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Over the weekend, Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA) announced he was switching parties to be an independent, denouncing the new California redistricting operation that would draw him out of his congressional seat. He announced, however, that he was making the change "immediately," which is a new detail.

"Today, I filed for reelection as 'No Party Preference.' This means I will not have a party affiliation on the ballot or as an officeholder. That’s how it already is with most offices in our state: mayors, city councilors, school board members, county supervisors, sheriffs, and DAs are all nonpartisan," he wrote on X.

After the video went live, Axios reported that his staff said it wasn't a "done deal" yet. But on Monday, it appeared it was.

As some in the comments asked, "Will you still caucus with the Republicans? Then shut up."

Indeed, Kiley will caucus with Republicans for “administrative purposes” for “the remainder of this term," he claimed.

It puts the current ranking of the House at 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats and Kiley, who will presumably be considered an Independent.

There hasn't been an independent in the House since Rep. Justin Amash, who left the GOP in 2019, noted his libertarian slant when he left the party. He then briefly ran for president. He ran for U.S. Senate in Michigan, but as a Republican again. He lost in the primary.

After President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) for the position, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) called for Trump to fire another person in his second administration: White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Never Trump conservative Rick Wilson and liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast discussed Tillis' outspokenness on a March 8 video for their YouTube show "Fast Politics." And they attributed Tillis' willingness to criticize Trump officials to the fact that the conservative senator isn't seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

Although Tillis plans to serve out the rest of his term, he will be exiting Congress in early January 2027. Tillis, facing an aggressive GOP primary challenge for not being MAGA enough, decided against seeking another term.

Jong-Fast, with amusement in her voice, said of Tillis, "He's had that thing where, when you're a Republican and you decide you're not going to run again, you become suddenly very brave."

Also sounding amused, Wilson — a former GOP strategist who expressed his disdain for President Donald Trump and the far-right MAGA movement by leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent — told Jong-Fast, "You gain superpowers, in fact…. Incredible superpowers that allow you to have a shred of moral clarity for years of having your lips firmly attached to Trump's backside…. But Tillis has become a born-again hard MOFO, and he has been ripping the living hell out of tiny Santa Monica Goebbels, Stephen Miller, on the Sunday shows. It's been a delight. "

Jong-Fast, commenting on Trump's decision to fire Noem and nominate Mullin, told Wilson, "The real story here is Stephen Miller, who is running the show."

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Although firings were common during President Donald Trump's first term, he hasn't fired nearly as many people since returning to the White House — a fact often attributed to his insistence on being surrounded by unquestioning MAGA loyalists this time. But the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem marked the departure of a high-level official from Trump's second administration.

Now, conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) is calling for the firing of another Trump loyalist: White House policy adviser Stephen Miller.

During a Sunday morning, March 8 appearance on CNN, Tillis told host Jake Tapper that Miller is a "big problem" for the Trump Administration.

When Tapper asked Tillis if "Stephen Miller should go, he quickly responded, "Oh, of course, I do."

"He is not worried about substance," Tillis said of Miller. "He's more worried about form, but I also think that he has an outsized influence over the operations of the Cabinet. And I believe we've got qualified Cabinet members there that sometimes are doing less than what they want to, because of his direction and his outsized influence. He's a big problem in this administration. He has been from the beginning."

Miller, Tillis argued, is having a very negative influence on Trump's immigration policies.

The conservative senator told Tapper, "It gives me pause that you had people like Stephen Miller calling the shots. It was Stephen Miller who said it was the position of the United States that we should go after Greenland. And Stephen Miller, that's been repeatedly responsible for embarrassments for the president of the United States by acting too quickly speaking, first, and thinking later."

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In a Saturday, March 7 post on his Truth Social platform, U.S. President Donald Trump offered a vigorous defense of his decision to go to war with Iran and claimed that the operation is going extremely well. But Trump's arguments got a strong pushback from Never Trump conservative Tim Miller, who stressed that the president is failing to offer a "coherent" explanation for getting the United States into war.

Trump's escalation with Iran represents a continuation of his longstanding adversarial stance toward the Iranian regime. Since taking office, Trump has pursued an aggressive posture toward Tehran, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposing strict economic sanctions.

The administration has repeatedly accused Iran of destabilizing the Middle East through its support of proxy militias and regional actors. Throughout his first term, Trump authorized military strikes against Iranian military commanders, including the 2020 assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, which significantly raised tensions and prompted retaliatory threats from Iran. These actions set the stage for an increasingly confrontational relationship, one that Trump has continued to fuel with inflammatory rhetoric and hardline policies upon his return to office.

In a video for the conservative website The Bulwark, Miller — a frequent guest on MS NOW and a former GOP strategist — went over Trump's points, one by one, and took them apart.

Trump posted, "Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attacks."

Miller, in a mocking tone, told viewers, "I don't think they've apologized to their Middle East neighbors."

Trump wrote that Iran was "looking to take over and rule the Middle East" — to which Miller responded, "Maybe aspirationally."

Trump called Iran as "the loser of the Middle East," and Miller described that rhetoric as comparable to a "nine-year-old."

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Late night talk show host Bill Maher argued that President Donald Trump suffers from “Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome” after repeatedly attacking him on social media.

“Someone has to help Donald Trump understand that I don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, he suffers from Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome,” Maher said on Friday night. He then added that — contrary to Trump claiming his famous-dinner with Maher was quick and Maher was anxious — in fact the dinner was lengthy and he drank casually.

“I wasn’t nervous and scared, and the dinner wasn’t quick,” Maher said. “I was there almost three hours, and it wasn’t vodka, it was a margarita. I didn’t ask for it right away. I had a drink before dinner, and then a couple more during. I was having a good time.”

He added, “So were you, Don, because we were talking like real humans, not like that crazy act you put on in public.”

Maher went on to recall how, after their dinner, Trump texted Maher that the president should have won a Nobel Peace Prize, to which Maher replied “Yeah, and I should have 120 Emmys.” After arguing for a while, Trump closed by saying “Bill, you know what, don’t change. I wouldn’t know what to do with you if you did.” Maher said that he appreciated the gesture and hopes Trump will keep the line of conversation open.

Although Trump and Maher reportedly had a pleasant dinner when they met in 2025, Trump has since publicly denounced Maher as a “jerk,” as “no different than Kimmel and Colbert” (referring to Maher’s fellow late night talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert), as “extremely nervous” with “ZERO confidence in himself” and that their dinner was “a total waste of time.” From the left, Maher was criticized for even attending the Trump dinner in the first place.

"Imagine my surprise when, in the spring of 1939, a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world's most reviled man, Adolf Hitler," comedian Larry David wrote in The New York Times after the Maher dinner. "I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. 'He's Hitler. He's a monster.' But eventually, I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn't change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity."

David continued, "Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room…. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room. He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back."

Recently, Maher alluded to his personal feelings about the Trump era when he hosted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who expressed views on social media with which Maher ultimately agreed.

We aren't divided; we are being divided by companies for profit,” Friedman said. “And we have our divisions; we always have. But what is new in my life: it is now a giant industry to make people stupid and angry.”

Friedman later continued, "We're going through a lot of social change. We're going through a lot of technological change. The pot would be boiling. But then, along came (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg and turned the heat up on the pot. And then, along came Trump and took the lid off the pot, and he made it permissible, popular and profitable to say and do things about each other we never did before."

President Donald Trump’s top immigration adviser is channeling a Shakespearean character, argues a prominent columnist — and this is not a good thing.

Steve Benen of MS NOW compared Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller to Dick the Butcher, an evil henchman from William Shakespeare’s 1591 play “Henry VI, Part II.” In a key scene _ when Dick the Butcher schemes to help unprincipled pretenders solidify their seizure of power from the legitimate English royals — Dick the Butcher infamously suggests, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The line has since become iconic in Western theater, and Benen compared this antagonist’s notorious advice to a Thursday speech Miller delivered at the Americas Counter Cartel Conference.

“[What] we have learned after decades of effort is that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem,” Miller said. “There are elements of the problem that require a criminal justice solution, to be sure, but just as we fought al-Qaida and fought ISIS with the tip of a very lethal sphere, the reason why this is a conference with military leadership, and not a conference of lawyers, is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power.

He added, “And I see some heads nodding up front because they understand you’re dealing with a lot of lawyers in your own country, I’m sure. You have my permission not to listen to them.”

Remarking that “Dick the Butcher would be proud,” Benen pointed out that Miller two months earlier told CNN’s Jake Tapper that America could seize Greenland by force from Denmark because “you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

In addition to disregarding international law, Miller also influences Trump to pursue vengeful campaigns against perceived enemies. Earlier this week Miller reportedly reversed the administration’s decision to stop targeting progressive law firms and lawyers, with one source close to the administration saying that “Miller’s fingerprints” were all over the altered decision.

Miller’s actions have aroused their fair share of controversy. After the killing of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669 of which Miller was a member said in a statement that “Noem betrayed the public trust by slandering the good name of our union brother and calling him a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Noem was preceded in this false statement by Stephen Miller.”

The statement added, “Our demand is clear: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was responsible for carrying out the policy that led to Alex’s needless killing, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of that policy, must resign immediately. If they refuse, President Trump must dismiss them.”

In addition to his controversial policy decisions, Miller is also widely criticized for his personal approach.

"Number one, he has a condescending demeanor to begin with," outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told The Hill. "He doesn’t take advice. He sort of dictates. He provides doctrine. And you know these are U.S. senators with an election certificate. He should show them some respect."

On Friday morning, March 6, National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had published "additional Epstein files related to allegations" that President Donald Trump "sexually abused a minor[,] after an NPR investigation found dozens of pages were withheld."

That includes "16 new pages that cover three additional FBI interview summaries with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor," according to NPR reporters Stephen Fowler and Saige Miller.

MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin discussed these developments during a Friday afternoon conversation with host Chris Jansing, arguing that Trump-era DOJ's explanation is falling flat in light of the "salacious" allegations in the files.

"With respect to this Trump accuser," Rubin told Jansing, "she is now detailing, in these documents, how she came to meet Donald Trump — the assault that she says she experienced at his hands. And perhaps, maybe most importantly of all, we understand now why the FBI might have stopped talking to her in October of 2019. This woman told the FBI that she understood that the statutes of limitations with respect to her allegations against both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump had long since passed. And therefore, she said to them, what's the point of my giving you any more detail?"

Jansing asked Rubin if "we know why" the DOJ files in question are "just being released" — to which she responded, "No. I mean, I can tell you what the Department of Justice has said."

"The Department of Justice's public explanation is that these are documents that were inadvertently marked as duplicates during their review and production procedure," Rubin told Jansing. "However, it's unclear to me, given some of the allegations here, whether that is a plausible or even a truthful explanation. As you and I were discussing before the segment started, there are some allegations in some of these other new documents that concern other public people."

The MS NOW legal analyst continued, "That's not to say that the produced files don't contain allegations against public individuals. But given the vivid nature of some of these allegations and how salacious they are, it also seems like this might not be the story of what actually went down."

President Donald Trump spoke to CNN's Dana Bash on Friday, revealing some details that left the morning hosts shocked.

Host John Berman was so surprised by some of the comments by Trump, which Berman called it an "extraordinary shift."

"Particularly notable," Berman began, is "the idea that [Trump] said of rising gas prices, the highest they've ever been under a President Trump, he said, 'that's okay,' and suggested they will go down soon."

"The other thing about the idea — and I think we can call it regime change, I will put it in quotes, because the United States continues to insist that regime change is not the goal of this war. But when he says he's picking the leader is a condition of it, that is regime change."

Berman noted that it appeared right after Trump got off the phone with Bash, he posted on TruthSocial:

"There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).' Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

While Trump may claim that the goal isn't regime change, Berman noted that the reality is that Trump wanted to take out the leader and install his own person whom he personally chooses.

"That's an extraordinary shift," said Berman. "That's a different place than they were one week ago, when they said destroying the missiles was the goal of this conflict."

The shift appeared to happen over the past 72 hours, after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave a press conference claiming that Iran didn't have nuclear weapons but they "intended" to one day.

"And the intelligence that we saw, saw they didn't intend to do it in good faith, uh, that they had the intentions eventually to get, um, to a place where they could have that — a conventional shield to block their nuclear capabilities, as I talked about yesterday. So, I would separate the what from the when a little bit. The what, is they've been killing Americans for 47 years," Hegseth claimed, according to the DOD transcript.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration was just as confused about the war's timeline, offering five answers over two days.

Trump also told CNN that he has his eye on going after Cuba next.

"I'm going to put Marco over there to see how it works," Trump told Bash, referencing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been the source of several memes since Trump began throwing various positions and jobs at him in the first year.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) walked through all of the details that connect trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Russian intelligence. Those connections also link President Donald Trump.

According to Whitehouse, the pathway goes through Ghislaine Maxwell's father, which the senator read from his MI6 file that Robert Maxwell was "a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia."

Whitehouse walked through all of the relationships that Epstein had with international assets, including Israeli and U.S. intelligence. Recently released files prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to announce they would do a wide-ranging investigation into Epstein's possible links to Russian intelligence.

One of those was Epstein's relationship with Oleg Deripaska, who also had a close relationship with Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The Senator walked through a number of documents and emails in the Epstein files showing that Russian girls were part of his recruitment for the men that he sought to manipulate.

Whitehouse cited one communication from French model scout Jean-Luc Brunel to Epstein saying he found "a teacher" to help Epstein with his Russian. "She is 2 times 8 years old and not blond," he said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. identified more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions that it flagged to the U.S. government. The big bank identified about 4,700 transactions, saying that "they were potentially related to reports of human trafficking involving Mr. Epstein," reported The New York Times.

It also mentioned Epstein’s wire transfers to Russian banks, even referencing “his relationships with two U.S. presidents.”

Epstein also maintained connections with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), a close friend of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

"After Epstein's arrest in 2019, officials also discovered that he held an expired Austrian passport from the 1980s with his picture and a false name, which listed his residence as Saudi Arabia," CBS News and the New York Times reported.

Whitehouse cited one ex-girlfriend who recalled Epstein telling her, "I collect people. I own people. I can damage people."

Virginia Giuffre wrote in her book that Epstein had a "huge library of videotapes and a room in his home where monitors displayed in real time surveillance footage from his properties."

"He explicitly talked about using me and what I'd been forced to do with certain men as a form of blackmail so these men would owe him favors," she wrote.

She also recalled one instance in which he walked through his mansion and pointed out where all of the pinhole-sized cameras were. Epstein boasted that they recorded everything.

Florida police found two small cameras in clocks in his Palm Beach home, Whitehouse said.

He also said that former prosecutor Alex Acosta was quoted as saying that Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and that the decision to let him off easy in 2008 was made "above his pay grade."

Epstein's mentor, Steven Hoffenberg, told The National Enquirer in an account published three years after his death, "Wherever Epstein was entertaining, he and Ghislaine were taping." The report was released in the summer of 2025, alleging that more than two dozen people connected to Epstein have died under mysterious circumstances.

The Enquirer said that Epstein was running a honey-trap, taping videos of sleazy VIPs with underage girls for blackmailing them.

The same assessment came from an intelligence source who spoke to the Daily Mail, saying the operation was "the world's largest honeytrap operation" run for the KGB. Epstein would "procure" young women for his associates and then film their interactions.

He added that Epstein was a liar and a criminal who would exaggerate his own power and influence.

"The Epstein files need to be viewed through that lens," said Whitehouse.

There are still many unanswered questions, he said, but there are many very powerful men who were "very mixed up with Epstein at various times, and Epstein was very mixed up with Russia."

He closed by blasting the Justice Department and its ongoing efforts to conceal connections between these powerful men and Epstein.

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The State Department is dodging any questions about the ongoing feud between Spain and the U.S. over the use of its military bases.

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, a State Department spokesperson was asked about the back and forth between the two countries, but refused to comment.

A few days ago, Spain announced that President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran violated international law and their agreement for the use of air bases.

“Spanish military bases will not be used for anything that falls outside the agreement with the United States and the United Nations Charter,” said José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, in a Sunday interview.

However, on Wednesday, the White House press secretary suggested that Spain had backed away from the assertion.

“With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear, and it’s my understanding, over the past several hours, they’ve agreed to cooperate with the US military,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The foreign minister responded almost immediately, telling Cadena SER radio, “The Spanish government’s position on the war in the Middle East, the bombings in Iran, and the use of our bases has not changed one iota."

“I have absolutely no idea what that could refer to or where it could have come from,” he added.

“I want to make things very clear to the Spanish people. The ‘no to war’ position remains clear and unequivocal,” he also said.

Tommy Pigott was asked, "So what is the reality?"

"Well, military operations, I will refer to the [Defense Department] and the White House. What I can say from the State Department's perspective is what we're doing to help the American people. We're focused 24/7 on that, our highest priority being their safety and security," said Pigott.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to struggle with the messaging from the White House on Wednesday when she claimed that President Donald Trump had decided to strike Iran before he spoke to Israel about Saturday's location of the Iranian president. Her statement prompted questions as to why the U.S. didn't begin evacuating Americans sooner.

NBC News reporter Garrett Haake asked Leavitt about the timeline and where Israel fit in with the intelligence. A follow-up came from the reporter next to him, who asked why more wasn't done to help Americans abroad.

"Just in the context of what you just told Garrett about the president's decision on a timeline, if he had decided to do this strike before receiving the specific intelligence about the meeting on Saturday, should there have been more done in advance of the strikes to try to get those Americans in the region resources and information to get home before day three of the war?" she asked.

Leavitt said that there were "many signs" that a war was coming from the State Department and that Americans should get home. She claimed that they issued travel advisories in late 2025 to some Middle Eastern countries and outright "do not travel" notices to other countries like Iran itself.

However, multiple countries, including the United Arab Emirates, didn't issue a "do not travel" warning until after the bombing. According to older estimates, there are over 50,000 Americans living in the UAE. In fact, at least 88 percent of residents of the UAE are not from the UAE, a Pew Research Center survey said.

Leavitt was asked for another follow-up, saying that as late as last night, the State Department was telling people "we can't help you" when they called to leave the area.

"Well, the line was updated," Leavitt said, before demanding journalists in the room fulfill their duty to report that the State Department is no longer telling Americans abroad that it can't help them get home or to safety.

"I saw many people in this room very quick to do selfie videos with the [phone] line yesterday, but not so quick to report on the corrected message today. So, that is something the administration quickly worked to address. And we have fixed that problem. However, we're also pointing people to the website, again, to register so that we know exactly where you are. So, when there are commercial flights moving into that area, when there are chartered flights moving into that area, we can get Americans on planes as quickly as possible," Leavitt said.

She did not address why it took so many days for the State Department to "fix that problem" if the administration knew that they were going to bomb Iran last week.

One reporter later compared the situation to Trump's complaints that former President Joe Biden flubbed his evacuation of Afghanistan.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday faced Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) during a contentious line of questioning about the deaths of American citizens at the hands of federal agents.

The House Judiciary Committee ranking member probed Noem on why she attacked slain Minnesota protesters Renée Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti as "domestic terrorists" before knowing any of the facts of the case.

Raskin walked through some statements from friends and family about Good and Pretti, who expressed compassion and love for all people.

Noem refused to walk back any of the mistakes by DHS in the days following the shootings.

"Based on what you know today, madam secretary, based on what you know today, were Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?" Raskin asked.

Noem claimed that there was still an "ongoing investigation," implying that the investigation could still find evidence that they were domestic terrorists.

"You didn't wait for the investigation or evidence. You proclaimed they were domestic terrorists at the time," said Raskin. "Why did you do that?"

Noem said only that the federal agents go "into dangerous situations." She went on to say that those situations included "violent rioters."

"So, you're proud of the fact that you called them domestic terrorists?" Raskin asked.

Over and over he probed her about the language she used, and over and over she refused to apologize or correct the record.

Appearing before the Senate on Tuesday, Noem refused to even look at American citizens who were arrested, detained and brutalized by agents in her department.

CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported on Wednesday that the impending runoff for the GOP may be at the top of the news after Tuesday's primary election in Texas, but there's a huge story in the numbers.

The top takeaway is that the Texas Democratic Primary may not have been close, but it was the highest ever turnout in a primary ever. It was so significant, he said, that Democratic turnout was more than the GOP turnout. However, the state has significantly more Republicans than Democrats.

"We're already up to 2.3 million. And that's only with 92 percent of the estimated vote in that will climb ever higher," said Enten.

The one that came closest was the race between President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008.

"As I said, the word to describe this is tremendous," Enten said.

"It's not just that this 2.3 million is such a large portion, the largest ever for a Texas Senate Democratic primary," he explained. "It's that more people voted in the Democratic Primary than the Republican Primary. Look at this, the share of Texas midterm primary ballots. Look at this 2000s average was less than a million."

In the past, there has been a 3-to-2 ballot selection in Texas primaries, with more choosing the GOP ballot than the Democratic ballot. This election, that changed.

"So far, Democrats, more people are actually choosing the Democratic ballot. This is extremely, extremely unusual," Enten said. It's particularly unusual given there is a highly contested Republican Senate race."

Scathing reactions poured in across social media on Wednesday morning after Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, criticized the "fake news media" for covering American casualties in Iran, with one reaction calling the moment "truly rock bottom."

The U.S. has been engaged in a major joint military operation against Iran with Israel since Saturday, launching a barrage of strikes as the specific goals of the campaign continue to be uncertain. As of Wednesday, at least six U.S. service members are confirmed dead as a result of the Iranian military's counterstrikes.

Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference about the operation alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During his remarks, Hegseth lashed out at the press over reports focused on the six American casualties, accusing them of trying to make Trump bad.

"This is what the fake news misses," Hegseth said. "We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground, but when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality."

Reactions to this remark, which appeared to minimize the importance of American casualties, were swift, criticizing the secretary for his callousness and his lack of care for the responsibilities of the news media.

"Hegseth says reporting on American casualties is the 'fake news' trying to 'make the president look bad,'" Tommy Vietor, a former Obama administration National Security Council spokesman and "Pod Save America" co-host, wrote in a post to X. "This is truly rock bottom from the most selfish, arrogant, unqualifed Secretary of Defense in US history."

"Just a thought, maybe SecDef shouldn’t jerk himself off on live television at the thought of casualties in war," Angry Staffer, a prominent political accountant run by a former White House staffer, said in their own post. "War isn’t something to be giddy about. Were the most powerful nation on the planet. We’re supposed to be the quiet professionals, not carnival barking morons."

"To say that the deaths of our troops shouldn’t warrant front page news and that it’s only being reported on to make Trump 'look bad' inspires the kind of rage in me that would get me banned from this app," Joanne Carducci, a prominent online political commentator, wrote in her own post X.

"No, Pete Hegseth," Susan McPherson, an author and businesswoman, wrote in a post to BlueSky. "The media’s job is to tell the truth and report on the good, the bad and the ugly."

"Each thing Hegseth says is more insane, lawless and incriminating than the last," David Kaye, a former special rapporteur for the United Nations, wrote in a post to BlueSky about the press conference overall.

Hegseth also drew intense criticism for his overblown descriptions of military strikes in Iran, including his comments about "death and destruction" raining from the sky and the U.S. "playing for keeps."

"He’s like a really bad actor in a 1980's 'B' action movie that went straight to video," Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and political commentator, wrote on BlueSky.

"More than 1,000 Iranian civilians have been killed already including 160 [plus] schoolgirls," political consultant Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin wrote in her own post to BlueSky. "If and when there is a war crimes trial, Hegseth's prosecutors will have a wealth of evidence."

Jeffrey Epstein survivor Danielle Bensky has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) handling of its files on the late billionaire financier and convicted sex offender. Bensky, who met Epstein when she was a young ballerina and says she was abused by him, has been reaching out to a variety of media outlets —including those on the right.

But according to Bensky, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets are ignoring her.

In a Wednesday, March 4 post on X, former CNN host Jim Acosta — who interviewed Bensky for his internet show — tweeted, "A dancer abused by Epstein, Dani Bensky tells me she and other survivors are being ignored by 'Republican media' outlets like Fox. If you want to understand why so many people are giving Trump a pass on Epstein, it's partly because they’re watching Fox."

During the interview, Bensky told Acosta, "We're not able to get on Republican media a lot of the time. We've been hoping to get on Fox News. We've been trying to get on Newsmax. I think maybe two people had done a quick Newsmax. Stories are not even getting across the aisle."

Acosta responded, "Wow. Fox is not interviewing any of the survivors? You can't get on Fox?"

Bensky lamented, "Nope…. A lot of the time, Republican media will not take our stories at all. When I saw the State of the Union, I felt very clear that the chasm between Republicans and Democrats is so great…. There are some baseline things should just be, like, human."

Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson told CNN after the Wednesday morning Pentagon press conference, "somebody's smokin' something."

During his briefing, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was asked how Iran had nuclear weapons when the administration said last year that they obliterated the weapons in the "12-Day War."

Hegseth told reporters that President Donald Trump believed Iran "had no intention of making a deal." He claimed that Iran didn't have nuclear weapons; rather, they "had the intentions" of getting such weapons. This conflicts with Trump's ongoing claims that Iran was at work on nuclear weapons again.

"They can’t do the nuclear… They’ve got to stop with the nuclear," Trump said in January at the World Economic Forum.

“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over… One thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said during his State of the Union address, mere days before the strikes.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand reported that Trump administration officials acknowledged during a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that they have major concerns about Iran's drone program because they haven't been able to intercept all of them, as evidenced by the six dead American soldiers in Kuwait.

During the briefing on Wednesday, both Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine agreed that the drones do pose a bigger problem than they anticipated.

The other problem, according to several reports, is that the U.S. is running out of weaponry because the administration has burned through the stockpile so quickly.

It was reported on Tuesday by several outlets that the military lacks the supplies to continue at the current level.

“It’s not panic yet, but the sooner they get here, the better,” a regional source told CNN.

Even the pro-Trump "America First Post" reported that Trump burned through five years of Tomahawk inventory in just three days.

Speaking to CNN after the press conference. Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson pointed to Gen. Caine's comments that they were switching from "stand-off munitions" to "stand-in munitions."

"What he's saying is that we're running out of precision-guided munitions," the retired general said. "That's what he's saying. That we're going to take advantage of our air superiority, our ability to loiter over targets and use other type munitions. In fact, the Secretary of Defense even talked about using dumb bombs, gravity-based bombs, and not laser-guided bombs."

He was asked if Hegseth's claim that the U.S. can outlast Iran was accurate.

"That's not how I see it at all. I mean, you know, it's going to take an awful lot to dig these people out. I mean, what we saw today was essentially the same briefing that was given in 2003 by Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers," said Anderson.

He recalled that when they announced the attack on Iraq, there was also no clear definition of the objectives.

"But what we saw was the Secretary of Defense was a tough, macho guy talking about killing and shamelessly sucking up to the POTUS, but he really wasn't giving any specifics on what the long-term objectives are," Anderson continued. "And I would say that we're going to be in the same situation we were in Iraq. We're going to be able to knock out their defensive capabilities, their offensive capabilities, establish air superiority, but they're going to go underground. These are tough, resilient people. They're going to be able to outlast us."

He cautioned that if anyone thinks the U.S. can "bomb them into submission from the air, somebody's smoking something."