. interests and security. “All I know is, I’m in the room everyday and I see how Trump operates and what he’s putting first, and it’s America, Americans and American interests at every level,” Hegseth said. “How long should our bases be tolerating thousands of short-range ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones pointing at our bases and other people? After 47 years of Americans being targeted and killed, the men I served with in combat in Iraq coming home with no arms or legs, targeted by Iranian EFPs, thousands of Americans killed. Beirut, you want to go back? We can go back to how long, I mean, the regime itself is premised on death to America. So 47 years, thousands of missiles, and an unrelenting pursuit of nuclear ambitions.”
In the televised package, that answer was presented immediately after Garrett’s narration about Netanyahu allegedly pulling Washington into war, creating the impression that Hegseth was responding to concerns over Israeli influence rather than to intra-conservative criticism of the Iran policy. The sequence effectively blurred the line between America’s sovereign security decisions and the left’s favored narrative that U.S. foreign policy is being dictated by Jerusalem.
Kelly, speaking on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” argued that this was not an innocent edit but a deliberate attempt to mislead viewers in service of a particular ideological line inside CBS News. She tied the move to what she described as the network’s new editorial direction under Bari Weiss, whom she accused of steering coverage to favor Israel while maintaining a hostile posture toward the MAGA movement. “They do not give a shit about misleading you over at CBS,” Kelly said. “The old CBS or the new CBS, which has a brand new agenda. The left will tell you that it’s pro-MAGA. It’s not pro-MAGA, trust me. Watch two minutes of the evening news or the morning news, it is not pro-MAGA at all. But it is pro-Israel. Bari Weiss has finally achieved her dream of running a news network that is entirely pro-Israel.”
The dust-up comes against the backdrop of CBS News’ recent legal and reputational troubles over its handling of politically sensitive interviews, particularly on the Israel issue. In October 2024, President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News, accusing “60 Minutes” of editing then–Vice President Kamala Harris’ answer on the Israel-Hamas war to omit portions critical of former President Joe Biden’s stance on Israel, a move the suit said amounted to “deliberate deception” designed to bolster her 2024 election prospects.
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That lawsuit, later expanded to $20 billion in February 2025, culminated in a July 2025 settlement in which CBS parent company Paramount agreed to pay $16 million and to release full transcripts of all future “60 Minutes” interviews with presidential candidates. The fallout also contributed to the resignations of then–executive producer Bill Owens in April 2025 and then–CBS News and Stations CEO Wendy MacMahon in May 2025, underscoring how politically slanted editing can carry real-world consequences when exposed.
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For conservatives already skeptical of legacy media, the Hegseth episode reinforces long-standing concerns that powerful newsrooms are willing to reshape context to fit preferred narratives on foreign policy and the Trump movement. CBS News did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, leaving unanswered why the network chose to splice an “America First” exchange into a storyline about Israel’s alleged sway over U.S. decision-making at a moment when public trust in corporate media is already dangerously low.
